{"id":104955,"date":"2014-01-10T15:05:03","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T15:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/global-decline-in-predators-throwing-ecosystems-off-balance-scientists\/"},"modified":"2014-01-10T15:05:03","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T15:05:03","slug":"global-decline-in-predators-throwing-ecosystems-off-balance-scientists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/global-decline-in-predators-throwing-ecosystems-off-balance-scientists\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Decline in Predators Throwing Ecosystems Off Balance: Scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"

African Leopard in Etosha National Park, Namibia (Photo: Patrick Giraud \/ Wikimedia Creative Commons)<\/span><\/span>A steep decline in large predators is threatening endangered species and disrupting ecosystems from the tropic to the arctic, scientists warn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over 75 percent of the 31 large carnivore species\u2013including lions, dingoes, wolves, otters, and bears\u2013face shrinking numbers, according to a Friday report in the journal Science<\/em>. Of these, 17 species now live in less than half of the ranges they previously occupied.<\/p>\n

Human extermination, as well as a reduction in habitat and prey, are creating “hotspots” of decline, found the scientists\u2013who reviewed studies and singled out the ecological effects of 7 large predators facing steep decline. While southeast Asia, southern and eastern Africa and the Amazon face dwindling numbers, much of western Europe and the eastern United States have already exterminated the huge bulk of their large predators.<\/p>\n

\u201cGlobally, we are losing our large carnivores,\u201d said William Ripple, lead author of the paper and a professor in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University. \u201cMany of them are endangered,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir ranges are collapsing. Many of these animals are at risk of extinction, either locally or globally. And, ironically, they are vanishing just as we are learning about their important ecological effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

This decline is throwing off the balance of ecosystems across the globe, say the scientists.<\/p>\n

The decrease of cougars and wolves in national parks in North America, including Yellowstone, leads “to an increase in browsing animals such as deer and elk. More browsing disrupts vegetation, shifts birds and small mammals and changes other parts of the ecosystem in a widespread cascade of impacts,” according to a summary<\/a> of the findings.<\/p>\n

In some areas of Africa, a plummet in lion and leopard populations has led to an increase in olive baboons, which take a toll on human crops and livestock, the scientists find.<\/p>\n

The scientists\u2013who hail from Australia, Italy, Sweden, and the United States\u2013document similar effects across the globe.<\/p>\n

\u201cHuman tolerance of these species is a major issue for conservation,\u201d Ripple said. \u201cWe say these animals have an intrinsic right to exist, but they are also providing economic and ecological services that people value.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNature is highly interconnected.”<\/p>\n

_____________________<\/p>\n

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.<\/p>\n

Source: Common Dreams<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

African Leopard in Etosha National Park, Namibia (Photo: Patrick Giraud \/ Wikimedia Creative Commons)A steep decline in large predators is threatening endangered species and disrupting ecosystems from the tropic to the arctic, scientists warn. Over 75 percent of the 31 large carnivore species\u2013including lions, dingoes, wolves, otters, and bears\u2013face shrinking numbers, according to a Friday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1213,"featured_media":104956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-104955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}