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overhunting

overhunting

1 4.2
Hunting animals too much so their numbers fall and may die out
  • noun
  • /ˌoʊvərˈhʌntɪŋ/
translation icon : sobreexplotación
  • By 1915, however, their numbers had dropped to about 1,500 from overhunting and habitat loss.
  • overhunting and habitat loss
  • habitat destruction and overhunting

Examples

  • Hand in hand with the intensifying slave trade, Chap and Sibel say, went the overhunting of the elephant, which may also have contributed to the depopulation of the area.

    Academic text (2005)
  • Chemical dependency also sparked massive overhunting of deer populations in the Choctaw Nation.

    Academic text (1999)
  • Most died as a result of disease and starvation due to overhunting and the end of a way of life.

    Blog text (18)
  • After comparing hundreds of modeled scenarios with the archaeological record, he concluded that an increase in human population led to the overhunting of deer and a reduced supply.

    Blog text (3)
  • Through habitat destruction, overhunting, overfishing, and pollution, we have driven tens of thousands of our relations to the threshold of oblivion.

    Academic text (1998)
  • "Forty-five years later, Tenskwatawa knew that the Indians' gross overhunting of game for the peltry trade had led to a decline in deer stocks."

    Academic text (1992)
  • The expansion of grazing areas and human overhunting of the tigers' wild prey may lead tigers to attack livestock, which villagers then defend by killing tigers.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Human overhunting, climate change, emerging infectious diseases, and an extraterrestrial impactor have all been blamed for these losses, but the causal mechanism behind the period helps us to keep this a safe and supportive place for writers of all ages to contribute.

    Blog text (28)
  • Thus, when the alcohol trade and overhunting produced a scarcity of deer, the Choctaws were far less vulnerable to impoverishment and economic dependency than other native societies that relied predominantly on hunting and gathering for their sustenance.

    Academic text (1999)
  • The population of the species declined sharply due to excessive overhunting in the region.

Antonyms

117 3.5

Protecting and carefully managing nature and natural resources

How Destructive

extinction
150 4.4
overhunting
1 4.2

Surface Forms

overhunting singular
overhuntings plural

Morphology

overhunting = overhunt (transparent) = over + hunt + ing

Formed productively from the prefix 'over-' plus the verb 'hunt', then the gerund '-ing', yielding the straightforward meaning 'hunting excessively'.

Etymology

The word overhunting is made of over- meaning 'too much' and hunt meaning 'to chase animals'. So, overhunting is when people hunt animals 'too much', causing their numbers to fall or even disappear.