Dwarf hippos and elephants in Cyprus ‘driven to extinction by just 3,000 people’

The Mediterranean nation was once home to the 500kg dwarf elephant and the 130kg dwarf hippo but both disappeared within a century after hunter-gatherers arrived, researchers said

An artist’s impression of a dwarf hippo (Corey Bradshaw/Flinders University)

A small population of just 3,000 people may have caused dwarf hippos and dwarf elephants in the island of Cyprus to become extinct some 14,000 years ago, scientists believe.

The Mediterranean nation was once home to the 500kg dwarf elephant (Palaeoloxodon cypriotes) and the 130kg dwarf hippo (Phanourios minor) but both disappeared within a century after hunter-gatherers arrived, researchers said.