Are humans as a super-predator impacting the evolution of species that they harvest and hunt?

At a guess you might say obviously.

Recently 34 studies that have tracked 29 species across 40 different geographic systems seem to show that these populations which are harvested and hunted by humans are on average 20% smaller in body size than previous generations and rep

Chris Darimont claims we are impacting these populations evolution while other scientists say the changes of these animal populations is phenotypic. Phenotypic variation (due to underlying heritable genetic variation) is a fundamental prerequisite for evolution by natural selection. In other words genetic expression is affected by environment. Such a small period of time would mean selective breeding by default would be a more appropriate description at this stage.

Trophy hunting - the practice of selecting only the largest beasts to kill -”has caused a decline in the average size of Kodiak Bears [in Alaska] over the years.” according to Douglas Chadwick in the National Geographic magazine.

Natural selection in the past has meant only the biggest and strongest of a species survives to express their genes by breeding.

Other predators such as Lions target the weakest in the herd as an easy kill in contrast to the current pattern of human harvesting and hunting. Hence the conjecture on our super-predator consuming patterns impacting on animal evolution.

Destruction of habitats, pollution of ground waters and, the destruction of biodiversity are probably the greatest environmental problems caused by humans in the 21st century.

This female snow leopard with her cub was photographed recently at the zoological park in Darjeeling.

Snow Leopards furs are sold in Afghanistan markets. Their natural habitat is central and south Asia.

These photo’s of Snow Leopards here were taken at a zoo in Switzerland.

Here’s a Chihuahua puppy with a baby Squirrel.

The Chihuahua’s mother is raising the three orphaned squirrels with her own two puppies.