Extinction and the Human: Four American Encounters

A reflection on the realities of animal extinction and endangerment, focusing especially on the force of human impact on megafauna—mammoths, whales, and the North American bison

The Americas have been the site of two distinct waves of human migration, each associated with human-caused extinctions. The first occurred during the late Pleistocene era, some ten to thirty thousand years ago; the other began during the time of European settler-colonization and continues to this day.

In Extinction a...