no damnatio ad bestias

Inspired by frustrated progressive´s post in another thread :

What if the Romans do not practiced the damnatio ad bestias and instead concentrate on human matches ? Of course, as some users argued- it was not the only course of extinction in case of all of these mammals. But allegedly, it contributed heavely ( validated numbers needed).
Here is a example list of animals I can think of , even im not sure they all were imported into the arenas : Barbary Lion, Atlas Bear, Syrian Elephant, North African Elephant, Aurochs (how did they caught them in the first place ?), Caucasus Tigers, Arabian Ostrichs, British bears, etc.
 
Inspired by frustrated progressive´s post in another thread

Mmm...I'm not sure venatii had been really responsible of such extinctions.

A lot of these existed after Romans (unless arguing of the existence of Time Travelling Venatio organisers with firearms :D) and in spite of a really extensive utilisation (that certainly didn't helped to make them particularily flourishing, especially the bear in Britain), you had enough time between Roman antiquity and the period of their extinction that venatio can be put aside as the cause, direct or indirect, of their disappearance.

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Barbary Lion : disappeared in the XXth century due to firearm hunting

Atlas Bear : disappeared in the XIXth century due to firearm hunting

Syrian Elephant : probably an imported Asian elephant (from Indian elephants send to Selucids kings).
North African Elephant : probably a regular African Elephant. No traces of a particular subspecy.

Both breeds went in decline due to the absence of military use. What remained of local breeds may have finished in arenas, but irrelevance was probably what killed them eventually.

Aurochs : disappeared in the XVIIIth. They were never really that many in Europe, and hunts had them.

Caucasus Tigers : most probably a Caspian Tiger

Arabian Ostrichs : disappeared in the mid-XXth century due to massive firearm hunting.

British Bears : disappeared on the Xth century. They were never really many in Britain, and medieval hunting may have achieved them. Probably the European Bear, not a sup-specy.
 

God damn... it's really deppressing how many species that we nowadays consider somewhat "exotic" (bears in Britain, lions in North Africa, etc.) that were native in ancient times and went completely extinct by hostile human activity...

I don't mean to start some envinronmental discussion, but that serves as a testament of the most lucid and dedicated efforts of some groups today to preserve endangered species.

Anyways, on-topic, I've read somewhere that Roman and later Arab exploitation in North Africa and the Levant gradually affected the natural conditions that allowed the development of native fauna, probably combined with climate changes experienced along the centuries, would have indirectly caused the reduction of native animal populations (mainly lions and elephants). That means that their eventual reduction can't be (at least not solely) attributed to the Romans' hunting vices.
 
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