OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

Global Trophic Cascades News

Large Carnivore Trophic Cascades in Western North America

NEW - PowerPoint presentations covering several aspects of large carnivore trophic cascades

Why the U.S. government is allowing bears, wolves to be hunted in their dens

The rollback of a rule banning controversial hunting methods in Alaska's national preserves has some worried the National Park Service is ceding control to states with less conservation-oriented goals.

Related Documents: 

Hunting, Harvesting Leave Big Animals at Risk of Extinction: Study

U.S. News, Feb. 6, 2019: "Direct harvest for human consumption of meat or body parts is the biggest danger to nearly all of the large species with threat data available," said study corresponding author William Ripple. He's a professor of ecology at Oregon State University College of Forestry.

We are eating large animals into extinction

Popular Science, Feb. 6, 2019: “Humans have a long history of killing large animals, and it dates back thousands of years, and probably is why the mammoths and mastodons went extinct in North America,” said William Ripple, distinguished professor of ecology in the Oregon State University College of Forestry and co-author of a new study assessing the current state of big fauna.

Humans Are Eating Large Animals to Extinction

Psychology Today, Feb. 6, 2019: Detailed data show size matters when humans choose to kill other animals.

Direct killing by humans pushing Earth’s biggest fauna toward extinction

OSU Press Release, Jan. 30, 2019: One hundred forty-three species of large animals are decreasing in number and 171 are under threat of extinction, according to new research that suggests humans’ meat consumption habits are primarily to blame.

The killing of large species is pushing them towards extinction, study finds

The Guardian, Feb. 6, 2019: The vast majority of the world’s largest species are being pushed towards extinction, with the killing of the heftiest animals for meat and body parts the leading cause of decline, according to a new study.

'Super Predator' Humans are Eating the World's Biggest Animals Into Extinction

Newsweek, Feb 6, 2019: More populations of megafauna are threatened and have higher rates of decreasing populations than all other vertebrates put together, Dr. William Ripple, study co-author and distinguished professor of ecology at Oregon State University College of Forestry said in a statement.

'Outdated' management plan increases risks to Alaska's large carnivores

"Gray wolves, brown bears and black bears are managed in most of Alaska in ways designed to significantly lower their numbers," said study co-author William Ripple, distinguished professor of ecology in the Oregon State University College of Forestry. "Alaska is unique in the world because these management priorities are both widespread and legally mandated."

Yellowstone streams recovering thanks to wolf reintroduction

Robert Beschta and William Ripple of the OSU College of Forestry looked at stream-bank willows over a 13-year period along two forks of a creek in Yellowstone National Park, first in 2004 and again in 2017.

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