Super Predator Man

When it comes to the question of the latest mass extinction of animal, bird and fish species, then it is often blamed, in part at least, on the phenomenon of global warming, to which humanity has made a significant contribution. There is also, however, the question of predators, which  have roamed the planet for 500 million years.

From the earliest  – thought some simple marine organism that feasted on ancient trilobites, through the infamous Tyrannosaurus Rex to sabre toothed cats or modern wolves – none was more deadly than the species which appeared around two hundred thousand years ago, in the shape of humanity

Having no sharp claws, grasping tentacles or poison glands, we should have been prey ourselves, but our intelligence, and ability to make both tools and weapons we became ever better hunters, harvesting animals on a massive scale, to the extent of wiping out creatures like the Dodo, almost all of the great herds of North American bison, the vast majority of the great whale populations and far more.

Modern  crashes in cod numbers, for example, are down to world fishing fleets routinely taking too many fish, meaning that some fish species are on the verge of extinction. So bad is our behaviour toward the animal world that in the USA, people kill more large mammals than any other cause of animal fatalities.

Oddly enough, the rules governing predator/prey evolution seem not to apply to us, because animals  appear not  to have evolved, in all that time defences against  the human hunter, but the reasons are unclear. It could be that not enough evolutionary time has passed to allow such developments, but the basic premise has to be that the animal inability to reason makes them extra vulnerable to the human suoer predator.  Which raises the question why?

Prey animals have always, over evolutionary time, evolved certain types of defence against predation, such as growing big, making it very difficult for predators, even those hunting in packs, to attack without risking injury  to themselves. This is why large terrestrial herbivores weight up to ten times more than the biggest predators, the reason why lions avoid elephants, wolves moose and killer whales adult whales of other species.

There is no doubt that the spread of modern humans has been, in evolutionary terms, one of the great ecological transformations since life first began on earth. Though we started off hunting and gathering on land, we were soon at the ocean edge, taking shellfish and fish,  important food sources for prehistoric human populations.

It was the very evolutionary adaptations in those large animals that attracted human hunters, for whom the huge sizes of mammals made them juicy targets for humans, as they provided an abundance of fresh meat, etc. Even defensive adaptations such as tusks and claws became valued for various reasons, so the animals had no answer to our hunting of them.

It may be that, in evolutionary terms, prey animals would be better served by developing toxins within their tissues that put humans off, though many highly toxic creatures are already harvested, humans knowing how to get round the poison dangers. It seems, truth be told, that it is the way in which humanity predates other species which renders them helpless against us.

Evolution in animals, even over short time scales, can mean that they do respond to selective pressures, many species having responded to humans by becoming being super-predators themselves. For example, as 20th century Cod numbers crashed, an abundance of shrimp, lobster and crabs took their place, in turn feeding on marine snails, which then have evolved thicker shells to protect themselves.

The sad fact is that, in evolutionary terms, humanity leaves all prey with nowhere to hide, because they can neither defend themselves or respond to our intelligent predation of them. Of a 4.5billion year history of the planet, the past 200,000 years – an evolutionary blip – have seen a cataclysmic shift for species on this planet, and the dire implications are barely understood, but unless we change our ways drastically, and soon, we could see animal and marine life disappearing forever, and know that we are to blame.