Evolution of marine mammal hunting: A view from the California and Oregon coasts

Hildebrandt, William R.; Jones, Terry L.

doi:10.1016/0278-4165(92)90013-2

Cited by 121 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Because starvation may cause ␦ 15 N values of body tissues to increase (23), a second possibility is that all of the archaeological YOY we sampled were starved individuals. This is an unlikely scenario, especially in sites where YOY are abundant and ample archaeological evidence suggests NFS were actively hunted (5)(6)(7)(8). A third possibility is that, upon weaning at Ϸ4 months, pups immediately began to feed one trophic level higher than adult females, then switched to feed at a lower trophic level than adult females at Ϸ12 months of age.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This explanation requires no major changes in NFS breeding or migratory behavior, although it might require a larger source population at high latitudes to explain the higher stranding frequency in the past. (ii) NFS may have come from nearby haul-outs or breeding colonies (5)(6)(7)(8). This explanation requires a marked increase in the number and/or size of NFS breeding colonies at temperate latitudes.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The shifting baseline of northern fur seal ecology in the northeast Pacific Ocean

Newsome

Etnier

Gifford–Gonzalez³

et al. 2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Historical data provide a baseline against which to judge the significance of recent ecological shifts and guide conservation strategies, especially for species decimated by pre-20th century harvesting. Northern fur seals (NFS; Callorhinus ursinus) are a common pinniped species in archaeological sites from southern California to the Aleutian Islands, yet today they breed almost exclusively on offshore islands at high latitudes. Harvest profiles from archaeological sites contain many unweaned pups, confirming the presence of temperate-latitude breeding colonies in California, the Pacific Northwest, and the eastern Aleutian Islands. Isotopic results suggest that prehistoric NFS fed offshore across their entire range, that California populations were distinct from populations to the north, and that populations breeding at temperate latitudes in the past used a different reproductive strategy than modern populations. The extinction of temperate-latitude breeding populations was asynchronous geographically. In southern California, the Pacific Northwest, and the eastern Aleutians, NFS remained abundant in the archaeological record up to the historical period Ϸ200 years B.P.; thus their regional collapse is plausibly attributed to historical hunting or some other anthropogenic ecosystem disturbance. In contrast, NFS populations in central and northern California collapsed at Ϸ800 years B.P., long before European contact. The relative roles of human hunting versus climatic factors in explaining this ecological shift are unclear, as more paleoclimate information is needed from the coastal zone.Callorhinus ursinus ͉ historic ecology ͉ stable isotopes ͉ zooarchaeology ͉ ancient DNA

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The shifting baseline of northern fur seal ecology in the northeast Pacific Ocean

Newsome

Etnier

Gifford–Gonzalez³

et al. 2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…First, the human colonisation of Chatham Islands during or before the 16th Century (King 1989) was a relatively recent event, with perhaps insufficient time elapsed or a population too small to deplete the local fur seals. Second, the presence of many uninhabitable nearshore islands may have held a sufficient reservoir of seals to replace losses from human exploitation at readily-accessible sites (e.g., Hildebrandt & Jones 1992). In contrast, there were few uninhabitable nearshore islands around most of the New Zealand mainland.…”

Section: Review Of Historic Exploitation By Humans Prehistoric Exploimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This impact mirrored the consumptive depletion of seals by hunter-gatherer societies elsewhere. The local extirpation of seal populations in prehistoric times by subsistence hunting has been documented for indigenous peoples of the north Pacific (Yesner 1988;Hildebrandt & Jones 1992), southern South America (Lanata 1990), and southern Africa (Woodborne et al 1995). The impact of human colonisation was not restricted to extirpation of seals but typically resulted in the demise of most large-bodied species (Diamond 1991;Flannery 1994).…”

Section: Review Of Historic Exploitation By Humans Prehistoric Exploimentioning

confidence: 99%

Folklore and chimerical numbers: Review of a millennium of interaction between fur seals and humans in the New Zealand region

Lalas¹,

Bradshaw

2001

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research

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The increase in numbers and range expansion of New Zealand fur seals (Arctocephalus forsteri Lesson) in the New Zealand region has prompted many people to comment on their effects on the marine and coastal environments. Overall there are anomalies in the data describing the distribution and abundance of fur seals in the New Zealand region, and there is a need for a better understanding of the interactions with humans and the impacts on the New Zealand environment. The distribution resulting from the present pattern of re-colonisation differs from the perception of their distribution before decimation by humans. We hypothesise that the pristine distribution was temperate rather than subantarctic. Previously published records which have documented changes in the abundance and distribution of the species are shown to be wanting. The most controversial management issue is interaction with commercial fisheries where we conclude that neither of the Corresponding author. Received 21 April 1999; accepted 20 November 2000 extreme options, culling of seals nor closure of some fishing grounds, is justified. Other issues addressed include tourism, te tikanga Maori o mahinga kai (the customary use of wildlife by Maori), and impact of fur seals on the coastal environment. This species offers a rare and exciting opportunity to test the theoretical processes of population expansion that can be investigated as a natural experiment. We suggest that the current management policy should remain unchanged until the current paucity of information on the degree of interaction between fur seals and humans has been addressed. M99022

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“…Offshore rocks and islands that once served as refugia for Chendytes from terrestrial carnivores no longer provided safe haven from human predators with watercraft, as well as the dogs people brought with them. While human-induced resource suppression has been argued for other prehistoric marine resources in coastal California (19,20), the vulnerability of Chendytes resulted in extinction between 3,000 and 2,000 years ago-after at least 8,000 years of human hunting. Given the population densities and technological sophistication of native peoples along the California coast, as well as the record of rapid flightless bird extinctions elsewhere in the Pacific, it is noteworthy that this highly vulnerable species survived for so long along the Pacific Coast of North America.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The protracted Holocene extinction of California's flightless sea duck ( Chendytes lawi ) and its implications for the Pleistocene overkill hypothesis

Jones

Porcasi

Erlandson

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Bones of the flightless sea duck (Chendytes lawi) from 14 archaeological sites along the California coast indicate that humans hunted the species for at least 8,000 years before it was driven to extinction. Direct 14 C dates on Chendytes bones show that the duck was exploited on the southern California islands as early as Ϸ11,150 -10,280 calendar years B.P., and on the mainland by at least 8,500 calendar years B.P. The youngest direct date of 2,720 -2,350 calendar years B.P., combined with the absence of Chendytes bones from hundreds of late Holocene sites, suggests that the species was extinct by Ϸ2,400 years ago. Although the extinction of Chendytes clearly resulted from human overhunting, its demise raises questions about the Pleistocene overkill model, which suggests that megafauna were driven to extinction in a blitzkrieg fashion by Native Americans Ϸ13,000 years ago. That the extermination of Chendytes was so protracted and archaeologically visible suggests that, if the terminal Pleistocene megafauna extinctions were primarily the result of human exploitation, there should also be a long and readily detectable archaeological record of their demise. The brief window now attributed to the Clovis culture (Ϸ13,300 -12,900 B.P.) seems inconsistent with an overhunting event.flightless birds ͉ overhunting T he late Quaternary extinction of North America's large fauna has been a topic of intense scientific interest for decades, focused primarily on the Pleistocene overkill hypothesis, which suggests that 35 genera of megafauna were driven to extinction in a blitzkrieg fashion by Native Americans Ϸ13,000 years ago (1). This hypothesis has been challenged because of the paucity of supporting archaeological evidence for human hunting of most of the extinct taxa (2), while aspects of the extinctions have also been portrayed as inconsistent with climate change explanations (3). Added to this mix is a recent suggestion that an extraterrestrial impact Ϸ12,900 calendar years B.P. contributed to the megafauna extinctions (4). Here we challenge the overkill hypothesis based on the archaeological record of one of the few North American animals** demonstrably driven to extinction by Native Americans during the Holocene (6, 7)-the often overlooked flightless sea duck (Chendytes lawi).Flightless birds are evolutionary oddities that developed almost exclusively in settings without major populations of terrestrial predators. On many Pacific islands, archaeological findings show that flightless birds were highly vulnerable to human hunting and were quickly decimated soon after humans arrived (8, 9). On the North American mainland many species of birds last disappear from the fossil record near the end of the Pleistocene, but their demise cannot be confidently attributed to human overhunting because their remains are absent from terminal Pleistocene archaeological sites (10). Indeed, a longstanding problem with the overhunting hypothesis is the fact that most genera that went extinct during the late Pleistocene have never been foun...

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Evolution of marine mammal hunting: A view from the California and Oregon coasts

Cited by 121 publications

References 21 publications

The shifting baseline of northern fur seal ecology in the northeast Pacific Ocean

The shifting baseline of northern fur seal ecology in the northeast Pacific Ocean

Folklore and chimerical numbers: Review of a millennium of interaction between fur seals and humans in the New Zealand region

The protracted Holocene extinction of California's flightless sea duck ( Chendytes lawi ) and its implications for the Pleistocene overkill hypothesis

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