The woolly mammoth was an herbivore that primarily ate a variety of cold- climate tundra plants. Its diet mainly consisted of grasses and sedges, which were the dominant food sources. This was supplemented by herbaceous plants, flowering plants (forbs like poppies and buttercups), shrubs, mosses, twigs, bark, and some tree matter. The mammoth's teeth were adapted to grinding coarse tundra grasses, and its trunk was dexterous for picking up short grasses, buds, and branches. It likely used its tusks to clear snow and ice to access buried vegetation. Adults needed to consume a large quantity of food daily, around 180–200 kg, and foraged up to 20 hours a day. Mammoth calves nursed for several years and transitioned gradually to plant foods, often eating adult feces to develop gut microbes necessary for digestion.