The Evolution Of Animals Is Affected By Humans Directly & Indirectly
Year: 2021
One of the most surprising scientific findings for us was that we impacted animal evolution through direct impact as well as indirectly. For example, poachers killed a lot of elephants with giant tusks during the Mozambican Civil War from 1977 to 1992. This meant we saw more females without huge tusks surviving to have babies. Before the war, 20% were tuskless, and now half the female population of elephants is tuskless. Indirectly, we have caused animal evolution changes due to man-made climate change. In the Amazon, for example, 77 species of birds now weigh less and have longer wings. This has been happening over 40 years due to even greater rates of rainfall in the rainforest.