Quote:
Originally Posted by marc26
what is the difference between killing big game and a deer?
you are still killing an animal for fun
absolutely ridiculous if you ask me
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A fair whack of difference really.
Big game, generally speaking, have longer generation times i.e. reproduce less often and/or less successfully than vermin, such as deer in US and Kangaroos in AUS, and/or produce very few offspring at each reproduction event.
The other major difference that we are seeing the effects of now, is that big game hunters obviously pay good money for a hunt, therefore go out there looking for the biggest, or most attractive game out there - the species that springs to mind is the big-horned sheep. It has been some time since I had read about this - but I'll try my best - and this is a very simplified version of the whole story.
Hunters have been targeting this species for some time now
(before 1900), soughting out the rams with the largest horns (I.e. most turns). The species was listed as threatened several times now, but recent conservation has taken care of that. Anyhow, researchers have now revealed that the average size and amount of turns in the horns of the rams are significantly less now, than they were when research began. After looking at all the immediate environmental impacts that influence the species, they deduced that hunting, was the sole selective pressure that brought upon this change in horn size.
In laymans terms - the hunters were taking the biggest horns out of the populations, therefore taking those genes associated with the biggest horns out of the population, since they are no longer in reproduction. The big horn sheep with the smallest horns are selected against, and therefore left to do all the reproducing. So we see a gradual (or swift in this case) change in the gene flow which ultimately leads to a change in physical traits in populations of the species - i.e. microevolution.
A great example of Darwin's theory folding right in front of our eyes - luckily there are management practices now in place.
Randomly plucking deer or kangaroo out of a large population won't do alot to disturb the gene flow, however, if you start selecting for the biggest deer or roo each hunt, then you will start to do some damage, but unlikely since these populations are phenomenally huge.
Thats where big game hunting is different - they are SELECTING for a particular trait.
I'm glad we are on the same boat though Marc .... 5555