New Study: Dwarf Hippopotamuses and Elephants in Cyprus Driven to Extinction by a Few Thousand People

New research reveals that dwarf elephants (Palaeoloxodon cypriotes) and dwarf hippopotamuses (Phanourios minor) on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus were driven to extinction after the arrival of Paleolithic humans around 14,000 years ago. A small population of possibly just 3,000 people was enough to wipe out these animals within a few centuries through overhunting. The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, illustrates how these early settlers severely disrupted the island’s ecosystems by hunting the animals for food and causing their rapid extinction.

Cyprus as an isolated ecosystem

At the time of human settlement, Cyprus was an isolated ecosystem with no major predators. This isolation made the dwarf elephants and hippopotamuses especially vulnerable to human arrival. The study shows that it took less than 1,000 years for both species to become extinct.

The study authors emphasize that Cyprus is an ideal location to study the connection between human arrival and megafauna extinction due to three factors: the island’s small size of just 11,000 square kilometers, the low diversity of megafauna with only two species (dwarf elephants and hippopotamuses), and the late human settlement around 13,200 to 14,200 years ago.

Overhunting as the main cause of extinction of dwarf hippopotamus and dwarf elephant

The team led by Australian ecologist Corey Bradshaw used archaeological data and models of megafauna population dynamics that considered human dietary needs, prey selection, and hunting efficiency. They showed that the human population on Cyprus may have caused the extinction of the dwarf elephants and hippopotamuses through overhunting. A population of only 3,000 to 7,000 hunter-gatherers in the Late Pleistocene would have been sufficient to wipe out both species in less than 1,000 years.

The model calculations aligned with the chronological sequence of megafauna extinctions observed in fossil records, disproving earlier claims that humans were not responsible for the extinction of these animals. The researchers stress that even small human populations can have significant impacts on ecosystems, even with simple technologies.

Understanding early human impacts

Theodora Moutsiou, a paleoarchaeologist and co-author of the study, told Cosmos: “Our research lays the foundation for a better understanding of how small human populations can destroy native ecosystems and cause mass extinctions, even in times of low technological capability.” The findings shed new light on the role early hunter-gatherers played in species extinction and demonstrate that even primitive tools had substantial effects on biodiversity.

Similar extinction processes have been observed in more recent history. On Madagascar, two species of dwarf hippopotamuses – Lemerle’s hippopotamus and Hippopotamus madagascariensis – also likely disappeared due to human settlement. They probably went extinct as late as the 15th century, again as a result of human activity.