Environment

New map reveals how the world would appear without humans

Researchers have created the first estimate of how the world's mammal diversity map would have appeared if modern man had never existed.

The world map constructed for the natural diversity of large mammals shows far greater distribution of high large-mammal diversity across most of the world, with particularly high levels in North and South America, areas that are currently relatively poor in large mammals.

The natural diversity of large mammals as it would appear without the impact of modern man (Homo sapiens). The figure shows the variation in the number of large mammals (45 kg or larger) that would have occurred per 100 x 100 kilometre grid cell. The numbers on the scale indicate the number of species.

The current diversity of large mammals. It can clearly be seen that large numbers of species virtually only occur in Africa, and that there are generally far fewer species throughout the world than there could have been.