IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Linnell, J. | |
| Making place for the wild in the landscape of 21st century Europe: the ultimate test of the "think global, act local" paradigm? | |
| 2007 Full Book | |
The 20th century was a close call for Europe's large carnivores. Wolves, brown bears, Eurasian lynx and wolverines were all early colonists after the various advances and retreats of the ice age. These four species thrived during all the dramatic environmental changes of the subsequent millennia. Even humans posed little serious threat to their survival until the development of effective firearms and poisons in the 16th and 17th centuries. However, by the early 20th century the combined effect of direct human persecution (with traps, guns and poison), extensive deforestation, and the near extermination of all large ungulates that are their main prey, led to dramatic reductions in the numbers and distributions of all large carnivores. By the mid 20th century it was touch and go for the persistence of these species throughout most of Europe. |
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(c) IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group ( IUCN - The World Conservation Union) |