Interactions with humans

 

Interactions with humans

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Dogs have been used in hunting for many millennia, as in this 14th century French depiction of a boar hunt.

Hunting

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Further information: Hunting

Humans hunted with apex predators in the form of wolves, and in turn with domestic dogs, for 40,000 years; this collaboration may have helped modern humans to outcompete the Neanderthals.^[37][38] Humans still hunt with dogs, which have often been bred as gun dogs to point to, flush out, or retrieve prey.^[39] The Portuguese Water Dog was used to drive fish into nets.^[40] Several breeds of dog have been used to chase large prey such as deer and wolves.^[41]

Eagles and falcons, which are apex predators, are used in falconry, hunting birds or mammals.^[42] Tethered cormorants, also top predators,^[43] have been used to catch fish.^[44]

Ecotourism

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Further information: Ecotourism

Tiger sharks are popular ecotourism subjects, but their ecosystems may be affected by the food provided to attract them.

Ecotourism sometimes relies on apex predators to attract business.^[45][46] Tour operators may in consequence decide to intervene in ecosystems, for example by providing food to attract predators to areas that can conveniently be visited.^[45] This in turn can have effects on predator population and therefore on the wider ecosystem.^[45] As a result, provisioning of species such as the tiger shark is controversial, but its effects are not well established by empirical evidence.^[45] Other affected apex predators include big cats and crocodiles.^[46]