A wide range of species are evolving three times as fast as they otherwise would to escape human hunters – potentially damaging ecosystems (Image: Allover Norway/Rex)

FISHING and hunting by humans may drive evolution in a way unlike anything else on Earth, and the rapid changes triggered in wild species risks severe damage to ecosytems.

Chris Darimont, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and his team, reviewed 34 studies that measured how fast traits such as body size and growth rate had changed in 29 species that people harvest for food.

The average rate of change …