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Making a new dog?

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journal contribution
posted on 2017-04-01, 00:00 authored by Thomas Newsome, P J S Fleming, C R Dickman, Tim DohertyTim Doherty, W J Ripple, Euan RitchieEuan Ritchie, A J Wirsing
We are in the middle of a period of rapid and substantial environmental change. One impact of this upheaval is increasing contact between humans and other animals, including wildlife that take advantage of anthropogenic foods. As a result of increased interaction, the evolution and function of many species may be altered through time via processes including domestication and hybridization, potentially leading to speciation events. We discuss the ecological and management importance of such possibilities, using gray wolves and other large carnivores as case studies. We identify five main ways that carnivores might be affected: Changes to social structures, behavior and movement patterns, changes in survivorship across wild- to human-dominated environments, evolutionary divergence, and potential speciation. As the human population continues to grow and urban areas expand while some large carnivore species reoccupy parts of their former distributions, there will be important implications for human welfare and conservation policy.

History

Journal

BioScience

Volume

67

Issue

4

Pagination

374 - 381

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Location

Oxford, Eng.

ISSN

0006-3568

eISSN

1525-3244

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article; C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2017, The Authors