Wild-Harvested Plants and Animals are Smaller Than They Used to Be
A new study found that plants and animals being harvested aggressively around the world from the wild, rather than from farms, are changing more than two and a half times faster than would be expected under natural conditions. Intense food-gathering practices have substantially changed the size and breeding schedule of at least 29 species in as few as 20 years.
Unlike wild predators, which target the smallest, weakest members of a group, humans tend to select the biggest for meals or trophies. As a result plants and animals harvested from the wild are now about 20 percent smaller than they were a few decades ago.
These animals are also reproducing at younger and younger ages, because mature individuals are more likely to be caught. When animals reproduce earlier, they often have fewer offspring, which means there will be an even smaller population in the future.
