TY - JOUR
T1 - Aboriginal burning regimes and hunting strategies in Australia's Western Desert
AU - Bird, Douglas W.
AU - Bird, Rebecca Bliege
AU - Parker, Christopher H.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work has been funded generously by grants from the National Science Foundation (BCS-0127681 and BCS-0075289) and the LSB Leakey Foundation. Earlier drafts of this manuscript were greatly improved by comments and discussions with Bob Tonkinson, Eric Smith, Doug Bird Sr., Neil Burrows, Sue Davenport, Peter Kendrick, Bonnie Bass, and Debbie Bird Rose. Special thanks to Bob Tonkinson and Peter Veth for their help in establishing our Western Desert research. Most of all, we are indebted to all of the Mardu from Parnngurr, Punmu, and Kunawarritji for their friendship, tolerance, and good humor. We especially wish to thank the Taylor and the Biljabu families who have hosted us and organized much of our field research.
PY - 2005/8
Y1 - 2005/8
N2 - A large complement of Australia's biotic web is dependent on a regular regime of burning, much of which is the result of firing by humans. Many researchers have suggested that moderate and repeated burning by Aborigines is a tool designed to enhance hunting efficiency. We present the first test of this with data on contemporary Martu Aboriginal burning and hunting strategies in the arid spinifex savanna of the Western Desert during the cool-dry season (May-August). Our results show a strong positive effect of mosaic burning on the efficiency of hunting burrowed prey (primarily conducted by women), but not larger mobile prey (primarily conducted by men). We suggest that regular anthropogenic disturbance through burning in Australia's Western Desert may be important for sustaining biodiversity and habitat mosaics, but these effects may be maintained primarily by women's hunting of burrowed game. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding variability in hunting strategies, issues of conservation, and land management policy for the region.
AB - A large complement of Australia's biotic web is dependent on a regular regime of burning, much of which is the result of firing by humans. Many researchers have suggested that moderate and repeated burning by Aborigines is a tool designed to enhance hunting efficiency. We present the first test of this with data on contemporary Martu Aboriginal burning and hunting strategies in the arid spinifex savanna of the Western Desert during the cool-dry season (May-August). Our results show a strong positive effect of mosaic burning on the efficiency of hunting burrowed prey (primarily conducted by women), but not larger mobile prey (primarily conducted by men). We suggest that regular anthropogenic disturbance through burning in Australia's Western Desert may be important for sustaining biodiversity and habitat mosaics, but these effects may be maintained primarily by women's hunting of burrowed game. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding variability in hunting strategies, issues of conservation, and land management policy for the region.
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U2 - 10.1007/s10745-005-5155-0
DO - 10.1007/s10745-005-5155-0
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:24144472576
SN - 0300-7839
VL - 33
SP - 443
EP - 464
JO - Human Ecology
JF - Human Ecology
IS - 4
ER -