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Humans likely hunted several species to death after reaching North America, including: - North American horses (several species) - North American camels - Gi
by beloch 9y ago
Humans likely hunted several species to death after reaching North America, including:
- North American horses (several species)
- North American camels
- Giant Bison
- Tapirs (several North American species)
- Llama's (several North American species)
- Stag Moose
- Gomphotheres (several species, similar to elephants)
Several other species of North American megafauna, such as North American lions and giant beavers likely went extinct due to human activities even though there's no evidence they were hunted directly. e.g. The extinction of most of their prey likely did the lions in.
It's actually quite shocking what humans with rocks, sticks, and empty bellies were able to do. There can be little doubt that the domestication of animals for food has spared countless other species from a similar fate over the last ten thousand years.
- RachelF 9y agoHumans did the same thing, causing a mass extinction of around half the large mammals in Australia and many other species when they reached the continent around 40,000 years ago. Not only did we hunt large animals, but we burned the forests regularly, driving more to the brink. The same thing happened around 1000 years ago when we reached New Zealand and Madagascar. Most of the damage of the Anthropocene may already have been done.
- chicago_wade 9y ago> Most of the damage of the Anthropocene may already have been done. Unless global warming gets sufficiently bad, in which case that will be the worst damage.
- pvaldes 9y ago> The extinction of most of their prey likely did the lions in Maybe, but the opposite situation is also possible. You can wipe the preys if you remove the predadors. We had see this in New Zealand for example where Tasman devil has protected decens of species of smaller marsupials, extinct in the continent but not here. This is the same big scale experiment that we are playing currently in Africa. In one or other case the result is the same, almost all european big mammal fauna vanished; and a replace is still missing for the equivalent of european elephant, european rhinos or north american cheetah.
- goatlover 9y agoBut why has the African megafauna stuck around to this day? African animals have had to deal with humans a lot longer than any other continent.
- slamdance 9y agowhen all you have is a spear, going after "slow", grazing animals is "easy", but the Charismatic megafauna that survives today is in general, the ones you don't mess with (again, when all you have is a spear). Also, moose, bovine, etc... don't have hunting instincts like the big cats, or weigh 2,000lbs like hippos and rhinos... there isn't as much cover on the African plains as there is in the US to go after the larger, horned animals.
- goatlover 9y agoDid humans and Neanderthals have something other than spears when hunting Wooly Mammoths and Sabertooth Cats?
- dsmnd 9y ago" Biogeographical evidence is also suggestive: the areas of the world where humans evolved currently have more of their Pleistocene megafaunal diversity (the elephants and rhinos of Asia and Africa) compared to other areas such as Australia, the Americas, Madagascar and New Zealand without the earliest humans. A picture arises of the megafauna of Asia and Africa evolving alongside humans, learning to be wary of them, and in other parts of the world the wildlife appearing ecologically naive and easier to hunt." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternary_extinction_event#Hunting_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternary_extinction_event#Hu...
- liotier 9y agoAfrican megafauna has almost entirely disappeared from anywhere but protected reserves.
- richardknop 9y agoI have read that this is related to the end of the last ice age. Africa was apparently the continent which was least affected by melting of European and North American ice sheets. North America and Europe underwent dramatic climate change as several hundred feet tall ice sheets covering large parts of the land mass melted and temperatures rose suddenly which would explain why megafauna went completely extinct in NA/Europe. Then there is also human factor of hunting these animals for meat and leather but it was probably a combination of factors.