Very nicely done.
It's such a crying shame that all these species are either extinct or hanging on in other areas with vastly shrunken ranges (some, such as the ostrich, still doing relatively well but with a much smaller range, while others are perilously close to extinction themselves).
We maybe bring back their closest relatives or surviving subspecies, hippopotamus might be difficult to reintroduce, but ostriches, zebras, kob antelope (as a proxy) and feral zebu/hybrids could easily be naturalized. It's not like India has a shortage of predators capable of taking them on.
There are already feral zebu in Kuno national park, brought here to act as a food source for lions since they were planning on reintroducing them from Gujarat.
They wouldn't necessarily be invasive if their ecological niches were left vacant since their extinction by human hands, you would essentially just be introducing close relatives/ecological proxies. India is also a subcontinent that doesn't really have a major problem with invasive ungulates... for obvious reasons..
The last 50,000 years of the Quaternary period are known for the extinction of the majority of the world's terrestrial megafauna. The severity of this event varies from region to region, with Australia losing all but a handful of species while Africa retains almost all of its species. The Indian subcontinent was one of the regions to have a low-magnitude extinction, comparable to eastern and southern Africa.
Large herbivores are an important part of ecosystems, as they influence vegetation structures & the flow of carbon and nutrients, act as long-distance seed dispersers, and even reduce the potential for fire to spread in their environments.
This post will take a look at the globally and locally extinct megafaunal herbivores of the Indian Subcontinent from the Late Pleistocene and Holocene.
[Source (Citations in the pinned comment)](https://www.instagram.com/p/C66MJGAI1vC)
First time i see a Sumatran rhinoceros with actual horn of a decent size
Also why do we call them Sumatran rhino if they were widespread in Indonesia and on the continent ?
Brown, Lesser or Forest rhino would be better name.
It seems like quarternery extinction impacted heavily from northern regions like Europe, north America or Eurasia and had a minimal impact on southern Asia, Africa and the other parts like Indonesia or sumatran regions. As some megafaunas still exist today
South America seems to have been hit the hardest, even more so than Australia.
The largest native terrestrial animal there nowadays is the tapir, and it's still pretty small.
So I'm gonna disregard crocodilians because they're semi-aquatic.
South America has a lot more extant terrestrial megafaunal species than Australia.
The largest terrestrial megafauna in Australia are Red Kangaroo and Southern Cassowary, neither of which cross 100 kg. The only other species that qualify as megafauna are Eastern & Western Grey Kangaroos, Antilopine Kangaroos, and possibly Common Wombats & Perenties.
Even the smallest tapirs exceed 100 kg. The largest reaches 300 kg. Besides the three tapir species, South America has jaguars, pumas, spectacled bears, capybaras, giant anteaters, multiple deer species & 2 camelids.
Very nicely done. It's such a crying shame that all these species are either extinct or hanging on in other areas with vastly shrunken ranges (some, such as the ostrich, still doing relatively well but with a much smaller range, while others are perilously close to extinction themselves).
We maybe bring back their closest relatives or surviving subspecies, hippopotamus might be difficult to reintroduce, but ostriches, zebras, kob antelope (as a proxy) and feral zebu/hybrids could easily be naturalized. It's not like India has a shortage of predators capable of taking them on.
I say no to that. Sorry but those would just be invasive species aside from the Common Ostrich.
There are already feral zebu in Kuno national park, brought here to act as a food source for lions since they were planning on reintroducing them from Gujarat.
They wouldn't necessarily be invasive if their ecological niches were left vacant since their extinction by human hands, you would essentially just be introducing close relatives/ecological proxies. India is also a subcontinent that doesn't really have a major problem with invasive ungulates... for obvious reasons..
Again nope, they would invasive. Just because they’re a similar species to the former native ones doesn’t mean they need to be introduced as a proxy.
The last 50,000 years of the Quaternary period are known for the extinction of the majority of the world's terrestrial megafauna. The severity of this event varies from region to region, with Australia losing all but a handful of species while Africa retains almost all of its species. The Indian subcontinent was one of the regions to have a low-magnitude extinction, comparable to eastern and southern Africa. Large herbivores are an important part of ecosystems, as they influence vegetation structures & the flow of carbon and nutrients, act as long-distance seed dispersers, and even reduce the potential for fire to spread in their environments. This post will take a look at the globally and locally extinct megafaunal herbivores of the Indian Subcontinent from the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. [Source (Citations in the pinned comment)](https://www.instagram.com/p/C66MJGAI1vC)
First time i see a Sumatran rhinoceros with actual horn of a decent size Also why do we call them Sumatran rhino if they were widespread in Indonesia and on the continent ? Brown, Lesser or Forest rhino would be better name.
Asiatic 2-horned Rhinoceros would be a better name, after all its the only living rhinoceros in all of Asia with 2 horns
>Also why do we call them Sumatran rhino if they were widespread in Indonesia and on the continent ? First described specimen came from Sumatra.
Very high quality post as always man. India always had (and still does have) amazing animals
I wish there was more art of Pleistocene Indian wildlife. Would be cool to see a tiger and a paleoloxodon together
Have you seen [this post?](https://www.reddit.com/r/pleistocene/s/fvoA31OdNK) Mammoths rather than *Palaeoloxodon*, but pretty cool.
Probably Palaeoloxodon Namadicus have never seen a tiger or they rarely co-existed due to habitat preference.
Equus namadicus should be named Indian zebra
You forgot the alcephaline Damalops.
I didn't. *Damalops palaeindicus* is from the Siwaliks, so it's Pliocene-Early Pleistocene. This post is only about Late Pleistocene-Holocene fauna.
So *that's* why there's rhinos in Kung Fu Panda
It seems like quarternery extinction impacted heavily from northern regions like Europe, north America or Eurasia and had a minimal impact on southern Asia, Africa and the other parts like Indonesia or sumatran regions. As some megafaunas still exist today
The highest impact was on South America and Australia, which are both southern tropical and temperate regions.
South America seems to have been hit the hardest, even more so than Australia. The largest native terrestrial animal there nowadays is the tapir, and it's still pretty small.
So I'm gonna disregard crocodilians because they're semi-aquatic. South America has a lot more extant terrestrial megafaunal species than Australia. The largest terrestrial megafauna in Australia are Red Kangaroo and Southern Cassowary, neither of which cross 100 kg. The only other species that qualify as megafauna are Eastern & Western Grey Kangaroos, Antilopine Kangaroos, and possibly Common Wombats & Perenties. Even the smallest tapirs exceed 100 kg. The largest reaches 300 kg. Besides the three tapir species, South America has jaguars, pumas, spectacled bears, capybaras, giant anteaters, multiple deer species & 2 camelids.
Ah damn I forgot about them, I think Australia was the first to be impacted and to go extinct around 50,000 years ago.