title: Collapse of the world's largest herbivores.
abstract: Large wild herbivores are crucial to ecosystems and human societies. We highlight the 74 largest terrestrial herbivore species on Earth (body mass ≥100 kg), the threats they face, their important and often overlooked ecosystem effects, and the conservation efforts needed to save them and their predators from extinction. Large herbivores are generally facing dramatic population declines and range contractions, such that ~60% are threatened with extinction. Nearly all threatened species are in developing countries, where major threats include hunting, land-use change, and resource depression by livestock. Loss of large herbivores can have cascading effects on other species including large carnivores, scavengers, mesoherbivores, small mammals, and ecological processes involving vegetation, hydrology, nutrient cycling, and fire regimes. The rate of large herbivore decline suggests that ever-larger swaths of the world will soon lack many of the vital ecological services these animals provide, resulting in enormous ecological and social costs.
authors.affiliation: Trophic Cascades Program, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Ripple
authors.affiliation: Trophic Cascades Program, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA. ; Desert Ecology Research Group, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
authors.forename: Thomas M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Newsome
authors.affiliation: Trophic Cascades Program, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Rodolfo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dirzo
authors.affiliation: Centre for African Conservation Ecology, Department of Zoology, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa.
authors.forename: Kristoffer T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Everatt
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), C.P. 199, Rio Claro, São Paulo 13506-900, Brazil.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Galetti
authors.affiliation: Centre for African Conservation Ecology, Department of Zoology, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa. ; College of Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Thoday Building, Deiniol Road, Bangor, Gwynedd LL572UW, UK.
authors.forename: Matt W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Hayward
authors.affiliation: Centre for African Conservation Ecology, Department of Zoology, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa.
authors.forename: Graham I H
authors.initials: GI
authors.lastname: Kerley
authors.affiliation: Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
authors.forename: Taal
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Levi
authors.affiliation: Lion Program, Panthera, 8 West 40th Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10018, USA. ; Mammal Research Institute, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, Gauteng 0001, South Africa.
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Lindsey
authors.affiliation: Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Tubney House, Tubney, Abingdon OX13 5QL, UK.
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Macdonald
authors.affiliation: Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK.
authors.forename: Yadvinder
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Malhi
authors.affiliation: Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
authors.forename: Luke E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Painter
authors.affiliation: Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Tubney House, Tubney, Abingdon OX13 5QL, UK.
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Sandom
authors.affiliation: Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, P. O. Box 90381, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Terborgh
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-7239, USA.
authors.forename: Blaire
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Van Valkenburgh
keywords: defaunation; endangerment; extinction; habitat loss; hunting; large herbivores; megafauna; trophic cascades