Lecture 8: Overexploitation

Question 1

Overexploitation

Answer 1

occurs when the harvest rate of any given population exceeds its natural replacement rate.

Question 2

Pleistocene Overkill Hypothesis

Answer 2

the hypothesis that human expansions in the Pleistocene epoch (13,000 to 8,000 BCE) resulted in overhunting of many species of large, charismatic animals.

Question 3

American/European Overexploitation

Answer 3

• Slaughter of American Bison (fur trade, improved hunting with guns, government policy of killing to reduce food source for Native Americans)
• Passenger Pigeon hunted to extinction (for meat)
• Forest loss of timber

Question 4

Modern Overexploitation

Answer 4

• Hunting/Poaching
• Timber
• Fishing
• Grazing

Question 5

Poaching

Answer 5

illegal hunting, mostly for animal parts

Question 6

Case Study: Primate Hunting in the Peruvian Amazon

Answer 6

Hunter Preference
-Spider Monkey
-Red Howler Monkey
-Brown Capuchin
Decline of Dominant Spider Monkeys led to increases of smaller monkeys.

Question 7

Density Composition

Answer 7

increased abundance of one or several species in response to decreased abundance of another.
This can occur in response to the overexploitation of large-bodied animals, after which smaller-bodied animals may increase in abundance.

Question 8

Defaunation

Answer 8

the selective loss of animals from an ecosystem