The wildlife regions of Australia tend to be portrayed as places where anything can kill you. However, a new study has discovered that among all animals, humans are still the most dangerous as they have driven the Australian megafauna to extinction.
Environments can look radically different without the intervention of humans. This was the case of Australia which has large areas covered in dense forests populated with bigger animals than we see today. Scientists know that the Australian megafauna died out 45,000 years ago, but the cause of its phenomenon remains of the point of contention among researchers.
A new study hopes to resolve the disputes between scientists by revealing the definitive cause of the extinction of the megafauna. Therefore, the study argues that as is the case with other species driven to extinction, human activity and not other factors like climate change led to the gradual extinction of the large species of animals.
More specifically, when humans first arrived in Australia, it is very likely that they began hunting the large animals for food. The researchers believe that even limited hunting has had a large impact on the populations of the Australian megafauna over thousands of years.
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, reveals that Australia experienced a much quicker extinction phenomenon compared to other regions like Africa, where the largest animals gradually disappeared over 130,000 years due to a combination of factors like changes in climate, human hunting and the disappearance of their habitat. In Australia, 85 percent of large animals weighing more than 97 pounds started to dwindle more than 50,000 years ago.
According to Dr. Sander van der Kaars, the lead author of the study and a palaeoecologist from the Monash School of Earth, Atmosphere, and Environment, the researchers discovered that the extinction of the Australian megafauna took place precisely between 45,000 and 43,100 years ago. They also did not find an association of the phenomenon with climate fluctuations or changes in vegetation and biomass. The disappearance of the large animals is mostly consistent with the excessive hunting of humans.
What do you think about the study’s results? Do you believe the Australian megafauna was driven extinct by humans or did the changing climate of the region played an important role?
Image source: Monash University