2023-09-13 · 100% of mammal biomass
Wild mammals are a rounding error
Weigh every mammal on Earth. Livestock take most of the mass. Humans take most of the rest. Everything that still lives wild — whales, deer, rats, bats — shares the last sliver.
1 cell = 1.1 million tonnes of wet mammal biomass (0.1% of mammal biomass) · 1,000 cells
Context
Weigh every mammal on Earth. Livestock take most of the mass. Humans take most of the rest. Everything that still lives wild — whales, deer, rats, bats — shares the last sliver.
Greenspoon et al. 2023 (PNAS): livestock ≈630 million tonnes, humans ≈390 million tonnes, wild mammals ≈60 million tonnes (about 20 land + 40 marine). Shares rounded onto 1,000 equal cells. This grid is mass, not headcount — one blue square is the same tonnes as one orange square.
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