Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene Exploitation of Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in the Bonneville Basin

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Behavioral Ecology and Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Despite extensive study of prehistoric human foraging behavior in the Bonneville basin, little is known about human exploitation of birds, as many of these analyses focus on the hunting of mammalian prey and present models of diet breadth that are limited to artiodactyls and lagomorphs. This study uses the prey choice model of foraging theory to predict the extent and timing of the exploitation of Greater Sage-Grouse (*Centrocercus urophasianus*)—one of the most common avian prey species—in the basin during the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene. Paleontological and archaeological records show that, as predicted, lower-ranked sage-grouse were incorporated into the human diet when higher-ranked artiodactyl populations were depressed. However, environmental changes during this period also reduced the abundance of sage-grouse in the basin through time, in turn reducing their consumption by humans. This study demonstrates the utility of theoretically informed foraging models in the context of avian prey. Continued examination of Greater Sage-Grouse exploitation across the entirety of the Holocene within the Bonneville basin could provide insight on the long-term impacts of hunting and may thus be useful to inform their modern management.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Behavioral Ecology and Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37274.0