Sustainable use can affect behavioral ecological and evolutionary processes in vertebrates: Crocodilians as models

Abstract

When formal and traditional management of wildlife involves harvesting, the issueof biological sustainability is mostly focused on the degree to which removing agiven number of individuals is likely to compromise population size or the poten-tial to harvest in the future. The harvest alters the balance of population dynamics(i.e. rates of reproduction, mortality, immigration, emigration), the compensatoryprocesses that result, and the types of management interventions needed to achievesustainability. However, hunting by people over long periods of time has affectedthe behavioral ecology and evolutionary processes of many harvested species andmay continue to do so in the future. Thus, genetic impacts of past hunting andapproaches to current management may mitigate future selective pressures fromhunting, but they are rarely considered. These possibilities are discussed here, espe-cially with crocodilians, where various types of harvest and sustainable manage-ment occur.