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posted by martyb on Friday August 21 2015, @01:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the we-are-number-one dept.

An article in the LA Times discusses a publication in the journal Science (abstract) on why humans as predators have a much greater ecological impact than other predators.

From the LA Times article, it is because:

... humans have a very different, and problematic, hunting strategy from nature's other successful hunters. Humans tend to pick out adults rather than younger, smaller, weaker members of a species.

The article goes on to use an analogy:

Think of it from a business perspective, the researchers said. An adult female, for example, is like your capital; the young that she produces are the interest generated by that capital. If you kill an adult animal today, it will take years for another to grow up and take her place. But if you kill a young animal, it will (theoretically) take only until the next breeding season to produce another. In other words, it's better to use the up [sic] interest rather than to draw down the capital, because the capital is much more difficult to build back. Once it's gone, it's gone -- and so is the interest.

This has several consequences, including for the evolution of the prey species. For example, killing the biggest or strongest animals (as might be done with trophy hunting) potentially leads to smaller or weaker future generations.


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  • (Score: 2) by jdavidb on Friday August 21 2015, @02:02PM

    by jdavidb (5690) on Friday August 21 2015, @02:02PM (#225842) Homepage Journal

    Scientists Say Humans are an Unsustainable (Super)Predator

    Oh, well. I'm going to continue to focus on sustaining this human and a few select others. I assume most of the rest around me are going to do similarly, and that actually benefits me because most of them find it in their best interest to produce goods and services I might benefit from in order to sustain themselves, rather than just being hunter gatherers.

    --
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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday August 21 2015, @04:17PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday August 21 2015, @04:17PM (#225909)

    Kind of a good summary of the human race.
    You're the excessively successful sum of your converging selfishness, laying waste to everything else in your path.

    Would make me glad I'm a cat, but honestly I don't need your inferiority to be proud of my perfection.