| Title: | Is hunting nonintentionally selective? A test using game bird capture-dead recoveries |
| Author(s): | Grzegorczyk E; Bezier L; Le-Rest K; Caizergues A; Francesiaz C; Champagnon J; Guillemain M; Eraud C; |
| Address: | "Office Francais de la Biodiversite, Conservation et Gestion Durable des Especes Exploitees Villiers-en-Bois France. Institut francais de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer Nantes France. Office Francais de la Biodiversite, Conservation et Gestion Durable des Especes Exploitees Nantes France. Office Francais de la Biodiversite, Conservation et Gestion Durable des Especes Exploitees Juvignac France. Tour du Valat, Research Institute for Conservation of Mediterranean Wetlands Arles France. Office Francais de la Biodiversite, Conservation et Gestion Durable des Especes Exploitees Arles France. Office Francais de la Biodiversite, Conservation et Gestion des Especes a enjeux Villiers-en-Bois France" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2045-7758 (Print) 2045-7758 (Electronic) 2045-7758 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Selective hunting has various impacts that need to be considered for the conservation and management of harvested populations. The consequences of selective harvest have mostly been studied in trophy hunting and fishing, where selection of specific phenotypes is intentional. Recent studies, however, show that selection can also occur unintentionally. With at least 52 million birds harvested each year in Europe, it is particularly relevant to evaluate the selectivity of hunting on this taxon. Here, we considered 211,806 individuals belonging to 7 hunted bird species to study unintentional selectivity in harvest. Using linear mixed models, we compared morphological traits (mass, wing, and tarsus size) and body condition at the time of banding between birds that were subsequently recovered from hunting during the same year as their banding, and birds that were not recovered. We did not find any patterns showing systematic differences between recovery categories, among our model species, for the traits we studied. Moreover, when a difference existed between recovery categories, it was so small that its biological relevance can be challenged. Hunting of birds in Europe therefore does not show any form of strong selectivity on the morphological and physiological traits that we studied and should hence not lead to any change of these traits either by plastic or by evolutionary response" |
| Keywords: | evolution harvest hunting selectivity vulnerability wildlife management; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINEGrzegorczyk, Emilienne Bezier, Lea Le-Rest, Kevin Caizergues, Alain Francesiaz, Charlotte Champagnon, Jocelyn Guillemain, Matthieu Eraud, Cyril eng England 2022/10/04 Ecol Evol. 2022 Sep 20; 12(9):e9285. doi: 10.1002/ece3.9285. eCollection 2022 Sep" |
