Anthropogenic species extinction case studies

giant moa

• human behavior: hunting for food, farming, deforestation

• impacts of their extinction on their ecosystems: shaped structure and composition of vegetation, affect plant regeneration patterns and fire frequency

Caribbean monk seal

• human behavior: overfishing and reduction of prey; hunting for fur, meat, blubber; easy to kill

• impacts of their extinction on their ecosystem: top predator of fish and invertebrates, prey fish species grew at expense of others in Caribbean, coral reefs affected

Falkand Islands wolf

• human behavior: poisoned and shot for appearing threatening to settlers’ sheep

• impacts of their extinction on their ecosystem: top predator, prey population increased

Atítlan grebe

• human behavior: humans introduced bass that competed for crabs and fish, ate chicks, destroyed breeding site, drowned in gill nets, disturbed by boat traffic

• impacts of extinction: affected food chain

Mount Glorious torrent frog

• human behavior: vulnerable to habitat destruction and deforestation, altered water flows disrupting breeding, invasive species and diseases, alien feral pigs ate them and churned mud in streams

• impacts of extinction: lack of insect population control and nutrient cycles impacted, influenced habitat structures and dynamics (change in vegetation and water quality)

quagga

• human behavior: hunting, wanted to stop grazing competition with sheep and cattle

• impacts: influenced vegetation structure and distribution, altered plants and grazing patterns, changed soil fertility dynamics

Tasmania’s thylacine

• human behavior: introduction of dingos, scapegoat for livestock loss, hunting, introduction of competitive species, foreign disease, habitat destruction

• impacts: removal of top predator → meso predator release, smaller predators increased, prey populations, herbivore behavior, vegetation

the great auk

• human behavior: hunting for food and fuel

• impacts: large predators in food chain removed from ecosystem, predators of large fish