Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 17h

Herbivores can teach us a lot about ecology and they can teach us even more about ourselves and our society.
4/4

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 17h

Grains being carbohydrates soon turn to sugar once consumed and the body gets a sugar hit which is highly addictive and the metabolism struggles to cope.

The economic growth that stems from the above is also highly addictive and the system is as yet unable to regulate itself.
3/4

1

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 17h

World grain production has tripled since 1960 and in the same period world population has also gone from 3 billion up to its current 8.2.

Tripling the population has tripled the need for energy, water, space, jobs and resources etc.

It's also increased the economy by many orders of magnitude.
2/4

1

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 17h

With my primary research topic being herbivores the more I learn about them, the more I'm coming to realise that humans on a herbivore diet has very serious implications.

As technology consistently increases yields our population rises.
i.e. the human-herbivore carrying capacity increases.

1/4

1

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 22h

It's a shame my research site wasn't one of the 25 case studies, the weaknesses table would have been empty.

Rewilders, ecologists, regen farmers, foresters and all interested members of the public should have all be working together many years ago with many km2 greatly improved by now.

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 1d

That's right.

However, it's not until we look at herbivores at a global scale that we get a true picture.

Humans are now the dominant ecosystem engineers, although we only express very few if any true herbivore traits.

Humans managing vegetation as predators has decimated wildlife populations.

2

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 1d

It's safe to say there were multiple stressors and they all contributed in varying degrees.

What interests me most is that everything that has played out ever since is totally unique and much of it relates to which herbivores are now the dominant ecosystem engineers and why they're failing.

1

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 2d

The most deadly predator of all time happened.

1

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 3d

"The last two genera, Cuvieronius ranging from southern North America to northwestern South America, and Notiomastodon ranging over most of South America, continued to exist until the end of the Pleistocene around 12,000 years ago"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomphot...

Gomphothere - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

2

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 3d

"Of the Pleistocene New World proboscideans, the American mastodon appears to have been the most consistent in browsing rather than grazing, consuming C3 as opposed to C4 plants, and occupying closed forests versus more open habitats"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon

Mastodon - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 3d

This "species was primarily associated with temperate and Mediterranean woodland and forest habitats"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straigh...

Straight-tusked elephant - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 3d

Quite the opposite.

Mega-herbivores breathe life back into the forests, because when it comes to species count and functional dynamics our current forests are barely operating.

What you might see as destruction would provide wildlife, trees and flora with the conditions they're most adapted to.

1 1 1

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 3d

This helps to show us how nature now only exists on our terms and that we're hard-wired to act that way.
2/2

1

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 3d

While I clearly remember seeing the croc I'd forgotten just how many people were photographed standing behind it.

When nature is fully intact it's a dangerous place for all species and this is something that all ecologists, rewilders and 'right to roam' advocates might bear in mind.
1/2

1 1

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 4d

On the topic of crocs, have you seen this?

I saw it a while ago I've been trying to find again for ages.

dinoanimals.com/animals/man-...

Man-eaters: Crocodile Gustave | DinoAnimals.com

Gustave is the largest man-eater which lives nowadays. It is a Nile crocodile, measuring about 6 m in length and weighing about 1 ton. It is responsible for more than 300 deaths.

dinoanimals.com

1 1

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 4d

Primarily to educate everyone in ecosystem engineering, but if you put all the other good reasons together you'd end up with a big fat book.

Sooner or later we'll have to grab the bull by the 'tusks' and just do it, so why not just do it now?

It's much easier than most people imagine.

1 1

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 4d

Cool. Send me half a dozen crocodiles too, and make it snappy.

1 1

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 4d

I'll have ten please.
Do you deliver, or do I need to collect them?

1 2

Reposted by EcosystemEngineer

Jens-Christian Svenning @jcsvenning.bsky.social · 5d

Interesting! Modern hippos lived in Central Europe during the last ice age 🦏🦏🦣https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/pressreleases/detail/2025-10-09-hippos-lived-in-europe-in-the-last-ice-age #megafauna

2 8 23

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 4d

Many of Europe's extinct mega-herbivores still exist on other continents.

The only practical way of reintroducing some of them is with the help of creative fencing solutions that enable migrations and prevent conflict etc.

This means elephants could be a reality as early as 2026.

1 1

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 5d

A bit of trampling helps as well, it all adds to the structural complexity.

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 8d

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd0M...

The Secret Lives of Elephants: Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell at TEDxStanford

YouTube video by TEDx Talks

www.youtube.com

1

Reposted by EcosystemEngineer

Nearly Wild @nearlywild.bsky.social · Aug 20

"Pleistocene and early Holocene megafaunal extinctions can stimulate us to reevaluate what is natural in the world and what sort of natures we seek to conserve or restore. If we accept the increasing evidence for a strong human role in these early extinctions, it forces a look inwards and 1/2

Megafauna and ecosystem function from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene | PNAS

Large herbivores and carnivores (the megafauna) have been in a state of decline and extinction since the Late Pleistocene, both on land and more re...

www.pnas.org

1 5 18

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 8d

Add in some strategic surrogate impacts and it can bring the same structural improvements in hours that might take rewilding many decades or even centuries to achieve.

Ideally both approaches would work together with the cell grazing providing connectivity routes, even through urban landscapes.
2/2

EcosystemEngineer @ecosystemengineer.bsky.social · 8d

I carried out the bulk of my research on forest and vegetation structures with cell grazing.

It has the potential to safely put any animal in any place, either as part of a vegetation management project or a full scale migration, or anything in between.

1/

1