Prey preferences of modern human hunter-gatherers

Author links open overlay panelCassandra K.BugiraCarlos A.PeresbcKevin S.WhitedRobert A.MontgomeryeAndrea S.GriffinagPaulRipponfJohnClulowaMatt W.HaywardahShow moreAdd to MendeleyShareCitehttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.fooweb.2020.e00183Get rights and content

Abstract

Understanding traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles in our modern world is fundamental to our understanding of their viability, as well as the role of humans as predators in structuring ecosystems. Here, we examine the factors that drive prey preferences of modern hunter-gatherer people by reviewing 85 published studies from 161 tropical, temperate and boreal sites across five continents. From these studies, we estimated Jacobs' selectivity index values (D) for 2243 species/spatiotemporal records representing 504 species from 42 vertebrate orders based on a sample size of 799,072 kill records (median = 259). Hunter-gatherers preferentially hunted 11 large-bodied, riskier species, and were capable of capturing species ranging from 0.6 to 535.3 kg, but avoided those smaller than 2.5 kg. Human prey preferences were driven by whether prey were arboreal or terrestrial, the threats the prey afforded hunters, and prey body mass. Variation in the size of prey species pursued by hunter-gatherers across each continent is a reflection of the local size spectrum of available prey, and historical or prehistorical prey depletion during the Holocene. The nature of human subsistence hunting reflects the ability to use a range of weapons and techniques to capture food, and the prey deficient wildlands where people living traditional lifestyles persist.

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Even in the scenarios where humanity goes extinct (After Man, The Future Is Wild) or evolves into new species (Man After Man, All Tomorrow’s), or is not there (The New Dinosaurs, Hamster’s Paradise, Serina), all of them have some depressing bits, like the deaths of endlings (like Serina’s Stormsonor and Woodcrafter), one book takes the most pessimistic viewpoint of all, Peter Ward’s book Future Evolution. I’ll admit, it has plenty of cool future Earth animals, like lion-like predatory crows, but compared to other spec-evo works about aliens (we’ll get to that soon enough), or Earth animals, it has the most depressing and pessimistic outlook of humanity’s future, where humanity doesn’t go extinct in our lifetimes, but it would have been more merciful for humanity if it DID. There is a portion of the novel where the Time Traveller (never named) arrives in 3000 A.D. Human expansion has ravaged the planet, and megafauna is confined to zoos and safari parks forever, and that doesn’t include rhinos, many marsupials, many primates including great apes, hippos, almost all big cats including tigers, and many others, and it’s NOT because they have recovered. Mankind is also not developing starships with FTL propulsion like Star Trek, or meeting aliens, and I’ll let the book itself explain. “The Chronic Argonaut smiled briefly, closing his well-thumbed novel. He pushed the lever forward and sped into the future. At the year 3000 A.D. he came to a stop. His time machine was located on a small grassy field in northwestern Washington State. In the distance the familiar Cascade Mountains looked just as they had when he had last seen them, on the first day of the year 2000. A thin rain was falling, not unusual for Seattle at this time of year, no matter what the century, he thought. But it was a warm rain, and he noticed how tropical the air felt. He began to stroll. The park was filled with plants, and at first he took no notice of them. But with wonder he began to notice the large leaves and brilliant colors of foliage he had never seen in this area before. Citrus trees were visible, and acacias, and as he looked at the greenery around him he was struck by the lushness and clearly tropical nature of the vegetation. Nearby he could see buildings, clearly different in composition and architecture, but recognizable nevertheless. He was a bit crestfallen. Other than the dramatic changes in vegetation and climate, he found that the future was not so very different. He came u

I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.

Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.

Do your worst!

Seeing that my proposal for dholes to be reintroduced to the eastern United States was basically pure crap, I decided to discuss something else: reintroduction of painted wolves into parts of Africa they were eradicated from.

Painted wolves/African wild dogs/Cape painted hunting dogs (Lycaon pictus) are one of Africa’s most endangered carnivores (with the Ethiopian wolf beating them), with approximately 6,600 of them left in the world. About 101 years ago, there were 500,000 of them living all across Sub-Saharan Africa in a wide variety of habitats (except for the hottest deserts and true jungles). When Europeans began to colonize Africa, they saw the painted wolves as vermin and were treated like vermin. The slaughter was merciless. They were intentionally run over by vehicles. Dens with pups inside were poisoned. Bounties were even places on them. By 1990, they were listed as an endangered species. There are very few places that support population strongholds of these canines, and the remaining painted wolves live in isolated pockets of wilderness.

Today, they still face a myriad of threats. But there has been some good news. A couple of packs have been reintroduced to Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique and are doing well. They’re doing a good job at controlling populations of fleet-footed antelope, like bushbuck and impala. They still face competition with lions, who are responsible for 1 out of 7 adult painted wolf deaths.

Still, there is so much more that needs to be done if we want the painted wolves to go near their former glory. Painted wolves of eastern Africa are having somewhat of a hard time. One day, I was looking at national parks and saw that Uganda has no painted wolves (or at least verified populations). I looked at several protected areas of Uganda, and thought of a few places that have enough potential to be prime painted wolf territory.

1. Kidepo Valley National Park. This national park located in northeastern Uganda is 1,442 square kilometers of open savanna dotted by acacia trees. Several species of antelope including waterbuck, kudu, mountain reedbuck, kob, and hartebeest call Kidepo Valley home. Cape buffaloes, elephants, zebras, elands, and giraffes are also present. Given that painted wolves are adept at chasing down antelopes in open spaces (although most populations are now confined to woodland environments, where less than half of all hunts end in success), Kidepo Valley Na

I'm surprised it hasn't decade.

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

It really does, I swear!

They’re on standbi

Pilot on me!!

Nothing, he was gladiator.

Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.

This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.

If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.

Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.

When I got home, they were still there.

What did 0 say to 8 ?

" Nice Belt "

So What did 3 say to 8 ?

" Hey, you two stop making out "

I won't be doing that today!

[Removed]

This morning, my 4 year old daughter.

Daughter: I'm hungry

Me: nerves building, smile widening

Me: Hi hungry, I'm dad.

She had no idea what was going on but I finally did it.

Thank you all for listening.

You take away their little brooms

There hasn't been a post all year!

Why

It’s pronounced “Noel.”

After all his first name is No-vac

What, then, is Chinese rap?

Edit:

Notable mentions from the comments:

• Spanish/Swedish/Swiss/Serbian hits

• French/Finnish art

• Country/Canadian rap

• Chinese/Country/Canadian rock

• Turkish/Tunisian/Taiwanese rap

There hasn't been a single post this year!

(Happy 2022 from New Zealand)

Nothing, it just waved

Him: I can explain everything!

(It's his best joke yet I think)

Bob

So that I could frequently say, "I am going to walk 5 miles now."

Edit: My most popular post on Reddit! 😀 Thank you for the awards.

Just to clarify, 12345678

Me grabbing a soda from my (what I thought was) half full 12pk...

Notices there's only 2;

Me: "Awe man... This is a damn bird box!" Her: "What the hell does that mean?!" Me: (Pulls both cans out & shows them to her) "It's only got Toucans."

I'm not ashamed to admit the look on her face was glorious.