They don’t have to be threatening, just big, and a good source of meat. Plenty of docile megafauna went extinct in places just as soon as humans arrived.
They don’t even have to be known to humans, we destroy entire ecosystems without knowing the species, thousands of species wiped out for human convenience & resources (eg draining wetlands, or even greenhouse gases global climate change).
They don’t have to be threatening, just big, and a good source of meat. Plenty of docile megafauna went extinct in places just as soon as humans arrived.
They don’t even have to be known to humans, we destroy entire ecosystems without knowing the species, thousands of species wiped out for human convenience & resources (eg draining wetlands, or even greenhouse gases global climate change).