14 DAY TRIAL // If we humans had never emerged as a species and then evolved to, well, take over the world, there would probably be elephants, rhinos, giraffes and plenty of other creatures, now confined to only a handful of patches of land, spread all across Europe.
In fact, the entire planet would be one big Serengeti, researchers at Denmark's Aarhus University propose in a recent study. Yup, the world as we know it would be a very different place.
We shaped Earth's biodiversity
Having constructed and analyzed several scenarios concerning the distribution of species across Earth in the absence of any humans, the Aarhus University specialists found that, contrary to what some might think, it wasn't climatic and environmental factors alone that shaped Earth's biodiversity.
On the contrary, we - our ancestors, to be more precise - had a huge say in the matter, impacting on the distribution of many species. Focusing on mammals, the researchers found that, had we never existed, Europe, the Americas and other regions would now house many more species, especially large mammals.
As illustrated in the map below, which shows the probable distribution of large mammals (45 kilograms / 100 pounds and over) across the globe in the absence of human activity, there would be such animals living in areas where there are now almost none to be found.
“Northern Europe is far from the only place in which humans have reduced the diversity of mammals - it's a worldwide phenomenon. And, in most places, there's a very large deficit in mammal diversity relative to what it would naturally have been,” said researcher Jens-Christian Svenning in a statement, as cited by EurekAlert.
"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,” he added.
Africa as a safe haven for large mammals
In their report, the Aarhus University researchers describe Africa as a safe haven for large mammals, considering that it is the only place in the world with a high diversity of such oversized animals.
All the same, this is not because large mammals in Africa have a few more tricks up their sleeve when it comes to surviving, but because we humans haven't yet transformed this continent enough to push many species to the brink of extinction, specialist Jens-Christian Svenning and his colleagues argue.
