Super Predators: Without Humans, the World Would Look Like the Serengeti

If it weren't for humans, the whole world would be more like the Serengeti. Scientists have found that the greatest diversity of large mammals in Africa actually reflects past human activities rather than climatic or other environmental constraints.

In a world without humans, most of northern Europe would now be home to not only wolves, but also Eurasian elk, bears, elephants and even rhinos.

How did the researchers find this out? They examine the mass extinction of large mammals during the Last Ice Age and in subsequent millennia. These extinctions are largely explained by the expansion of modern man across the globe. The researchers also investigated what the natural worldwide diversity patterns of mammals would be like in the absence of past and present human impacts.

"Northern Europe is far from the only place in which humans have reduced the diversity of mammals-it's a worldwide phenomenon," said Jens-Christian Svenning, one of the researchers, in a news release. "And, in most places, there's a very large deficit in mammals diversity relative to what it would naturally have been."

Africa is virtually the only place currently with a high diversity of large mammals. The world map constructed by researchers, though, showed far greater distribution of high large-mammal diversity across most of the world. There were particularly high levels in North and South America, which are areas that are currently relatively poor in large mammals.

"Most safaris today take place in Africa, but under natural circumstances, as many or even more large animals would no doubt have existed in other places, e.g. notably parts of the New World such as Texas and neighboring areas and the region around northern Argentina-Southern Brazil," said Soren Faurby, the lead author of the new study. "The reason that many safaris target Africa is not because the continent is naturally abnormally rich in species of mammals. Instead, it reflects that it's one of the only places where human activities have not yet wiped out most of the large animals."

The findings are published in the journal Diversity and Distributions.

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