For years, scientists have debated whether humans or the climate have caused the population of large mammals to decline dramatically over the past several thousand years. A new study from Aarhus University confirms that climate cannot be the explanation.
About 100,000 years ago, the first modern humans migrated out of Africa in large numbers. They were eminent at adapting to new habitats, and they settled in virtually every kind of landscape—from deserts to jungles to the icy taiga in the far north.
Part of the success was human’s ability to hunt large animals. With clever hunting techniques and specially built weapons, they perfected the art of killing even the most dangerous mammals.
But unfortunately, the great success of our ancestors came at the expense of the other large mammals.
It is well-known that numerous large species went extinct during the time of worldwide colonization by modern humans. Now, new research from Aarhus University reveals that those large mammals that survived also experienced a dramatic decline.
In the book Sapiens, a Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari proposes that one of the problems with humans is that we lept to the top of the foodchain too quickly. Other alpha predators like lions got there by slowly evolving over millions of years, giving themselves time to adjust to their new position and giving nature time to delevope checks and balances. For example, antelope getting faster over time.
Neither we nor nature has adjusted to the new hierarchy. We are unable and unwilling to create enough checks and balances on ourselves so we rape the environment and set whole species to extinction.
When the first humans arrived in Australia almost immediately all the large mammals were wiped out. They didn’t have time to learn to fear the tiny little apes newly arrived on their shores.
An interesting point he made is that genetically we are still scavengers. The earliest tools were likely for smashing apart bones to get at the marrow, after other animals had taken their share. We still feel hunted, and it could be that a large part of anxiety and depression we see could be attributed to our insecurity at our place in the world.
If you once again look at a lion, they are full of confidence and power and all the things we expect to see in an alpha predator. Who knows how long it might take humanity to become comfortable with our place in the world. Who knows if we and the planet will be able to adapt together well enough for that to come to fruition, rather than just becoming another extinct species ourselves.