How the ecosystem would be affected if cows go extinct?
In: Biology
Probably positively. Cows are a domesticated version of an animal called the aurochs that went extinct. So there are no wild/natural cows anymore, only human-farmed ones. While smaller farms might not have a huge impact on their environments, the massssive volume of cattle farming results in negative externalities, such as, the huge amount of concentrated poop from many more animals crammed together than would ever occur in nature is enough to poison waterways, the huge number of cows are emitting greenhouse gasses, and we humans have also destroyed environments to farm plants to feed to the cows, a process which also has involved diverting huge amounts of water from natural waterways. And cattle take longer and more resources to grow than other farm animals/protein sources.
So, I think if cows went extinct, natural ecosystems wouldn’t be directly affected but might enjoy a little less pollution from large scale farms, so it would be positive for them.
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