Human hunters-still poorly understood-likely cannot mimic the roles of disappearing top predators

Research Highlight: Geng, Y., Mammides, C., He, R.-C., Wang, L., Luo, K., Zhang, Z.-Y., Wang, B., & Quan, R.-C. (2026). Human hunters are no substitute for vanishing apex predators. Journal of Animal Ecology, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70306. As large carnivores decline and humans rise to become the planet's most influential predator, scant consideration has been given to the functional roles of hunters (and fishers) in ecological communities. In novel, landscape-scale work, Geng et al. (2026) ask whether hunters can serve similar roles as the predators they are replacing. Camera-trap records from 400 sites characterized as apex predator-dominated, hunter-dominated and predator-absent were analysed across multiple ecological measures. Apex predator-dominated sites hosted ~30% more species and nearly 50% greater abundances of mammals. Network measures of prey populations were most robust at apex predator sites and weakest at hunter-dominated sites. Finally, prey showed up to 2.6 times longer avoidance times following hunter presence. These striking patterns suggest that hunters do not replicate the ecological influence of the area's vanishing predators. Work like this can benefit from much more data about human predators. Specifically, ecologists can confront in careful ways the conceptual, methodological and ethical constraints of studying our own species as predators. Outcomes could include greater knowledge about the ecological influence of the planet's 'super predator', the underlying mechanisms, and related insight to apply to mitigation.