All this gate and zoo issues.

shirley the last one alive wpuld open the doors?

also, are we talking instant-all-dead-in-a-split-second scenario, or a more gradual extinction?

the outcomes for whats left behind will be different

I was wondering how long it would take for any evidence of our existence to disappear, ten thousand years?

..all gone.

If a virus wiped out all the humans on earth…..

who would the phone scammers call?

If a virus wiped out all the humans on earth…..

who would the phone scammers call?
“Have you been a victim of species extinction? You may be liable to thousands of pounds in compensation”

You’d really want to substitute two of the words ‘all’ for ‘some’ there. I don’t think in either scenario Lichens or Japanese Knotweed would be particularly bothered.

Not many insects live in the sea, you know.

Jonas Salk doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

they’ve been bred to have such a thick fleece they’d probably struggle to get through the summers without being sheared annually

It falls off on its own easily enough. I’ve seen plenty of flocks going without shearing.

It’s an interesting point though. There are a lot of cows but afaik most of the bulls are locked up or separated, so might starve to death. Then again.. the bullocks probably aren’t. We might end up with grassland after all.

Woudl the cows steer clear of the woods though? If so, the woods might gradually creep out from their edges and reclaim the land – depleting the cows habitat. The British Isles woudl be interesting – most of the world has reservoirs of big predators that could break out and reclaim, but we don’t – there just aren’t any bears etc here at all. Maybe dogs would evolve back to wolf like status and do it that way.

Maybe dogs would evolve back to wolf like status and do it that way.

They’d be pretty much the dominant species, as previously said – until they’d eaten everything else, including the sheep.

Anyway, surely it’s all moot as we wouldn’t be able to make safe all of our nuclear powerstations, contained viruses etc, would we?

There are a lot of cows but afaik most of the bulls are locked up

Is this a serious comment?

I can assure you, when a bull wants out of a field.

It’ll get out.

Might have a few scratches but not much more than that.

Whilst I appreciate the paradox in the question (erasing your own existence), the question is more around whether Earth would be better without us.

No.
It would be different without us. ‘Better’ is a human concept, if we disappear so does the concept of better.

I was wondering how long it would take for any evidence of our existence to disappear, ten thousand years?

..all gone.

I saw a programme on TV many years ago that visualised a world without humans, I think they reckoned that the biggest of the world’s dams would last about 50,000 years.

After that, there’d be no evidence of our existence other than a layer of plastics and rubber in the sedimentary rocks.

Apart from Krispy Kreme donuts.

Which survive on geologic scales.

Woudl the cows steer clear of the woods though?

some would, some would adapt to use the woods.

There are plenty of large predatory cats in zoos dotted about the place, including some pretty sizeable prides of lions in some safari parks.