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On Prey Mobility, Prey Rank, and Foraging Goals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Andrew Ugan  and
Steven Simms
Andrew Ugan
Affiliation:
Departamento de Antropología, Museo de Historia Natural, Parque Moriano Moreno, (5600)San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina
Steven Simms
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322 (s.simms@usu.edu)
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Abstract

In their recent paper “In Pursuit of Mobile Prey,” Bird, Bliege-Bird, and Codding (2009) identify a negative relationship between body size and post-encounter returns among Martu prey in western Australia, attributing the phenomena to the greater mobility of large animals and associated risk of hunting failure. While this phenomenon has implications for archaeological applications of foraging models that assume body size and on-encounter returns are positively correlated, the Martu data may be less exceptional than they appear. Here we outline the reasons for our skepticism, point out areas in which we are in agreement, and build upon their findings by exploring the trade-offs between foraging to maximize efficiency and immediate returns and foraging for purposes other than immediate provisioning.

En su redente artículo “On the Pursuit of Mobile Prey,” Bird, Bliege-Bird, y Codding (2009) identifican una relación entre el tamaño y la tasa de rendimiento post-encuentro de la presa de los Martu en el oeste de Australia, y atribuyen el fenómeno al mayor movilidad de animales grandes y el riesgo asociado de no matarlas. Aunque esto fenómeno tiene implicaciones por las aplicaciones de modelos de forrajear que asumen que el tamaño del cuerpo y la tasa de rendimiento son positivamente correlacionados, los datos del Martu pueden ser menos excepcional que parecen. Aquí presentamos las razones por nuestras dudas, indicamos áreas en que estamos de acuerdo con la posición de Bird et al., y aprovechamos sus resultados para discutir los compromisos entre forrajear para maximizar eficiencia y retornos inmediatos y forrajear para propuestos además de abastecimiento inmediato.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 77 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 179 - 185
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2012

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