I'm interested in getting feedback to determine whether people's examples of anthropogenic vertebrate extinction are either consistent or relatively consistent globally or whether they vary by country or region. In addition to sharing your example(s), please share your logic/criteria in making the selection(s) you did; your country of origin and/or residence; and whether any particular aspects of your background contributed to the choice(s) you made (e.g., if as an ornithologist you were inclined to select a bird species). I will be checking back for responses for at least a year after making the initial post (i.e., through December 2018), and I will add an update here letting people know when I'm no longer looking for feedback.
Thanks very much for your time and input. I appreciate both.
Although disputed, it is possible that human beings exterminated other human species, accounting for why we are the only homo species remaining.
I didn't read your full notice Jeffrye-England, and my choice was based upon my interest in early homo sapiens and whether conditions framed present behaviour. I think it is possible that early humans surrounded by enormous carnivores and other huge creatures began a rule of extermination, conducted over thousands of years. Although, other reasons prevailed such as climate change, wherever humans went large animals died out. The overall exception is possibly the home of sapiens in Africa-but their time has come. Surely, this behaviour presents the precursor to domestication-the reducing in both size and agression of glarge, predominantly social species. Our relationship with animals has been, where possible, to dominate.
Many thanks for the clarification, Stanley. Should I consider your example to consist of Neanderthals, some other species, or both? Please let me know when you have a moment or two to spare, and if there are other species, please let me know which one(s). Thanks.
Although there were many perhaps complex reasons for the demise of the Neanderthals, it is possible that present-day humans viewed them as competition and dealt with them accordingly, as much later indiginous Americans were dealt with and Tasmanians exterminated. This tendency towards eradication of the Other appears to be deeply entrenched with human psychologyin-seen in the present day as well as in the distant past.
in addition, it is rightly believed that human beings shared the planet with other homo species. All of which are now gone. We are in an unusual position of being the last of our species-a kind of evolutionary full-stop. Few if any other species can that be said of, in that sense we are unique.
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