IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
| Cavallo, J.A.; Blumenschine, R.J. | |
| Tree-stored leopard kills: expanding the hominid scavenging niche | |
| 1989 Journal of Human Evolution (18): 393-399 | |
Early hominid scavenging of mammalian herbivore carcasses is now considered to be a realistic alternative to the hunting mode of meat and marrow acquisition. This is particularly true for medium-sized (size 3) and larger animals, which were shown by Blumenschine (1986a) to provide regular sources of scavengeable food in certain contexts. However, paleoanthropologists are less confident about ascribing small animal remains to scavenging. For example, Bunn & Kroll (1986) suggest that the presence of cut-marked upper hindlimbs and forelimbs of small, medium, and large bovids at the FLK Zinjanthropus site at Olduvai Gorge is ". . . consistent with a subsistence strategy combining hunting of at least small [size 1 and 21 animals, [and] hunting or aggressive scavenging of large animals . . ." by hominids. Binford (1984) takes a more extreme stand for Middle Stone Age hominids, diagnosing hunting for only the smaller bovids at Klasies River Mouth. Cavallo (n.d.) argues that the limited opportunities thr hominids to scavenge small carcasses overlooks the availability of tree-stored leopard kills. On the basis ofpublished accounts of modern leopard behavior, he hypothesizes that exploitation of this arboreal feeding opportunity might have provided early hominids with the same flesh and marrow yielding skeletal parts of small bovids usually attributed to hunting by hominids. |
|
 |
PDF files are only accessible to Friends of the Cat Group. Joining Friends of the Cat Group gives you unlimited access and downloads in the Cat SG Library for one year, and allows you to receive our newsletter Cat News (2 regular issues per year plus special issues). More information how to join here |
(c) IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group ( IUCN - The World Conservation Union) |