The more voracious predator our planet has ever known eats more than a third of Earth’s vertebrates and has astounding ecological impacts.
New research shows that eating this animal leaves a footprint 1,300 times bigger than anything else we have a record of. However, only about half of the amount ingested comes from food.
That predator is, of course, us. Surprisingly, we don’t even fit into the classification of one Apex predator. Much of our exploitation is based on our mere whims.
“Cultural Phenomenon Drives Overexploitation of a Wild Species” explained Marine ecologist Boris Worm from Dalhousie University.
Worm found a stark example of this in Indonesia, where demand for wild owls skyrocketed after the magnificent winged predators took center stage Harry Potter Franchise.
“It triggered a wave of exploitation of wild owls to meet the surge in demand,” says Wurm, noticed that the same thing later happened with reef fish Find Nemo.
“Due to our fascination with these species, we sometimes love them more than anything.”
In addition to feeding the pet industry, the use of animals in medicines and other products has become so widespread that they pose a major threat to endangered species in many regions of the world. Regardless of the intended purpose, the removal of these animals from the wild has exactly the same impact as predation in an ecosystem.
Not only does it have a direct effect by removing individuals, but it also leads to behavioral changes in the remaining individuals – the ecology of fear. Predator avoidance creates behavioral, physiological, and cognitive stresses that can impact an animal’s survival and breeding success. So, increased predation causes these stressors to increase as well.
Furthermore, the removal of individuals is a process of “crop selection” that, much like natural selection, changes species traits over time. previous research shows that species hunted by humans exhibit some of the most abrupt trait changes ever observed in wild populations.
This can potentially alter key features that provide important functions that form the basis of entire ecosystems.
“The unnatural selection of animals by human predators could have a number of impacts on all ecosystems.” explained Ecologist Rob Cooke from the UK Center of Ecology and Hydrology. “By the possible loss of large seed distributors like the Helmeted Hornbill to megaherbivores like the black rhino, to migratory predators like great sharks.”
All of this contributes to the fact that we humans are now dominant driving force of evolution on earth.
“We’re an exceptional predator in that our prey range — the total number of species we hunt — is in the order of 15,000 in vertebrates alone, and we use many of them in unsustainable ways so much that that’s the case. “It threatens their survival” says Worm.
“A niche is a species’ ecological space—where it lives, what it feeds on, essentially the conditions it needs to survive. The point here is that humans use far, far more species than any other vertebrate — we have a super-sized niche and are the most influential predator in many ecosystems.
And that sober assessment doesn’t even take into account our historical exploitation of species or accidental losses through habitat destruction, invasive species, etc climate change.
While the new paper focuses on vertebrates, our exploitation extends to most walks of life. including spidersPlants and fungi supported by the dark web. With all of this unregulated animal movement, there is also a risk of exposure to humans new potential diseases.
But there are ways to change that. The researchers cite examples of site-based management systems that indigenous peoples have used to achieve sustainable harvests for millennia.
“The good news is that humanity is now realizing our destructive tendencies and there is a real attempt to use the best science available to fix things.” says Worm.
Our desire to admire and appreciate the curious, strange, and beautiful life on Earth should not compromise its right to exist.
This research was published in communication biology.
