Woolly rhinos were once widespread in northern and central Eurasia before becoming extinct around 10,000 years ago. Credit: Mauricio Anton
Advanced computer modeling reveals that prolonged human hunting contributed to the extinction of woolly rhinos by blocking their migration to new habitats during post-Ice Age warming, highlighting the continuing impact of human activity on large animals kinds.
The researchers found that persistent hunting by humans is limiting the woolly rhinoceros from reaching preferred habitats as the Earth warms after the last ice age.
An international team of researchers led by scientists from the University of Adelaide and the University of Copenhagen used computer modeling to make the discovery, shedding light on an age-old mystery.
“Using Computer Models, Fossils and Ancients DNA, we traced 52,000 years of Eurasian woolly rhinoceros population history at a resolution not previously thought possible,” said lead author Associate Professor Damien Fordham of the University of Adelaide’s Institute of the Environment. “This showed that from 30,000 years ago, a combination of cooling temperatures and low but sustained hunting by humans caused the woolly rhinoceros to shrink its range southward, trapping it in scattered isolated and rapidly deteriorating habitats at the end of the last ice age. As the Earth thawed and temperatures rose, woolly rhinoceros populations were unable to colonize important new habitats opening up in northern Eurasia, causing them to destabilize and collapse, leading to their extinction.
An iconic species of the megafauna, the woolly rhinoceros had thick skin and long fur and once roamed the mammoth ladders of northern and central Eurasia before disappearing about 10,000 years ago.
Conflicting findings and human impact
This recent discovery, published in PNAScontradicts previous research that says humans had no role in the woolly rhino’s extinction – even though the animal co-existed with humans tens of thousands of years before it went extinct.
“The demographic responses revealed by our analysis were at a much higher resolution than those captured in previous genetic studies,” said Professor Elin Lorenzen of the University of Copenhagen’s Globe Institute. “This allowed us to determine important interactions that woolly rhinos had with humans and to document how these changed over space and time. One of these largely overlooked interactions was persistent low levels of hunting by humans, presumably for food.
Humans pose a similar threat to the environment today. Populations of large animals have been pushed into fragmented and suboptimal habitats due to overhunting and human land use changes.
In the late Pleistocene, 61 species of large terrestrial herbivores—weighing over a ton—were alive, and only eight of them exist today. Five of these surviving species are rhinoceroses.
“Our findings reveal how climate change and human activities can lead to the extinction of megafauna,” said Professor David Nogues-Bravo of the University of Copenhagen, who co-authored the study. “This understanding is critical to developing conservation strategies to protect endangered species, such as the vulnerable rhinos in Africa and Asia.” By studying past extinctions, we can provide valuable lessons for the conservation of Earth’s remaining large animals.
Reference: “52,000 Years of Wavy Rhinoceros Population Dynamics Reveal Mechanisms of Extinction” by Damien A. Fordham, Stuart C. Brown, Elisabetta Canteri, Jeremy J. Austin, Mark W. Lomolino, Shawn Haythorne, Edward Armstrong, Hervé Beaucherens, Andrea Manica, Alba Rey-Iglesia, Carsten Rabeck, David Nogues-Bravo, and Elin D. Lorenzen, 03 Jun 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2316419121
