Bad news for the bold

Harvesting of animals by humans can result in selection of particular behavioural traits. A satellite telemetry study in the Canadian Rockies of elk whose individual personalities had been characterized as bold or shy indicated that human hunters are more likely to take out bold individuals, with the potential to evoke evolutionary change.

Many game species have been hunted by humans for centuries so human selection on prey is not new. However, modern hunters have high-powered rifles, and this favours different behaviours than when humans were hunting with spears. Monitoring >100 elk with satellite-telemetry in the Canadian Rockies, our research revealed two different personality traits in elk - “bold runners” and “shy hiders”. Elk that showed bolder behaviour were harvested compared to surviving elk that showed less conspicuous behaviour. Studies have focused on human selection of morphological traits. For the first time, we showed the role of human hunters in selecting personality traits.