How did the woolly mammoth's feeding tools differ from those of a modern large browser like the African elephant?

Mammoths used their dexterous trunk to grasp large clumps of grass and sedge mats.

To efficiently harvest the vast quantities of low-calorie, high-bulk food—tough grasses and sedges—the mammoth developed specialized foraging behaviors centered around its trunk. The trunk was utilized as a highly dexterous piece of equipment, capable of grasping and stripping entire large clumps or mats of low-lying vegetation directly from the ground. This efficiency in harvesting bulk material was essential for meeting their 400-pound daily requirement. In contrast, modern large browsers like the African elephant often incorporate more leaves and bark, which requires different harvesting mechanisms suited to browsing rather than pure, high-volume grazing.