Humans as 'predators' impacting thousands of species: Global study co-authored by N.S. researcher
CTV
With more than eight billion humans on the planet, a team of international researchers has now quantified the population’s significant impact on other species.
With more than eight billion humans on the planet, a team of international researchers has now quantified the population’s significant impact on other species.
The study, published in in the journal Communications Biology, examines the effects of humans as global predators, rather than just inhabitants, on other living things.
“We're just so out there in terms of our use of wildlife,” says Boris Worm, Dalhousie University marine ecologist and one of the co-authors of the study.
After crunching the numbers, the team found humans use far more species for their own purposes than any other animal on earth.
“Assessed over equivalent ranges,” the study says, “humans exploit up to 300 times more species than comparable non-human predators.”
“About one in three species, 15,000 vertebrates (species with a backbone) are affected by human use,” says Worm. “And in 40 per cent of those, that human use is considered a threat.”
Humans, he explains, are unique in their development of culture and trade, which results in the use of animals for everything from pharmaceuticals to fashion.
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