Total weight of humans is 10 times that of all wild mammals put together according to a report.
Key findings of the report:
- The population of wild mammals is shrinking despite conservation efforts.
- Total mass of humans is 10 times that of all the world’s wild mammals combined.
Wild mammals comprise some of the heaviest animals of the planet:
- the elephants,
- bears,
- bisons and
The total weight of wild land mammals and marine mammals is around 22 million tonnes and 40 million tonnes respectively.
- Humans weigh 390 million metric tonnes.
- Domesticated mammals weigh around 630 million metric tonnes.
- Many domesticated mammal species outweigh the top wild mammal biomass contributors by 10 to 1,000 fold.
- The total mass of domestic cats is more than that of all of the world’s African savanna elephants combined.
- The total weight of dogs is similar to that of all the terrestrial mammals put together.
- The most significant mammal biomass contributors are cattle (420 million tonnes), humans and other livestock species most commonly reared for meat or dairy (including buffaloes, pigs, sheep and goats).
- Domesticated pigs alone weigh 40 million tonnes, almost double the combined mass of all terrestrial wild mammals.
- About 30 per cent of terrestrial wild mammals live in both human-dominated and natural habitats.
- A section of them are hunted down as pests, hurting their overall population.
- About 40 per cent of the global biomass of wild land mammals is concentrated in only 10 species.
SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB