Humans are well known as super predators but for the first time scientists have put a figure on it.
We exploit around a third of all wild animals for food, medicines or to keep as pets, putting almost half at risk of extinction, they say.
That makes us hundreds of times more dangerous than natural predators such as the great white shark.
And they warn of profound consequences for whole ecosystems.
"The size and scale of what we found surprised us," said Dr Rob Cooke of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Wallingford, Oxfordshire.
"Humans have a breath-taking diversity of uses of animals but we need to move towards sustainable human-nature relationships across the globe."
https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66058976.amp
We exploit around a third of all wild animals for food, medicines or to keep as pets, putting almost half at risk of extinction, they say.
That makes us hundreds of times more dangerous than natural predators such as the great white shark.
And they warn of profound consequences for whole ecosystems.
"The size and scale of what we found surprised us," said Dr Rob Cooke of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Wallingford, Oxfordshire.
"Humans have a breath-taking diversity of uses of animals but we need to move towards sustainable human-nature relationships across the globe."
https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66058976.amp