# Has any creature successfully eradicated humans from its habitat **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2019, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creature-successfully-eradicated-humans-from-its-habitat/835526 "2019-06-14T20:52:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creature-successfully-eradicated-humans-from-its-habitat/835526/21 "2019-06-18T17:43:53Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The global number of fatalities due to shark attacks is insignificant, and the tiny potential danger does virtually nothing to keep people from going into the water in most places. Not to say that you are wrong, but I maintain that the underwater population of humanity in the oceans is sufficiently minute as to be considered “eradicated”. Though, again, as said that is more to do with the environment than the sharks. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creature-successfully-eradicated-humans-from-its-habitat/835526/22 "2019-06-18T17:53:32Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Iguana could’ve used a thumper. If he would have just walked without rhythm, he would have been fine. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creature-successfully-eradicated-humans-from-its-habitat/835526/23 "2019-06-18T17:59:56Z")
Forests in India with Tigers? Interesting that this village is on the edge of Sunderbans. Men are killed trying to work in the forest. Imagine trying to live in there. The Sunderbans and outlying areas must have been completely uninhabitable hundreds of years ago when the tiger population was much higher. > **[Village of the Tiger Widows: Tragic Side of India's Plan to Save Big Cats](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-05-31-mn-9249-story.html)** > > The 10-year-old girl's shriek of terror stilled the villagers' loud chatter about collecting honey in the lush jungle. > [@](#): > > One does not talk idly of tigers in Arampur, known as the “Village of the Tiger Widows” because in the last decade most of the village men have been killed by the graceful but dangerous beasts. > > Arampur is on the edge of the Sunderbans, a 1,034-square-mile forest in eastern India, one of 15 areas where the government is trying to save the lordly royal Bengal tiger from extinction. > > The $23-million project to save the big cats is succeeding. The latest tiger census three years ago–based on paw marks that are as distinctive as the human fingerprint–showed more than 4,000 tigers roaming India. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creature-successfully-eradicated-humans-from-its-habitat/835526/24 "2019-06-18T21:20:48Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Not to say that you are wrong, but I maintain that the underwater population of humanity in the oceans is sufficiently minute as to be considered “eradicated”. If people never lived there, they can hardly have been eradicated. Let’s say that, on a global scale, sharks have had no significant influence on the occurrence of humans in their habitat. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creature-successfully-eradicated-humans-from-its-habitat/835526/25 "2019-06-19T00:48:07Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > If people never lived there, they can hardly have been eradicated. > > Let’s say that, on a global scale, sharks have had no significant influence on the occurrence of humans in their habitat. Indeed. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creature-successfully-eradicated-humans-from-its-habitat/835526/26 "2019-06-19T11:43:48Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Forests in India with Tigers? > > Interesting that this village is on the edge of Sunderbans. Men are killed trying to work in the forest. Imagine trying to live in there. > > The Sunderbans and outlying areas must have been completely uninhabitable hundreds of years ago when the tiger population was much higher. > > [Village of the Tiger Widows: Tragic Side of India's Plan to Save Big Cats](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-05-31-mn-9249-story,amp.html) I read an intersting piece from an ex Viet-Cong soldier. He said “yes we put out ‘tigar traps’. They were to stop the tigers. Two of my friends were killed by tigers” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creature-successfully-eradicated-humans-from-its-habitat/835526/27 "2019-06-19T14:45:15Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Indeed. 😉 I had to assume that, as a veteran poster familiar with GQ rules, your initial answer wasn’t intended as a joke.😉 ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creature-successfully-eradicated-humans-from-its-habitat/835526/28 "2019-06-19T20:01:43Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Yes. As I understand it, Timbuktu is located some distance (about 8 miles) north of the Niger River (rather than right on the river) because of that fly and the sleeping sickness it transmits. I got one bite from a Tsetse fly - they HURT. it’s not just the parasite aspect, they are beyond annoying. The only thing that hurts close to as much are the giant horseflies of northern Canada. As I understand it, the denser human population of Africa is where the flies aren’t, and where the flies are, people generally are sparse or just visiting. Plus, cattle apparently are also susceptible to the parasite so permanent habitation is not productive anyway, for cultures that prize cattle as wealth. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creature-successfully-eradicated-humans-from-its-habitat/835526/29 "2019-06-19T21:25:07Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I had to assume that, as a veteran poster familiar with GQ rules, your initial answer wasn’t intended as a joke.😉 I don’t think there’s an answer beyond that some particular area isn’t worth it to us. If snake island was resting on a giant vein of gold ore, those snakes would be toast within a couple of months of someone discovering all the gold. None of the responses have changed my understanding of human nor animal capability, as yet. Humans haven’t been eradicated from anywhere by animals. There are some locations that we simply don’t care to inhabit which, as an aside, also have some nasty critters on them but that’s a secondary consideration to the raw value of the land. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creature-successfully-eradicated-humans-from-its-habitat/835526/30 "2019-06-20T01:19:07Z")
The Tsetse fly is interesting. Where it is endemic people and valuable animals don’t go. The land was once very valuable grazing land. It wasn’t however the Tsetse fly that caused the change, but the introduction of the virus Rinderpest that wiped out the livestock. Once the livestock had gone regrowth of flora made good habitat for the fly, which made reintroduction of livestock unviable sending the ecosystem into a new stable state, one that excludes human habitation and use. The land was once intrinsically valuable, and were the land cleared again the fly would retreat and productive grazing resume. However the logistics are currently insuperable. It wasn’t the fly that eradicated humans, it was the catastrophic loss of their livestock and the subsequent human disaster. The fly simply excludes humans. Given it was human activity that introduced Rinderpest, the fly can’t be given credit for the eradication, but certainly can be given credit for the current exclusion. Hence the honourable mention. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creature-successfully-eradicated-humans-from-its-habitat/835526/31 "2019-06-20T11:25:38Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > All I know is that the amazing snakes chasing an iguana clip shows one place I would not want to live within a hundred miles of. > > Warning: nightmare fuel. OTOH, David Attenborough. So it all evens out, right? > > [Link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3OjfK0t1XM). Ha ha! I totally expected a snake to jump in at the end though… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creature-successfully-eradicated-humans-from-its-habitat/835526.md?page=1)