Small Game Animals Research Articles

Implications for food safety of the size and location of fragments of lead shotgun pellets embedded in hunted carcasses of small game animals intended for human consumption.

Carcasses of common pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) killed by hunters using shotguns are widely used or sold in the United Kingdom and elsewhere for human consumption. Almost all of the birds are shot using shotgun pellets composed principally of lead (Pb). Lead shotgun pellets often fragment on impact within the bodies of gamebirds, leaving small lead particles in the meat that are difficult for consumers to detect and remove and from which a greater proportion of lead is likely to be absorbed. Chronic exposure to even low levels of lead is associated with negative health effects in humans and especially in groups particularly vulnerable to the effects of lead, which include young children and pregnant women. Our study used a high-resolution computerised tomography X-ray scanner to locate, in three dimensions, metal fragments embedded within carcasses of eight pheasants sold for human consumption in the UK. Small radio-dense fragments (<2 mm diameter), assumed to be metallic lead, were present in all of the pheasant carcasses examined (mean number: 39 per carcass) and many were too small (<0.1 mm diameter) and too distant from the nearest large shotgun pellet for it to be practical for consumers to detect and remove them without discarding a large proportion of otherwise usable meat. Consumers of carcasses of pheasants killed using lead shotgun ammunition are likely to be exposed to elevated levels of dietary lead, even if careful food preparation is practiced to remove shotgun pellets and the most damaged tissue.

Isotopic Evidence for Long‐Distance Mammal Procurement, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA

Previous research on the prehistoric communities of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (ca. A.D. 800–1250) provides evidence of an extensive procurement system of nonlocal food and economic goods. In this paper, we use oxygen and strontium isotope analyses to establish whether animal protein followed a similar pattern. We contextualized our isotopic analyses of the archaeofaunas from recent excavations at Pueblo Bonito with data on modern faunas across an area of approximately 100,000 km2 around the site. Our results show that most archaeological deer, rabbits, and prairie dogs were obtained from &gt;40 km away from Pueblo Bonito with the latter two likely being garden hunted. The Chuska Mountains west of Chaco Canyon and more distant San Juan Mountains to the north were the main source areas. These results closely align with previous results on architectural wood, corn, and other key resources. The importation of small game animals suggests that the local supplies could not meet the needs of the community. Long‐distance meat procurement may have been embedded within a more complex network of ritual‐goods exchange or tribute that helped to offset the transport costs. Resource depletion may have contributed to the eventual abandonment of the region during the Medieval Warm Period.

Climate change, human population growth, or both? Upper Paleolithic subsistence shifts in southern Greece

Abstract Changes in subsistence patterns during the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic at Klissoura Cave 1 in southern Greece indicate that some shifts track local climatic changes, while others do not. Specifically, increases in ungulate species diversity correlate with wetter periods, and greater abundance of certain dry-loving small game animals (e.g., great bustard) might correspond with dry periods. Other large-scale diachronic shifts, such as the increased importance of low-return hares and partridges, occur over the occupation of the site irrespective of environmental conditions. We hypothesized previously that this relates to local human population growth over the course of the Paleolithic. New data from a nearby site, Kephalari Cave, augment this hypothesis. The site complements the Aurignacian and Gravettoid occupations at Klissoura and also contains a robust late Upper Paleolithic component. Ungulate species diversity is high at Kephalari, and there is a greater reliance on low-return small animals (including fish) than at Klissoura. In this paper, we examine changes in the faunal spectra alongside preliminary charcoal data from the two sites. These data are analyzed in the context of regional environmental change in order to determine the extent to which climatic change or population growth drove subsistence shifts in southern Greece during the Late Pleistocene.

Intensification of small game resources at Klissoura Cave 1 (Peloponnese, Greece) from the Middle Paleolithic to Mesolithic

In many parts of the Mediterranean Basin, resource intensification occurred across the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition, and again before the beginning of the Mesolithic. Central to understanding resource intensification is distinguishing human demographic pressures from environmental factors. This paper examines the intensification of vertebrate resources at Klissoura Cave 1 in the Peloponnese, Greece, from marine oxygen isotope stage (MIS) 5a until the early Holocene (from about 80,000 to 10,000 years ago) against the backdrop of changing environments. Occasional fluctuations in large game resources, as well as changing proportions of certain small game (e.g. great bustard) correlate to environmental shifts in the eastern Mediterranean during the Late Pleistocene. Prey choice models are used to understand human demographic pressures and resource intensification. Small game animals are ranked according to these models, with slow-moving species (e.g. tortoises) classified as higher-ranking and fast-moving species (e.g. hares and birds) categorized as low-ranking. Two major shifts are apparent in the sequence. The first is an overall increase in the use of small game animals in the Upper Paleolithic and later diets as compared to ungulate prey. The second is a decrease in higher-ranked small game and a corresponding increase in low-ranked small game animals. These trends are evident using either number of identified specimen (NISP) counts or proxy measures of prey biomass. An application of diversity indices indicates that there is no temporal trend in prey evenness, though fluctuations in evenness values have different meanings for ungulate and small-bodied prey. An increase in evenness of ungulate species typically correlates with climatic amelioration. Increasing evenness values for small game animals, however, are related to environmental factors in some instances, and changes in human exploitation patterns in other cases.

Lead exposure in free-flying turkey vultures is associated with big game hunting in California.

Predatory and scavenging birds are at risk of lead exposure when they feed on animals injured or killed by lead ammunition. While lead ammunition has been banned from waterfowl hunting in North America for almost two decades, lead ammunition is still widely used for hunting big game and small game animals. In this study, we evaluated the association between big game hunting and blood lead concentration in an avian scavenger species that feeds regularly on large mammals in California. We compared blood lead concentration in turkey vultures within and outside of the deer hunting season, and in areas with varying wild pig hunting intensity. Lead exposure in turkey vultures was significantly higher during the deer hunting season compared to the off-season, and blood lead concentration was positively correlated with increasing wild pig hunting intensity. Our results link lead exposure in turkey vultures to deer and wild pig hunting activity at these study sites, and we provide evidence that spent lead ammunition in carrion poses a significant risk of lead exposure to scavengers.

Zooarchaeological perspectives on the Chinese Early and Late Paleolithic from the Ma’anshan site (Guizhou, South China)

Ma’anshan is a Paleolithic cave site in the Guizhou province of southern China. The total area of the excavations is ca. 48 m 2, and the cultural deposit is divided into two layers representing the Chinese Late Paleolithic and the later part of the Early Paleolithic. The upper layer dates between 19,295 BP and 31,155 BP by AMS technique, and the lower layer is dated to around 53,000 BP by U-Series technique. Thousands of bone fragments were recovered from the two layers. Species abundance, bone surface modifications, skeletal element representation, and mortality patterns were studied in an investigation of assemblage formation history and patterns of prey selection and meat consumption by hominins. Interpretations of the faunal data are strengthened by reference to experimental studies and ethnoarchaeological data. The zooarchaeological data indicate that the later occupants of Ma’anshan Cave hunted mainly medium and small game animals, while the earlier occupants tended to prey upon larger animals. In the later period, hominins also made fuller use of the carcasses. The breadth of the meat diet increased with time, due to the inclusion of quick small animals (bamboo rats and birds) in the later period. The differences between the two faunal assemblages are consistent with the chronologic boundary currently drawn between the Chinese Early and Late Paleolithic ca. 30–27 ka BP, based on technological and other evidence.

Dietary changes during the Upper Palaeolithic at Klissoura Cave 1 (Prosymni), Peloponnese, Greece

Faunal evidence from Klissoura Cave 1 (Prosymni) in Peloponnese, Greece, indicates that dietary shifts occurred during the Upper Palaeolithic to accommodate increased human hunting pressures as well as environmental changes. Foraging intensification is examined based on changes in prey species composition, body part analysis and carcass processing patterns. Fallow deer was the primary large game species exploited at Klissoura 1, though a somewhat more even representation of several ungulate species is apparent in the earliest Aurignacian and again in the Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic. The variation in ungulate species representation was conditioned foremost by changes in local vegetation communities. Small game was also important throughout the sequence. High-ranked, slow-moving small game animals such as tortoises were exploited more in the Early Upper Palaeolithic than in later time periods. Lower-ranked, fast-moving hares were collected throughout the Upper Palaeolithic, but increased in importance st...

Approaches to Prehistoric Diet Breadth, Demography, and Prey Ranking Systems in Time and Space

Zooarchaeological data on small game use hold much potential for identifying and dating Paleolithic demographic pulses in time and space, such as those associated with modern human origins and the evolution of food-producing economies. Although small animals were important to human diets throughout the Middle, Upper, and Epi-Paleolithic periods in the Mediterranean Basin, the types of small prey emphasized by foragers shifted dramatically over the last 200,000 years. Slow-growing, slow-moving tortoises, and marine mollusks dominate the Middle Paleolithic record of small game exploitation. Later, agile, fast-maturing animals became increasingly important in human diets, first birds in the early Upper Paleolithic, and soon thereafter hares and rabbits. While the findings of this study are consistent with the main premise of Flannery's Broad Spectrum Revolution (BSR) hypothesis (Flannery, K. V. (1969). In Ucko, P. J., and Dimbleby, G. W. (eds.), The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals, Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago, pp. 73–100), it is now clear that human diet breadth began to expand much earlier than the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. Ranking small prey in terms of work of capture (in the absence of special harvesting tools) proves far more effective in this investigation of human diet breadth than taxonomy-based diversity analyses published previously. Our analyses expose a major shift in human predator–prey dynamics involving small game animals by 50–40 KYA in the Mediterranean Basin, with earliest population growth pulses occurring in the Levant. In a separate application to the Natufian period (13–10 KYA), just prior to the rise of Neolithic societies in the Levant, great intensification is apparent from small game use. This effect is most pronounced at the onset of this short culture period, and is followed by an episode of local depopulation during the Younger Dryas, without further changes in the nature of Natufian hunting adaptations. An essential feature of the diachronic and synchronic approaches outlined here is controlling the potentially conflating effects of spatial (biogeographic) and temporal variation in the faunal data sets.

World View of Tewa and Cahuilla Encourage Adaptation to Place and Resounds in Song

In my separate studies in the contextualization of the songs of the Southern Califomian Cahuilla and the New Mexican San Juan Pueblo Tewa, differences in environrnental conditions of the two theocracies took on growing significance. In particular, the Cahuilla, known for digging deep water wells into the earth, had always lived in an earthquake zone. Earthquakes often had the result of changing underground waterways, rendering wells dry. The San Juan Tewa, on the other hand, could mostly rely on the Rio Grande for irrigation waters. Wild game was also abundant. This paper explores the effects of the relative levels of environmental stability and instability on the worldviews, and therefore the music, of the two tribes. The Southwest, as a particular American Indian culture area centers on Arizona and New Mexico. It includes the Athabascan-speaking Navajo and Apache, who arrived around 1000 C.E., and the Pueblo Indians, who have lived in this arsa for thousands of years. The Hopi live in Arizona and nineteen Pueblos survive in New Mexico, divided into the eastern linguistically-related groups along the Rio Grande, and the western Keres-speaking Pueblos and Zuni, which is not linguistically related to the rest. All of the Pueblo groups were advanced agricultural peoples who built multiple apartments of adobe and stone masonry and developed their arts and crafts. Overall, Pueblo traditions have been maintained, while those of the California Cahuilla have been largely disrupted. The Tewa-speakers maintain six different Pueblos, with the center of the Tewa world in San Juan Pueblo, which also has the largest population (1,487 in 1979 according to Simmons). The other Tewa pueblos include Santa Clara, Tesuque, Narnbe, San Ildefonso, and Pojoaque, which has the smallest population (107 in 1979). All of these pueblos lie along the Rio Grande and its tributaries, within a twenty-mile stretch of land north of Santa Fe. They divide themselves internally into the Summer and Winter moieties. The Tewa are friendly with the surrounding Tiwa (Taos and Picuris), Towa (Jemez), and Keresan, eastern pueblos (Acoma, Santo Domingo, and so forth). They are traditional enemies of the Apache and Navajo, although nowadays some of their members have intermarried into these groups as well. The Tewa came into contact with the Spanish almost four hundred years ago, and following the Puebh Revolt of 1680 were treated with greater respect by the Spanish. Their masked dance traditions were suppressed as they were forced to accept Catholicism, but the Tewa have maintained their ritual cycle to the present day. The Tewa ritual cycle revolves around life cycle events; its most important function is perpetuating the needed rainfall and corn. The abundance of water from the Rio Grande has always provided the Tewa a strong agricultural base. The corn crop was traditionally complemented by an abundant supply of large and small game animals, especially the deer and the rabbit. Today some still farm and hunt, but most depend on wage work or the sale of arts and crafts. Many Tewas commute to Santa Fe to work, or they attend colleges and universities, often returning as professionals to their own villages. They still occupy their beautiful traditional adobe houses, but new HUD housing developments in American ranch styles have appeared on the outer parts of the pueblos. Alongside, however, one still sees the traditional outdoor adobe ovens, a contribution from the Moors to New World cultures. Traditional ritual areas, such as a large, unpaved central plaza and other smaller ones, are maintained for ritual dancing and ceremonies. There are also religious buildings, which include the kivas as well as a Catholic church in every Tewa village. The Tewa's

Eye Lens Weight as a Criterion for Age Classification of Wild Woodchucks

The study of animal populations requires the knowledge of the age of individuals to better understand population structure, turnover rates, and reproductive characteristics. Many methods have been used to evaluate the age of animals from wild populations. The eye lens weight technique, refined by Lord (1959) and revised by Friend (1967a,b), has been used for small game animals (Keith and Cary 1979) as well as big game (Keller and Landry 1976). The age of woodchucks (Marmota monax L.) has been estimated primarily from morphological criteria such as body length, weight, molt and coloration, and incisor width (Snyder et al. 1961, Davis 1964). Davis (1964), and S. W. Ruckel and P. S. Scanlon (pers. commun., 1978) were the first to use the eye lens weight method on woodchucks. Davis (1964) noted that the growth of the eye lens of woodchucks >12 months was linear and that the inclusion of juveniles rendered the regression line nonlinear. During a study of woodchucks in an agricultural region, animals of known age were harvested and the regression line of eye lens weight as a function of age was determined. This paper presents the regression line determined for this population, which can be used to classify age of wild woodchucks from harvest samples. We also examine the influence of eye lens pairs with 1 l% weight differences, primarily in juveniles, on regression equations to facilitate the use of the technique on small samples.

The Yukon River Ingalik: Subsistence, the Fur Trade, and a Changing Resource Base

Throughout the period of historic contact, the Ingalik Indians, salmon fishermen of the lower-middle Yukon River in west-central Alaska, displayed a strong secondary dependence on large and small game animals. Patterns of fluctuating wildlife populations are examined and related to habitat changes, particularly those brought about by forest fires. Excessive trapping combined with ecological variations and a changing economic environment are shown to have been responsible for the decline in the fur trade apparent in the last two decades of the 19th century.

Hunting as a Limitation to Michigan Pheasant Populations

It is a common conception among laymen, and also among game technicians, that hunting is an important limitation to the numbers of practically all small game animals. The gun is almost universally accepted to have been the cause of reducing or destroying many species in the past, and wherever a game scarcity occurs pressure immediately develops for measures to mitigate the effectiveness of the hunter. From all sides writers and organizational resolutions are warning the sportsman that he must stop short of the limit kill to preserve seed stock and reminding him that if he would shoot creatures off the land then he

The Bionomics and Importance ofGlossina Longipalpis, Wied., in the Gold Coast

The Bionomics and Importance of<i>Glossina Longipalpis</i>, Wied., in the Gold Coast