Is hunting nonintentionally selective? A test using game bird capture-dead recoveries.

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 fr

SUBMITTER: Grzegorczyk E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9486496 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature