The unique ecology of human predators | Hacker News Reader

The unique ecology of human predators

sciencemag.org

40 pointsnoondip7 comments

So, "too small, throw it back" may be wrong...

Paper mentions fisher preference for larger prey ("ornamental"); I think another factor, not mentioned, may be our innate protectiveness towards juveniles (children, babies).

Implied but not mentioned is that the evolutionary pressure of predation on juveniles should act more quickly than on adults (because more time needs to have passed to reach adulthood; slower iteration).

Hmmm, I haven't read the whole study but in the beginning it says "We focus on adult prey because hunters and fishers overwhelmingly target adults (18)." I mostly speak about my family's patterns, inculcated by my father, but we practice "too small, throw it back" or for hunting where you can see the target first don't shoot it. If for no other reason than there's diminishing gains from dressing smaller and smaller fish or game. Not to mention the law.

Protectiveness towards juveniles ... eh, fish aren't "cute". But we certainly think goslings, kits and fawns are, not that we hunt any of these when mature (deer taste awful, my mother put her foot down a very long time ago and my father switched to much more tasty elk and moose).

I dont like 'predator' connection. We have quotas, planning, protection areas... It is basically farming and agriculture.

Very insightful.

Animal ag is environmentally devastating.

Given this competitive dominance, impacts on predators, and other unique predatory behavior, we suggest that humans function as an unsustainable “super predator,” which—unless additionally constrained by managers—will continue to alter ecological and evolutionary processes globally.

I am a super predator.

But seriously, are there possibly any other species impacts the planet as much as we do?

A variety of bacterial species have had enormous impacts on Earth. To name just one, cyanobacteria are responsible for the current multiplicity of oxygen breathing life on the planet. Their production of oxygen directly lead to one of the greatest extinction events in Earth's history. Here is a wiki link on the Great Oxygenation Event: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxygenation_Event

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