Species at Risk
This order of mammals has 126 species threatened by bushmeat hunting
What are primates?
This is the #1 threat to megafauna across all vertebrate classes
What is harvesting (hunting or fishing for meat or body parts)?
Humans hunted this Ice Age giant, with tusks and shaggy hair, into extinction
What is the Woolly Mammoth?
What is seed dispersal?
Name one of Ripple's five recommended conservation strategies
What is legal protection, user rights, alternative foods, family planning, or international policy?
All 8 species of this scaly mammal are threatened by hunting
What are pangolins?
These two technologies dramatically increased hunting efficiency in the 20th century
What are firearms and motorized transport?
Since 1500 CE, about this percentage of megafauna species have gone extinct (compared to 0.8% of all vertebrates)
What is 2%
When large herbivores vanish, these small mammals often surge, raising zoonotic disease risks
What are rodents?
Wealthier nations worsen the crisis by driving up demand for these kinds of animal products
What are meat, trophies, medicinal, or ornamental products?
This massive fish, the world's largest, is threatened by demand for its fins
What is the Whale Shark?
This land use change often combines with hunting to push species toward extinction
What is deforestation (or habitat destruction)?
This large wild ox from Cambodia, is one of the 301 hunted threatened species, and is one of the 3 already possibly extinct.
What is the kouprey?
Hunting primates and ungulates has been linked to outbreaks of this deadly virus in Africa
What is Ebola?
This 1946 organization was created to protect whales, and could inspire similar bodies for other species
What is the International Whaling Commission?
This amphibian, a culinary delicacy in Asia, can grow to 6 feet long and is nearly extinct
What is the Chinease Giant Salamander
Humans are sometimes called this unusual predator type, because we specialize in killing prey larger than our selves
What is a "super predator"
This group of mammals, including giant ground sloths and giant wombats, was wiped out during the Pleistocene
What are megafauna?
Without large predators and herbivores, ecosystems may enter this type of collapse where balance is permanently lost
What are cascading effects (or trophic cascades)?
One proposed solution is giving local communities these rights, so they directly benefit from conservation
What are legal user rights (over wildlife)?
Nearly 60% of mammal species over this body mass threshold are at risk from hunting
What is 1,000 kg?
In Africa, this type of hunting method can kill indiscriminately, leading to huge bycatch and wasted carcasses
What are snares/traps?
Nine megafauna species have gone extinct or disappeared from the wild since the 1760s - Name one
What are two species of giant tortoise species, or two deer species etc.
Losing megafauna doesn't just harm nature, it threatens this critical human need in developing regions
What is food security?
According to Ripple et al. 2018, this fraction of megafauna species are currently in population decline
What is 70%?