It is not surprising that a recent study of indigenous people in the Jurua and Uatuma regions of the Amazonas, Brazil reveals that large primates and mammals are virtually absent in and around native communities.............Lewis and Clark observed during their epic exploration of the American West in the first years of the 19th century that Wildlife seemed to be absent in the regions where Indian tribes lived and(conversely) thrived in the "no-mans-zone" between tribes who were at war with each other.............Bill Ripple(Co-Author of THE LANDSCAPE OF FEAR paradigm with John Laundre) and Andrea Laliberte put forth in their 2003 WILDLIFE ENCOUNTERS BY LEWIS AND CLARK: A SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF INTERACTIONS BETWEEN NATIVE AMERICANS AND WILDLIFE----"We believe that overhunting before Euro-American contact and the introduction of the horse, which heightened the effects of hunting, may have been major contributors to the historical absence of some species that are present in the archaeological record"............. "The results show considerable human influence on wildlife even under relatively low human population densities"............."In a buffer zone between the Chippewa and Sioux Indians in Minnesota, deer were plentiful in the area between the warring tribes; however, once a truce had been established, the buffer ceased to exist"................. "Deer were hunted extensively again, their numbers declined rapidly, and a famine ensued (Hickerson 1965)".................. "Another example of an ecological buffer zone is the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea".................. "Numerous plant and animal species that were previously considered extirpated, endangered, or threatened thrive in this heavily fortified 4-kilometer (km) by 250-km-long corridor, although they are absent on either side (Kim 1997)".................. "Areas between territories of warring native groups, which served as animal preserves, existed on the central plains of North America in the 1820s and 1830s"......... "Different tribes hunted in these areas, but none was strong enough to control them"....... "Therefore, most of those areas were not occupied year-round, and animals sought them out as refuges"................ "With the disappearance of these “neutral zones,” the bison decreased in numbers (West 1995)"...................So are Indigenous peoples past and present really the environmentalists that have been put forth by Hollywood, Left leaning Professors and Politicians or were their understanding and use of the resources around them tied into their "Druid" spiritual beliefs, simply believing that the "resources they depended on for life would always be there?...........You might want to invest in a copy of THE ECOLOGICAL INDIAN by Sheppard Krech III.............Excellent book for debating this topic(below some information from that book)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sciencedaily/plants_animals/~3/tyvX7wz8vss/171017153148.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_mediu

Amazonian hunters deplete wildlife but don't empty forests

10/17/2017; University of East Anglia

Human exploitation of natural resources is a key driver of global biodiversity loss. In tropical forests, overhunting has been implicated in widespread local species extinction and the creation of 'empty forests'.

But a new study published in PLOS ONE reveals that subsistence hunters from small communities in large areas of intact forest and with access to healthy fish stocks do not appear to be emptying their forests.

This finding only rings true for smaller species and those less sensitive to hunting pressure, however. Numbers of large primates and other large mammals were still found to be depleted near to communities.

Lead author Dr Mark Abrahams, from UEA's School of Environmental Sciences, said: "Understanding the impacts of subsistence hunting in tropical forests is crucial not only to safeguard the world's most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems, but also to secure a sustainable future for forest-dependent communities."

The research team used novel camera trapping and interview methods to study species in the Amazon.

Working with 60 Amazonian communities in the Juruá and Uatumã regions of Amazonas, Brazil, they deployed 383 motion-activated camera traps and conducted 78 interviews with subsistence hunters.

Hiking for miles through trackless forests to deploy cameras at varying distances from communities, the study sought to understand which species are depleted by hunting and where.

Key findings:

- Large-bodied species and species forming large groups, are depleted near Amazonian communities.
- The biomass of the entire species assemblage is greatly reduced close to Amazonian towns.
- Subsistence hunting did not empty the forest of game vertebrates in the study regions, which retain high forest cover, sources of alternative protein and low human population densities















The camera trap and interview data showed that large-bodied species and species forming large groups, such as white lipped peccaries, woolly monkeys and tapirs, are indeed depleted near to communities.

Smaller species and those less sensitive to hunting pressure, did not show evidence of depletion near to communities.

By contrast, the biomass of the entire species assemblage was greatly reduced close to towns.

Dr Abrahams said: "Our results imply that conservationists can be cautiously optimistic about the prospect of sustainable subsistence hunting by Amazonian communities. Small communities, living in large areas of intact forest and with access to healthy stocks of fish, do not appear to be emptying their forests.

"But this is clearly no excuse for complacency. Large primates and large ungulates, which are depleted by hunting, play vital ecological roles such as seed dispersal and are crucial to the health of the forest.

"Also, areas where human populations are larger, fish stocks are less abundant and remaining forest cover is less extensive, are likely to experience a far more severe depletion of game animals."

Prof Carlos Peres, also from UEA's School of Environmental Sciences, said: "Our analysis shows that the sustainability of protein acquisition in tropical forests is primarily governed by the spatial context of mortality sinks, human population density, and availability of alternative protein.":

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http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/content/53/10/994.full

Wildlife Encounters by Lewis and Clark: A Spatial Analysis of Interactions between Native Americans and Wildlife 

Andrea S. Laliberte William J. Ripple 

Abstract

The Lewis and Clark journals contain some of the earliest and most detailed written descriptions of a large part of the United States before Euro-American settlement. We used the journal entries to assess the influence of humans on wildlife distribution and abundance. Areas with denser human population, such as the Columbia Basin and the Pacific Coast, had lower species diversity and a lower abundance of large mammals. The opposite effect was observed on the Plains.

 We believe that overhunting before Euro-American contact
and the introduction of the horse, which heightened the effects of hunting, may have been major contributors to the historical absence of some species that are present in the archaeological record. The results show considerable human influence on wildlife even under relatively low human population densities. This finding has major implications for conservation biology and ecological restoration, as human influence is often underestimated when considering presettlement conditions.

BioScience, Volume 53, Issue 10, 1 October 2003, Pages 994–1003
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https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwib4In3z_vWAhVh7YMKHZXpCrAQFghJMAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.h-net.org%2Freviews%2Fshowrev.php%3Fid%3D5068&usg=AOvVaw0rCFI7qjwcyAqLRL5fcbZE

Shepard Krech, III. The Ecological Indian. Myth and History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999

Indian History and Environmental Myth

Sheppard Krech III's book The Ecological Indian sets out to probe the basis and historical validity of the idea that people of native descent are, and always have been, caring towards the environment, a characteristic commonly claimed by or attributed to them. With a series of empirical case studies he investigates whether their ideas and actions were always those of ecologists and conservationists. He finds that the Ecological Indian proposition is of doubtful validity, concluding that, for example, Indians needlessly killed many buffalo, set fires that got out of control, and over-exploited deer and beaver for their skins.

The author examines whether Indians over-hunted, respectively, the buffalo, the white-tailed deer and the beaver. All these species were used aboriginally for subsistence, and after contact they continued to be sources of subsistence food at the same time as they provided market commodities. Krech thinks the commercialisation of deer and beaver hides lead to their overexploitation, but he also believes Indians were wasting buffalo even when the species was being hunted only for subsistence.

For me, this chapter provides the book's most serious challenge to The Ecological Indian. While Indians had uses for every part of the buffalo, their practice of slaughtering whole herds, at a buffalo jump or in an enclosure, sometimes produced more carcasses than a group could possibly use. As a result, waste occurred. He documents instances of Indians leaving animals to rot, utilising only the cows, or taking only the tongues and the humps. However, the overkilling did not cause the extermination of the species, which only came after non-Indians and Metis hunted them commercially for fresh meat, pemmican and hides.

Krech proposes two 'religious' reasons for the earlier over-killing. It was believed (by the Piegan and Cree) that any buffalo that escaped while being rounded up in the hunt would warn other buffalo, who would then avoid hunters, so that it was necessary to chase and kill these escapees, whether they were needed or not. Other Indians (specifically the Cheyenne and Arapaho) believed that when hunters were unable to find buffalo it was because the animals had retreated to a land underneath a large lake, from which they would eventually reappear in endless numbers. Krech concludes that, given these beliefs, the Indians did not see overhunting as a cause of any shortage of animals or the need to conserve.

The next chapter concerns the white-tailed deer. Between about 1670 and 1800 the skins of these animals, previously the major subsistence species for Indians in the Southern and Eastern United States, became their main item of trade with Europeans. Deer were hunted in increasing numbers, in part, according to Krech, to satisfy the Indian's craving for alcohol. By the end of the period deer were scarce or locally absent, which Krech concludes was due to overhunting by Indians. The population did not recover until many years later.

While Krech acknowledges the trade in deer skins occurred during a period of intense disruption, he does not see that dislocation and warfare resulting from European settlement may have rendered the Indian's conservationist practices ineffective. Instead, as with the buffalo example, he explains the willingness to overkill deer by reference to the pre-Christian spiritual beliefs of the tribes of the region. He notes, for instance, that the Cherokee believed in the reincarnation of deer, some of them believing this could recur four or seven times. From this he concludes that conservation would have made no sense to them.