Largest species in the world threatened with extinction by human consumption

Animals The sixth mass extinction looms. At least 200 large animal species are seeing their numbers, indeed, sharply reduce the 60 per cent of them seems doomed to completely disappear. According to a new scientific research, the consumption of meat by man is the major culprit. The authors of the study advocate for additional measures against hunting and poaching.

The study of nearly 300 species of “megafauna” was published today in the journal Conservation Letters . Lead author William Ripple, a professor at the University College of Forestry at Oregon, is part of an international group of scientists from the USA, Canada, Australia, Mexico and France, which together a list up of megafauna. That are mammals, straalvinnigen and cartilaginous fish of at least 100 kilograms, and birds, reptiles and amphibians of at least 40 kilograms. On the list are elephants, rhinos, giant tortoises and whales, but also deer and, for example, the Chinese reuzensalamander, which is up to 65 kilograms can weigh.