Are Humans have become super predators?

The study, published in the journal Science brings new understanding about the extinction of wildlife, shrinking the size of the fish, and the chaos of the global food chain. The team, led by Dr Chris Darimont, the Hakai-Raincoast professor of geography at the University of Victoria comparing the predation pattern of hunters and fishermen today with other predators that compete for prey such as land mammals and marine fish.

A coastal wolf is hunting salmon in British Columbia, Canada. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/1PvOww5)

In an article entitled "The unique ecology of human predators", published in the journal Science, on Friday, August 21, 2015, the researchers said they examined variations in the annual exploitation rate is limited to species of fish from each ocean and terrestrial mammals from every continent except Antarctica by type of predator (human versus non-human) as well as at the level of ecosystems (marine versus terrestrial), and tropical.

Global survey results show that humans kill their prey which is the capital of reproductive adult population at a median rate of 14 times higher than other predators with intense exploitation on terrestrial carnivores and fish.

With dominance as competitive as it and its influence on predators and prey on other unique behaviors, the researchers indicate that humans serve as a "super predators" unsustainable, that unless there is an additional limitation of the manager will continue to change the global ecological and evolutionary processes.

"The technology kills our efficient and evil, the global economic system and resource management that prioritize short-term benefit to humanity has raised human super predators," said Darimont, who is also director of science of Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

"The impact of our behavior and our extreme planetary dominance savagery burden us," he said in a public broadcast of the University of Victoria on EurekAlert!

According to the researchers, humans have diverged from other predators in nature in terms of behavior and influence.

"While primarily targeting young predators or 'reproduction rate' population, man down 'capital reproduction' by exploiting an adult prey," said another study author, Dr. Tom Reimchen, professor of biology at the University of Victoria.

Geographic expansion, exploitation naive prey, killing technology, symbiosis with dogs and rapid population growth are among the factors that have long been a big impact, including the widespread extinction and restructuring of food webs and ecosystems on land and sea.

Although there is the contribution of the paradigm "sustainable exploitation", people today can cause a decrease in prey quickly, degrades ecosystems, and to uncover the evolutionary changes in prey according to study results Darimont team.

"This is the result of an extreme that is rarely posed predator is not human," they said.

They urged reconsideration of the concept of "sustainable exploitation" in the management of wildlife and fisheries.

Real sustainable model, in their opinion, would mean developing a culture change, economic, and institutional placing limits on human activities more closely follow the behavior of natural predators. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | EUREKALERT!]

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