Roshan Kamath (रौशन् कामत्)Oct 31
Corey S Powell

Fascinating graph shows the estimated total mass of all the mammals living on Earth.

In 1850, it was evenly divided between wildlife and humans + domesticated animals. Today, humans and their livestock account for about 95% of the total.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63888-z #science #nature #animals

Oct 30 at 2:00pmWeb
Show threadJorge CandeiasOct 30
@coreyspowell Livestock and pets, really, although the vast majority of that biomass should indeed be livestock.
Show threadCorey S PowellOct 30

@jorgecandeias

Good point. I wasn't thinking about pets. I wonder what fraction they are -- probably small but not negligible.

Show threadCorey S PowellOct 30

@jorgecandeias

Hold on, the answer is in the paper!

For all house pets & human-associated rodents, "Their combined biomass increased from an estimated ≈5 Mt in 1850 to ≈20 Mt in 2020". So about 2 percent of the total human/domesticated biomass, including rats and mice.

Show threadJorge CandeiasOct 30
@coreyspowell Ah. Cool.
Show threadJorge CandeiasOct 30
@coreyspowell I couldn't even guesstimate, but I would agree. In sheer numbers, pets would probably be more abundant than livestock, but as they're typically smaller animals (there aren't that many pet elephants out there, after all) their mass wouldn't contribute much to the total, I suppose.
Show threadmrflash818Oct 30
@coreyspowell ...Soylent Green will be people, it seems. #soylentgreen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green
Soylent Green - Wikipedia

Show threadHarry PercivalOct 30
@coreyspowell i knew about the huge growth in % of animals being domesticated, but i thought it was more at the expense of wild ones, rather than an addition to the total. TIL.