Predator vs prey and humans3/29/2024 ![]() Worldwide, humans kill carnivores at an average annual pace nine times higher than the pace at which carnivores killed each other, the study's team found. Responsibility The last coal plant in New England is sputtering. On land, "humans are the only predators who turn large carnivores into prey," says Chris Darimont, an ecologist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and the lead author of a formal summary of the findings appearing in Friday's issue of the journal Science. It compares patterns in human hunting and fishing with those of nonhuman predators for similar adult prey. Past studies have focused on humans' direct or indirect roles in driving species extinct or pushing them to the brink of extinction. And if the adults are top-level predators in an ecosystem, their reduction or loss can shift the nature of the ecosystem. The persistent loss of adults in their reproductive prime can weak havoc on the survival prospects for an animal population, researchers say. As "super predators," humans also have a penchant for killing adult animals in higher proportions than their nonhuman prey do. Population growth increases demand and technologies have increasingly reduced the personal risk involved in hunting animals on land or in the water. ![]() ![]() Humans have assumed "super predator" status, note the researchers conducting the study. And it means fishing quotas that are more in line with what nonhuman predators consume. That means harvesting younger, smaller fish to leave more of their elders to continue maturing and reproducing. If humans hope to fish the oceans more sustainably, they are going to have to start fishing like fish, a new study suggests.
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