Humans are unsustainable super-predators

Our behaviour is unique — and uniquely harmful — compared to other animals

BY RANDY SHORE, VANCOUVER SUN AUGUST 20, 2015

Humans have emerged as a unique class of “super-predators,” exploiting other animals in ways seldom seen in the natural world, according to a new report by researchers at the University of Victoria.

And the combination of “wickedly efficient killing technology” and short-sighted resource management is particularly bad news for nearly every species on Earth, said lead author Chris Darimont, Hakai-Raincoast conservation scholar at UVic.

In short, we don’t hunt like other hunters, we don’t consume like other animals and we tend to kill at rates many times higher than other top predators.

A number of events in our development as a species have changed our place in the animal kingdom, said Darimont, who is also science director for the Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

The development of projectile weapons vastly reduced the risk associated with hunting, allowing us to kill from a relatively safe distance…

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