Ecological Effects of No Gladiatorial Combat

If gladiatorial combat never caught on with the Romans, which animal species might have survived? European or Barbary lions? North African elephants? Other animals that I don't remember right now? Or would this change merely delay their extinction until the Mediterranean region becomes more developed?

I did a search on this topic, and there don't seem to be many posts on this topic.
 
If the fights were in fact the primary clause then yes I think most of the sub species would survive. However their ranges would be very limited. Though now that I think about it Cheetahs where driven to extinction in Asia without any fights. Most of that was in the 20th century so maybe there could still be pockets of Mediterranean megafauna.
 
Atlas bears, Barbary lions, both North African elephants AND Syrian elephants, European lion. A few of these were already highly endangered by Roman times, and it was gladiatorial games which finished them off. And I wonder if the butterflies resulting from no gladiatorial games might keep Atlas bears and Barbary lions around into the 21st century.

The elephants are pretty interesting too, which might keep armies in those regions using war elephants into the Middle Ages when they'll probably go extinct anyway, since again, they were already endangered at that point.
 

jahenders

Banned
Atlas bears, Barbary lions, both North African elephants AND Syrian elephants, European lion. A few of these were already highly endangered by Roman times, and it was gladiatorial games which finished them off. And I wonder if the butterflies resulting from no gladiatorial games might keep Atlas bears and Barbary lions around into the 21st century.

While deaths in games certainly didn't help, I don't think that we can truly know whether it was the games that actually "finished them off" -- helped to, yes; finished, unknowable.
 
While deaths in games certainly didn't help, I don't think that we can truly know whether it was the games that actually "finished them off" -- helped to, yes; finished, unknowable.

Atlas bear and Barbary lion is debateble as to what effects the gladiatorial games had on them (it couldn't have been good, but they survived long after), but it's pretty telling that it wasn't long after the Roman conquest of North Africa and the Near East that both the Syrian and North African elephant were noted as being extinct. It seems like both were pretty rare beforehand, so it seems like a bit extra population pressure would've tipped them over the edge. Same with European lions.

Could ATL find a use for elephants in agriculture, that means that they will be bred and kept alive?

Wouldn't they have already used the elephants for that? Both Syrian and North African elephants were used as war elephants, after all. I'd assume if the Persians, Assyrians, Seleucids, Carthage, Numidians, etc. didn't use them for that, there's no reason the Romans would either, especially when by the time the Romans are there they're definitely both endangered species.
 
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