Reacción a "The decline of large scavengers could increase the risk of disease for humans"

The study is of high quality and is further endorsed by the very high quality of the journal in which it is published. In my opinion, in addition to its quality, the study has great potential. For years now, scavenging ecology has been a field that has been growing exponentially for two reasons: on the one hand, it had been neglected in the ‘classic’ overviews of ecology; on the other hand, these ecological functions are now threatened by the accelerated extinction of many species of scavengers, especially large vertebrates.

The study is actually a review, or re-examination, of previous studies and evidence that already pointed in the same direction as the one developed here. The value of this publication is that it provides a synthesis. Its significance lies in the fact that, as a top publication, it can give more visibility to the problem, especially if the conclusions are disseminated to the general public.

In my opinion, there are no major limitations to the study. Perhaps those inherent in any article that attempts to generalise. The strength and quality of the studies on which it is based vary, and this can undoubtedly lead to bias. However, I do not believe that this invalidates the main conclusions, which, as I said, were already part of the current discourse in the fields of ecology and conservation.