Prehistoric Human Impacts on California Birds: Evidence from the Emeryville Shellmound Avifauna

Abstract

The abundance of artiodactyls, marine mammals, waterfowl, seabirds, and other animals in 18th- and 19th-century California astonished early explorers, and the incredible wildlife densities reported in their accounts are routinely taken as analogues for the original or pristine zoological condition. However, recent analyses of archaeological fish and mammal materials from California and elsewhere in western North America document that those early historic-period faunal landcsapes represent...