Abstract Pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherer populations were fully integrated in natural systems, they played an ecological role as top predators affecting food web dynamics according to predator-prey models, through which they maintained and controlled prey species numbers. However, human abilities to adapt to changing environments and different habitats as well as their capacity to expand, allowed them to occupy new environments in a formidable short lapse of time, where potential preys were unable to defend themselves against such a powerful predator. Humans were the origin of megafauna extinction in the America continent and other regions. But it was since Neolithic times, at the end of the last glacial period, when a huge change took place as humans started to manage and change the local environment through incipient crop cultivation and animal breeding. The ecological role of humans changed dramatically because, as technological advances progressed, as well as their survival rate and the ability to withstand severe weather conditions, they became a powerful species with the ability to alter all the environments and the eventual capacity to destroy them, often unintentionally. Further, humans have moved and introduced alien species across the world, causing unexpected outcomes, some of them seriously deleterious for the host fauna and flora. Currently, humans are increasingly concerned about land degradation and global warming effects and see the necessity of undertaking habitat restoration and promoting the so-called rewilding processes, including the reintroduction of wild grazers and large predators to attempt restore original food webs. An ecologically-driven human hunting activity may help in this restoration process, occupying top predators’ empty niches and promoting rural development through the sustainable use of the hunting resource.

中文翻译：

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作为捕食者的人类猎人：食物网恢复情景下的新角色

摘要 新石器时代前的狩猎采集种群完全融入自然系统，根据捕食者-猎物模型，它们作为影响食物网动态的顶级捕食者发挥着生态作用，通过该模型维持和控制猎物物种数量。然而，人类适应不断变化的环境和不同栖息地的能力以及扩张的能力，使他们能够在极短的时间内占领新的环境，在那里潜在的猎物无法抵御如此强大的捕食者。人类是美洲大陆和其他地区巨型动物灭绝的起源。但从新石器时代开始，在末次冰期末期，当人类开始通过早期的作物种植和动物养殖来管理和改变当地环境时，发生了巨大的变化。人类的生态角色发生了巨大变化，因为随着技术进步，以及他们的生存率和抵御恶劣天气条件的能力，他们成为了一个强大的物种，有能力改变所有环境并最终有能力摧毁它们，经常是无意的。此外，人类在世界各地迁移和引入外来物种，造成了意想不到的后果，其中一些对宿主动植物群造成严重危害。当前，人类越来越关注土地退化和全球变暖的影响，并看到进行栖息地恢复和促进所谓的野化进程的必要性，包括重新引入野生食草动物和大型食肉动物，以尝试恢复原始食物网。生态驱动的人类狩猎活动可能有助于这一恢复过程，占领顶级掠食者的空位，并通过可持续利用狩猎资源促进农村发展。