• tal@lemmy.today
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    8 months ago

    But hey, at least we don’t need to worry about lions eating us quite so much.

    I’m pretty confident that humans have killed and eaten more lions than lions have humans.

    Big cats may be an apex predator, but:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apex_predator

    An apex predator, also known as a top predator, is a predator[a] at the top of a food chain, without natural predators of its own.

    That “natural” is a big caveat, as we are that “natural” exception. We eat everything.

    In general, large creatures that aren’t very good at hiding have not done very well when humans show up.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Pleistocene_extinctions

    The Late Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene saw numerous extinctions of predominantly megafaunal (typically defined as having body masses over 44 kilograms (97 lb)[1]) animal species (the Pleistocene megafauna), which resulted in a collapse in faunal density and diversity across the globe.[2] The extinctions during the Late Pleistocene are differentiated from previous extinctions by the widespread absence of ecological succession to replace these extinct megafaunal species,[3] and the regime shift of previously established faunal relationships and habitats as a consequence. The timing and severity of the extinctions varied by region and are thought to have been driven by varying combinations of human and climatic factors.[3] Human impact on megafauna populations is thought to have been driven by hunting (“overkill”),[4][5] as well as possibly environmental alteration.

    We’re a lot better at countering disease, though. Malaria has killed more humans than anything else has, and we could really combat that only quite recently.