Tool-Supported Scavenging – A Cutting-Edge Advantage

Christine Hertler1*, Miriam Haidle1, Ana Mateos2, and Jesús Rodríguez2

Scavenging is considered as one of the early options for hominins when they began to include meat and fat in their diets. This strategy does not rely on killing skills or advanced technology, ensuring nevertheless access to animal tissues as valuable food resources. Carcasses are abundantly available in all ecosystems from the equator to the poles, and they come in all sizes. However, in the presence of other predators, time which can be spent interacting with a carcass becomes a critical variable. A rapid removal of animal tissues from a carcass reduces the impact of competition with other predators. The Cut&Run ABM allows to quantify the advantage humans gain from tool-supported scavenging and allows to compare it with strategies where hominins exploit carcasses without tools. The Cut&Run ABM simulates competition with other scavengers and allows to measure various monitoring variables like survival rates, time budgets or return rates. We designed two different scenarios to compare tool-supported versus unsupported scavenging strategies. In the unsupported scenario, hominins start a scavenging trip, when they feel hungry. They approach a carcass as a group and consume meat and fat directly at the carcass until they are disturbed or they replenished their energy deposits. In the tool-supported scenario, hominins start slicing parts off a carcass when they find one. These parts are subsequently transported to a safe area, where they are consumed without further disturbance. This advantage, however, comes with costs of searching for raw materials, transport, and tool manufacture. We introduce the Cut&Run model and measure, compare, and discuss various output variables.