介绍： This is Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Jason Goldman.
Large mammals can be lost from a particular place, from being hunted or by the destruction of their habitat. And the loss of these big animals can greatly affect the rest of the ecosystem. Take elephants: They can leave deep footprints in soi...

介绍： This is Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Jason Goldman.
Large mammals can be lost from a particular place, from being hunted or by the destruction of their habitat. And the loss of these big animals can greatly affect the rest of the ecosystem. Take elephants: They can leave deep footprints in soil. After it rains, each footprint becomes a tiny pond, which becomes a home to a variety of invertebrates. No elephants means no homes for those critters. So while it's well known that the loss of large mammals can mean bad news, just how pervasive those impacts can be still remains unclear.
"I spent a lot of time when I was there in these heavily hunted forests. And in these pristine forests — well, relatively pristine forests — they were hunted, they were pretty protected, remember. Just walking around, I was noticing that there's a visual difference in the amount of understory vegetation in these areas where the elephants and other large animals like forest buffalo are hunted out.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学。我是杰森·古德曼。
大型哺乳动物可能会因为被猎杀或栖息地遭破坏而从特定的地方消失。大型动物的减少会极大地影响生态系统的其他部分。以大象为例：它们能在土壤中留下深深的足印。下雨后，每个足印都会形成一个小池塘，成为各种无脊椎动物的家园。没有大象，这些生物就会失去家园。因此，虽然众所周知大型哺乳动物减少可能是件坏事，但其影响的普遍程度仍不得而知。
“我花了很多时间待在被大量捕猎的森林里。在原始森林里，实际上是相对原始的森林里，人们在捕猎受到了很好的保护。在森林里四处走动时我注意到，在大象和森林水牛等大型动物被猎杀的地区，林下植被的数量存在视觉差异。