Human biomass movement exceeds the biomass movement of all land animals combined

Abstract

Earth is teeming with life on the move, shaping ecosystems and human civilizations alike. However, the magnitude of movement by humans and other animals has yet to be assessed holistically. Here we quantify the movement of biomass across all animal life and in comparison to humanity. We show that the combined biomass movement of all wild birds, land arthropods and wild land mammals is about one-sixth that of humans walking and about 40 times smaller than all the biomass movement of humans. The biomass movement of marine animals, which we find to be the living world’s largest, has been halved since 1850 due to industrial fishing and whaling, while human biomass movement has increased by about 40-fold. This study gives a quantitative perspective on global mobility in the Anthropocene and sharpens our perception regarding the extent of human versus animal activity.