Mini Elephants Island: A Story of Human Impact
It may sound like a tale, but there was once an island inhabited by mini elephants and other miniature mammals. Unfortunately, humans arrived on it.
Can you imagine an island inhabited by mini elephants? It may seem like magic, but they did indeed exist. Well, at least until humans arrived.
What would it be like to live in a world where there were smaller versions of large mammals, such as elephants and hippos? This world actually existed about 14,000 years ago.
On the island of Cyprus, located in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, near the Middle East, these miniature species dwelled.
The dwarf hippos were about the size of a wild boar and weighed around 130 kilograms, while the dwarf elephants were the height of a horse and weighed 500 kilograms – much less than today’s Asian elephants, which weigh 4 tons.
According to scientists, both animals were extremely peaceful and did not face major natural predators in the region. However, these species became extinct over 12,000 years ago.
Researchers suggest two possible causes for their disappearance: either fatal climate and environmental changes, or humans, who began to settle in Cyprus about 14,000 years ago, were responsible for the extinction.
The Predatory Action of Man
Scientists have developed detailed computational models to simulate the events that could have led to the extinction of the mini elephants and other mammals on the island of Cyprus.
To do this, they considered a series of complex factors, including the size of the populations of dwarf elephants and hippos, their longevity, survival rates, and fertility.
On the human side, the simulations included estimates of how many people inhabited the island, how much time would be needed to process each hunted animal carcass, and the amount of daily energy hunters would need to survive.
The scientists’ central hypothesis is that these two species were used as a food source by the early human inhabitants of the island. The simulations indicate that a small human population, estimated between 3 and 7 thousand individuals, would have been sufficient to drive these animals to extinction.
They first eliminated the dwarf hippos, followed by the dwarf elephants. According to the projections, this extinction process would have taken about a thousand years, coinciding with the paleontological findings in the region.
This study highlights that even small human populations can have a profound impact on ecosystems, leading to species extinction.
Scientists point out that Cyprus is just one example of how humans, throughout history, have been responsible for the extinction of several species around the world.
Islands of Mini Elephants
Interestingly, Cyprus was not the only Mediterranean island that housed miniature versions of large mammals, like mini elephants. Other islands, such as Crete, Malta, Sicily, and Sardinia, also had their own populations of smaller-sized elephants and hippos.
These animals shared common ancestors with the large mammals we know today.
The phenomenon is known as island dwarfism, an evolutionary process in which a large species that inhabited the mainland adapts to an island environment, decreasing in size.
This occurs as an adaptation to a habitat with limited resources and, mainly, with few or no natural predators.
On the islands, as there were no predators threatening the species, elephants and hippos ended up evolving into smaller sizes over time. However, this adaptation also made them more vulnerable.
Therefore, the arrival of a new predator, humans, resulted in a rapid extinction of these species.
Many Losses
Unfortunately, the situation of the mini elephants’ island and other miniature mammals is not unique, and it will likely happen even more in the future.
After all, human action has demonstrably caused the extinction of hundreds of species throughout history.
For example, the Dodo, from the Mauritius islands in the Indian Ocean, where this species disappeared after indiscriminate hunting by European colonizers and the introduction of invasive species such as rats and pigs, which destroyed their nests.
Or the Tasmanian Tiger, a large carnivorous marsupial native to Australia. Its extinction was accelerated by hunting promoted by farmers who saw it as a threat to livestock, in addition to the destruction of its habitat.
Or even the Passenger Pigeon, which was once the most common bird in North America but disappeared in the early 20th century. Its population, which numbered in the billions, was devastated by mass hunting and the destruction of forests, its natural habitat.
These are just a few examples of species that have suffered from human action, like the mini elephants. They are irreparable losses for history and nature.
Source: Olhar Digital
