LONDON: Researchers have created the first estimate of how the world’s mammal diversity map would have appeared if modern man had never existed.
In a world without humans, most of northern Europe would probably now be home to not only wolves, Eurasian elk (moose) and bears, but also animals such as elephants and rhinoceroses.
The current world map of mammal diversity by a team from Aarhus University in Denmark shows that Africa is virtually the only place with a high diversity of large mammals.
However, the world map constructed for the natural diversity of large mammals shows far greater distribution of high large-mammal diversity across most of the world, with particularly high levels in North and South America, areas that are currently relatively poor in large mammals.
“Northern Europe is far from the only place in which humans have reduced the diversity of mammals — it’s a worldwide phenomenon. In most places, there’s a very large deficit in mammal diversity relative to what it would naturally have been,” explained professor Jens-Christian Svenning, one of the researchers behind the study.
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