Empty Landscapes: Taking Stock of The Great Herbivore Dying

Horribly bleak study sees ’empty landscape’ as large herbivores vanish at startling rate

See original/source content: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/04/horribly-bleak-study-sees-empty-landscape-as-large-herbivores-vanish-at-startling-rate/

They never ate anybody – but now, some of Planet Earth’s innocent vegetarians face end times. Large herbivores – elephants, hippos, rhinos, gorillas among them – are vanishing from the globe at a startling rate, with some 60 percent threatened with extinction, a team of scientists reports.

The situation is so dire, according to a new study, that it threatens an “empty landscape” in some ecosystems “across much of the planet Earth.” The authors were clear: This is a big problem – and it’s a problem with us, not them.

“Growing human populations, unsustainable hunting, high densities of livestock, and habitat loss have devastating consequences for large, long-lived, slow-breeding, and, therefore, vulnerable herbivore species,” reads “Collapse of the world’s largest herbivores” in “Science Advances,” a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

See original/source content: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/04/horribly-bleak-study-sees-empty-landscape-as-large-herbivores-vanish-at-startling-rate/