[AbrahamParangi]

I don’t think it’s very credible to conclude the disappearance of both large herbivores has nothing to do with the arrival of a new, exceptionally adept and general apex predator.

Do you know when the megafauna of Madagascar went extinct? Right around the arrival of humans. What about New Zealand? Shortly after the arrival of humans. In every historical, known example of human introduction to a new ecosystem, most animals over 50lbs get eaten.

[throwuwu]

So what’s up with Africa then? Those ones didn’t taste good or what?

[AbrahamParangi]

I would propose that the megafauna of Africa is less naive regarding hominid predators.

Elephants will go out of their way to kill lion cubs and, according to Tanzanian anecdote, human children.

[thunkle]

The animals there evolved with humans.

[saalweachter]

It's also interesting that essentially none of the native animals in Africa are domesticatable -- I think donkeys are the one thing we managed to domesticate there, most everything else was brought back from other continents.

Animals you'd think would be basically like other species we've domesticated, like zebras or gnus, take a strong "fuck you" attitude towards people and have resisted modern efforts to domesticate them.

[thunkle]

You've been reading Guns, Germs, and Steel?

[throwuwu]

So NA megafauna had no problems with wolves but people come along and it’s game over. Still not buying this. Why did horses die out but not bison or deer? How did mammoth go extinct while elephants didn’t when elephants faced more technologically advanced humans over a longer time period? Just doesn’t add up.

[olddustytrail]

Pretty much the same thing it's just that Africa is huge.

[throwuwu]

And North and South America aren’t?