When Evolution Glitches Out

2025-05-08

[public] 66.5K views, 14.6K likes, dislikes audio only

Learn how to help save birds in your community at https://birds.naturecanada.ca

Animals are prone to falling for “evolutionary traps”: modern human-made stuff that accidentally tricks them into maladaptive behavior.

LEARN MORE

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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:

- Evolutionary trap: a situation where an organism, due to a change in its environment (often human-induced), makes a decision that was once adaptive but now leads to a maladaptive outcome, even though better alternatives exist.

- Stimulus: a detectable change in an organism's internal or external environment that triggers a response.

- Supernormal stimulus: a stimulus that elicits a response more strongly than the natural stimulus for which it evolved.

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CREDITS

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Cameron Duke | Script Writer, Narrator and Director

Lizah van der Aart | Storyboard Artist

Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation

Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

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Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke

Arcadi Garcia i Rius • David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes

Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich

Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida

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REFERENCES

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Barrett, Deirdre. Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose. 22 Feb. 2010, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265122809_Supernormal_Stimuli_How_Primal_Urges_Overran_Their_Evolutionary_Purpose

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “Artificial Lighting and Sea Turtle Hatchling Behavior.” Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, 2020, https://myfwc.com/research/wildlife/sea-turtles/threats/artificial-lighting/

Gwynne, D. T., and D. C. F. Rentz. “BEETLES on the BOTTLE: MALE BUPRESTIDS MISTAKE STUBBIES for FEMALES (COLEOPTERA).” Australian Journal of Entomology, vol. 22, no. 1, Feb. 1983, pp. 79–80, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-6055.1983.tb01846.x

Hagman, Mattias, et al. “Fatal Attraction: Adaptations to Prey on Native Frogs Imperil Snakes after Invasion of Toxic Toads.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 276, no. 1668, 7 Aug. 2009, pp. 2813–2818, https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2009.0192

Loss, Scott R., et al. “Bird–Building Collisions in the United States: Estimates of Annual Mortality and Species Vulnerability.” The Condor, vol. 116, no. 1, Feb. 2014, pp. 8–23, https://doi.org/10.1650/condor-13-090.1

Robertson, Bruce A., et al. “Ecological Novelty and the Emergence of Evolutionary Traps.” Trends in Ecology & Evolution, vol. 28, no. 9, Sept. 2013, pp. 552–560, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2013.04.004

Wolchover, Natalie. “Why Beetles Have Sex with Beer Bottles: Q&a with Scientists.” Live Science, 30 Sept. 2011, https://www.livescience.com/16331-discoverers-beetle-beer-bottle-sex.html