Anyone see this article that was all over the news yesterday??? Another study for the enviros to use to try and stop or change our hunting heritage or is there good truth to this and we need to change our ways?????
Hunting and fishing can force rapid evolutionary changes to animal traits such as reproductive age or horn size, a study has shown.
Human predators are accelerating such changes at a rate 300% higher than the pace seen in the natural world, say researchers.
Scientists analysed the results of 34 studies that tracked 29 species in a 40 specific geographic systems. Most focused on fish populations, but some looked at invertebrates such as limpets and snails, as well as bighorn sheep, caribou and two plant species. The results showed fishermen and game hunters were causing the creatures they pursued to undergo rapid, dramatic change.
Target populations were on average 20% smaller than previous generations, and the age at which they started to reproduce was 25% earlier.
Some changes were thought to represent genetic traits passed on from one generation to the next.
In some fisheries, for example, natural selection favoured smaller fish that could pass through the mesh of nets.
Those smaller individuals were more likely to survive, reproduce and pass their "smallness" genes onto offspring. In other cases, shifts to earlier reproduction could occur because of an abundance of food being shared by a smaller surviving population.
Ironically, some wildlife and fish management policies were contributing to the effects of human predation, said the researchers, whose findings are reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Lead author Dr Chris Darimont, from the University of California at Santa Cruz, said: "Fishing regulations often prescribe the taking of larger fish, and the same often applies to hunting regulations. Hunters are instructed not to take smaller animals or those with smaller horns. This is counter to patterns of natural predation, and now we're seeing the consequences of this management."
In Alberta, Canada, hunters permitted to target the largest specimens of bighorn sheep had caused average horn length and body mass to drop by about 20% in the last 30 years, he said.
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/hunting+forces+rapid+change/2902367
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090112201123.htm