Artificial selection in human-wildlife feeding interactions

The artificial selection of traits in wildlife populations through hunting and fishing has been well documented. However, despite their rising popularity, the role that artificial selection may play in non-extractive wildlife activities, e.g., recreational feeding activities, remains unknown. If only a subset of a population takes advantage of human-wildlife feeding interactions, and if this results in different fitness advantages for these individuals, then artificial selection may be at work. We have tested this hypothesis using a wild fallow deer population living at the edge of a capital city as our model population. In contrast to previous assumptions on the randomness of human-wildlife feeding interactions, we found that a limited non-random portion of an entire population is continuously engaging with people. We found that the willingness to beg for food from humans exists on a continuum of inter-individual repeatable behaviour; which ranges from risk-taking individuals repeatedl...通过狩猎与捕捞对野生动物种群的性状进行人工选择，这一现象已有充分的文献记载。然而，尽管非消耗性野生动物活动（如休闲投喂活动）的普及度日益提升，人工选择在这类活动中可能发挥的作用仍未明确。若种群中仅有部分个体能够利用人-野生动物投喂互动行为，且该行为会为这些个体带来差异化的适合度（fitness）优势，那么人工选择或已在发挥作用。我们以栖息于首都城市周边的野生黇鹿（fallow deer）种群作为模式种群，对这一假说进行了验证。与此前关于人-野生动物投喂互动具有随机性的假设相悖，我们发现整个种群中仅有有限的非随机亚群会持续与人类互动。我们发现，向人类乞食的意愿存在于个体间可重复的行为连续谱中，其范围涵盖了反复进行风险行为的个体……