Saturday 27 February 2016

What Will Happen to the Other Life Forms When Homo Sapiens Go Extinct?

After the dinosaurs went extinct as a result of an asteroid hit the earth, the small mammals had a chance to leave their holes during the daylight and walked around the surface mostly without the fear of being eaten. This enabled them to evolve into larger animals and conquer the animal kingdom. Thanks to that asteroid, we are here now, populating the earth. We have made significant changes since our existence, we destroyed the big wild animal herds, we destroyed the natural plant ecosystems and replaced with farms, we domesticated and created new species. Many animals disappeared because of our direct or indirect involvement; mammoths, dodos, Tasmanian wolves, passenger pigeons, quaggas, even homo neanderthalensis, our very human cousins; the list goes on.

Today 7 billion of us are populating the earth and continue to deepen our impact into it. But what if our existence comes to a dramatic end? What would happen, because of whatever reasons, if we disappear in a short time period, let’s say within a thousand years or so.

In this article, I am only going to talk about the consequences of our extinction. I am going to write another article soon about the most realistic reasons how we could go extinct if we did.

First of all, some animals would also disappear with us forever right after our fall. The human lice and the bed bugs are completely adapted as human parasites and they cannot survive in a world without humans, therefore they would quickly go extinct as well. Some endangered species, like giant pandas today are completely dependent on to human care, especially the weak baby pandas. Without our protection, they would face the harsh rules of natural selection and die out in a short time period. Some urban invaders, like rats and cockroaches, will have a hard time in the absent of human junk, however thanks to their adaptability to every condition, after some will perish, the others will readapt to wildlife as they used to be, with a significantly decreased population.

There are billions of domesticated animals around the world. We domesticated, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens mainly to maintain a secure food source, instead of chasing wild games. Many of those animals also provide transportation like horses, wools and leather for clothing, and so on. Dog was probably the first animal ever domesticated, in order to help hunting. Except dogs, there are many other pets, like cat, goldfish, parakeet and hamster. Unlike their wild cousins, those animals do not have to search for food, they are raised and fed by humans. Food and fresh water is not the only thing they receive, but protection from the carnivores. When humans first started domesticated them, they did not care about sharp horns and strong legs, but a fat body that can provide more meat, big breasts for milking, and most importantly, docile behaviours as they less resist to slaughtering, and they cherry-picked those for inbreeding. As a result of this, they lost their speed, strength and adaptability to survive in wild life, and completely dependent on human activity.


When the humans disappear, all those animals will become waif and face with serious consequences. At first, as the food and water provide will be completely cut off, many farm animals will die instantly. Unlike the wild omnivores, those billions are not adapted to find their own food, but are fed with corn and soybeans. Right after that, the remaining population will be an easy target for the wild predators. Unprotected cattle and sheep will especially increase the number of wolves, dramatically. But when all cattle and sheep went extinct, many excessive wolves will also die out subsequently back to a closer population previously. The animal carcasses will feed many scavengers, like jackals, hyenas, vultures and crows, but again, those will be temporary, and tend to go back. Some domesticated animals might have quite different fate, especially the domesticated carnivores. Cats are somehow still luckier to find their own food, despite many will also die as a result of competition with the other carnivores, some of them will have a chance to completely turn into wild and adapt to Mother Nature. Just like dingoes of Australia, as once upon a time they were also domesticated, some dogs, especially stronger breeds like german shepherd or husky, will adapt to wildlife and will create new kinds of wild dogs as a result of interbreeding each other or with wolves and coyotes. Some of those new generations might superior than wolves and coyotes and might win the competition as to replace them at the end, similar to the story of coywolf.


Pigs might also be an exception, as they have been observed that once they break out their fences and escape, they tend much faster to turn into feral, growing longer hair and even wild boar like tusks. Pig’s diet is much broader than those cattle or dogs as they are omnivores and much easier to find their own food in nature. Despite of many fat pigs will perish, many will survive and turn into a new wild species, and some will interbreed with wild boars, to generate a stronger breed. Pigs are very smart animals and those survivor will even be smarter as the smarter ones are likely survive, and transfer their genes to the following generations. As they also have ability to breed quickly, they might be a dominant species in the world.

The animal kingdom will not be the only life form under effect. Many domesticated plants will perish without the humans. Today, most of the land surface is invaded by farms and plantations, to feed billions of people and another billions of domesticated animals. Those plants found a chance to spread over thanks to industrialised and technological farming methods. They can survive with human irrigation without dependence of rain, they are regularly fertilized, and they do not have to care about pests and diseases as much as we care about it.


The human extinction will completely be a disaster for those farms. In first stage, most of the crops, maize, oats, wheat, barley, etc. will quickly dry out. As there will be no human to replant the new seeds, they will go to extinct. Then, the invaders will come, the parasite insects, birds, omnivores will attack to those undefended ones, without the human protection and pesticides. The farms will turn into empty soils. The gardens will dry out and go to wild without human care. Then, the next invaders will appear; the weeds will freely cover up those newly vacant areas. Those weeds will prevent the farms turn into natural pastures, meadows and forests for a long time period. Eventually, it will take hundreds of years for the land turn into forests as it used to be before the first agricultural revolution. By time, as the structures and cities continue their slow destruction, the urbanized amazon region of Brazil and plains of Indian subcontinent will be covered by rainforests, east coast of the United States by broadleaf forests and east China by bamboo forests within a thousand years or so. In the great plains of North America, the bison will again invade large areas as they used to be. The big herds of the savannah of Africa will also increase and spread their population throughout the continent. Unlike those areas, the plains of Eurasia will remain empty for a long time, until evolution of an alternative big mammal, perhaps in a million years or so.

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