Wildfact Library

[Sully]

A pattern seems to be clear with extinctions as someone else pointed out, original colonists (whether that be native Americans, aboriginals etc) wipe out the majority of the megafauna, and the second European wave of colonists do a substantial amount of damage to what's left. In short, human colonisation of any kind is bad for fauna. 

Large-scale reptile extinctions following European colonization of the Guadeloupe Islands

Abstract

Large-scale extinction is one of the defining challenges of our time, as human processes fundamentally and irreversibly reshape global ecosystems. While the extinction of large animals with popular appeal garners widespread public and research interest, the importance of smaller, less “charismatic” species to ecosystem health is increasingly recognized. Benefitting from systematically collected fossil and archaeological archives, we examined snake and lizard extinctions in the Guadeloupe Islands of the Caribbean. Study of 43,000 bone remains across six islands revealed a massive extinction of 50 to 70% of Guadeloupe’s snakes and lizards following European colonization. In contrast, earlier Indigenous populations coexisted with snakes and lizards for thousands of years without affecting their diversity. Study of archaeological remains provides insights into the causes of snake and lizard extinctions and shows that failure to consider fossil-derived data probably contributes to substantial underestimation of human impacts to global biodiversity. Reply