Defaunation

Defaunation is the global, local, or functional loss of animal populations or species from ecological communities. It stems from human population growth combined with advanced harvesting technology, which has driven intense exploitation of natural environments and stripped many ecosystems of their large vertebrates, producing what scientists call empty forests. The term covers both the outright disappearance of species and declines in their populations, and it came into wider scientific use in conservation biology following a 1988 symposium in Brazil, describing what is now recognized as a widespread global problem for wildlife. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/