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      Undesirable evolutionary consequences of trophy hunting.

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          Abstract

          Phenotype-based selective harvests, including trophy hunting, can have important implications for sustainable wildlife management if they target heritable traits. Here we show that in an evolutionary response to sport hunting of bighorn trophy rams (Ovis canadensis) body weight and horn size have declined significantly over time. We used quantitative genetic analyses, based on a partly genetically reconstructed pedigree from a 30-year study of a wild population in which trophy hunting targeted rams with rapidly growing horns, to explore the evolutionary response to hunter selection on ram weight and horn size. Both traits were highly heritable, and trophy-harvested rams were of significantly higher genetic 'breeding value' for weight and horn size than rams that were not harvested. Rams of high breeding value were also shot at an early age, and thus did not achieve high reproductive success. Declines in mean breeding values for weight and horn size therefore occurred in response to unrestricted trophy hunting, resulting in the production of smaller-horned, lighter rams, and fewer trophies.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          Nature
          Nature
          Springer Science and Business Media LLC
          1476-4687
          0028-0836
          Dec 11 2003
          : 426
          : 6967
          Affiliations
          [1 ] Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK. d.coltman@sheffield.ac.uk
          Article
          nature02177
          10.1038/nature02177
          14668862
          186855c8-ad3c-49f5-8b0f-10051d09fd00
          History

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