When Evolution Glitches Out

Published on 8 May 2025, 19:09

Learn how to help save birds in your community at 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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REFERENCES
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Barrett, Deirdre. Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose. 22 Feb. 2010, researchgate.net/publication/2...

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “Artificial Lighting and Sea Turtle Hatchling Behavior.” Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, 2020, myfwc.com/research/wildlife/se...

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, doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-6055.19...

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, 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, doi.org/10.1650/condor-13-090....

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, doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2013.04...

Wolchover, Natalie. “Why Beetles Have Sex with Beer Bottles: Q&a with Scientists.” Live Science, 30 Sept. 2011, livescience.com/16331-discover...