Where were the northern elephant seals? Holocene archaeology and biogeography of Mirounga angustirostris

Abstract

Northern elephant seals (NES hereafter, Mirounga angustirostris) were nearly driven to extinction by commercial and recreational hunters during the nineteenth century fur and oil trade (Scammon, 1874: 119; Stewart et al., 1994). Despite limited genetic diversity (Bonnell and Selander, 1972; Weber et al., 2000, 2004), NES along North America's Pacific Coast are now thriving, with some 124 000 animals in the California stock alone (Carretta et al., 2009: 28). The recovery of NES populations is one of the success stories of marine conservation, demonstrating resilience despite decades of intensive slaughter (Stewart et al., 1994). Because of rapid decimation from commercial hunting, little is known about NES prior to the mid-nineteenth century, however, leaving a substantial gap in our understanding of their natural history, biogeography, and historical ecology. In this paper, we synthesize all known occurrences of NES in northeastern Pacific Coast archaeological sites, including analysis of previously reported materials and new unpublished data (Figure 1). Other archaeological studies of seal and sea lion (pinniped) remains from Pacific Coast archaeological sites have noted the dearth of NES relative to other pinnipeds (e.g. Hildebrandt and Jones, 2002; Lyman, 2011). Our study is the first to focus solely on NES and to place these data within the context of ancient DNA analyses and modern behavioral data. Similar to earlier archaeological studies of northeastern Pacific pinnipeds (

Archaeozoology in Mainland Southeast Asia: Changing Methodology and Pleistocene to Holocene Forager Subsistence Patterns in Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia

“…Meta-analyses of archaeozoological data provide explanations of fine-grained questions using large databases (Conolly et al 2011;Cranbrook and Piper 2009;Emery 2007;Grayson and Meltzer 2002;Grayson 2005;Rick et al 2011). A classic example of a meta-analysis is the recognition that we only have evidence for Clovis-era hunter-gatherers in North America exploiting two of the 35 large mammal genera that became extinct during the late Pleistocene (Grayson and Meltzer 2002).…”

Predator recovery, shifting baselines, and the adaptive management challenges they create

“…In contrast to the relative surplus of fur seals in the archaeological records, northern elephant seals are notably, and surprisingly, scarce relative to their contemporary abundance (Rick et al. ). It has been suggested that elephant seals were displaced early on from coastal sites to remote island settings by terrestrial predators (e.g., grizzly bears and mountain lions) and Native American settlements (Rick et al.…”

“…It has been suggested that elephant seals were displaced early on from coastal sites to remote island settings by terrestrial predators (e.g., grizzly bears and mountain lions) and Native American settlements (Rick et al. ), with records of these early hunts lost to rising sea levels (Braje et al. ).…”

Deception Island: Archaeology of ′Anyapax, Anacapa Island, California

“…As a variety of researchers have noted, harbor seals are among the more skittish and flightprone pinnipeds, making them more difficult to obtain and often less desirable than some higher-ranking otariids (see Hildebrandt and Jones, 1992;Braje et al, 2011). The presence of a single elephant seal bone each at CA-ANI-2 and CA-ANI-8 and their occurrence at CA-ANI-6 are interesting given how rare the remains of elephant seals are at Channel Island sites (Rick et al, 2011). Elephant seals require sandy beaches for hauling out, so on the basis of current shorelines, the island's only suitable habitat for them would be the fairly small beach at Frenchy's Cove on West Anacapa, which is near both CA-ANI-6 and CA-ANI-8.…”