A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, August 2015. / Burials within the Western Cape provide a valuable opportunity to understand past social practices during the Later Stone Age. The aim of this dissertation is to specifically study Western Cape LSA burials in such a way as to understand the social and cognitive processes of hunter-gatherers in that region. In order to do this the burials will be approached and studied from a social and cultural perspective. This will include applying a theoretical approach which lends itself to materiality. Certain techniques will be employed to aid the study of this research question, such as a temporal, spatial and structural analysis of the Western Cape burials. Once the temporal analysis is done, certain sections within time can more closely be studied and analysed. The spatial analysis will examine the sites on a regional scale. The interpretative discussion will concentrate on specific patterns and structural aspects of the burials. The above may illuminate a possible array of questions to be asked surrounding the Western Cape burials. This in turn will help in aiding a discussion surrounding the cognitive and social processes of hunter-gatherers in the Western Cape.

Presented dissertation thesis focuses on legal regulation of hunting in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland and Germany. Due to the fact that the hunting legislation is largely a matter of national law, the work discusses about the fundamental institutes of legal regulation of hunting wild animals (games and fishes). Institutes common to all the countries are the term "game" and the protection of the gene pool. Along with legal regulation of hunting shall be considered property right and its relation to the enforcement of hunting or fishing rights. The common feature of all the legislation is to determine the conditions under which natural persons may hunt or fish, hunting periods, hunting methods, and regulation of the establishment and use of hunting districts. National legislation of hunting and fishing, as is the case in other areas of law, cannot be isolated from the effects of international law and EU law, therefore work also provides an overview of the basic acts of international and supranational law affecting hunting and fishing. In conclusion, the work offers the author's de lege ferenda opinions.

Áreas protegidas são consensualmente reconhecidas como a principal estratégia para a conservação da biodiversidade. Avaliar a efetividade destas áreas, especialmente em biomas como a Mata Atlântica onde as áreas protegidas são como ilhas de floresta em paisagens altamente alteradas pelo homem, é de suma importância. O Parque Nacional do Iguaçu (PNI) abriga um dos maiores remanescentes de Mata Atlântica do Brasil, possui alta visitação turística, assenta-se sobre solos férteis, sofrendo muitas pressões advindas das paisagens antropizadas adjacentes, e é considerado um dos parques mais bem geridos no país. Este trabalho buscou avaliar a efetividade desta área protegida através da análise do padrão de ocupação de 17 espécies de mamíferos terrestres de maior porte em relação à proximidade a atrativos turísticos, distância da borda do parque e pressão de caça. Informações sobre ocupação foram obtidas entre 2009 e 2013 através de armadilhas fotográficas distribuídas sistematicamente em 37 sítios amostrais em cerca de 300 km2, um sexto da área do parque. Muitas espécies raras ou localmente extintas em outros remanescentes de Mata Atlântica apresentaram altas taxas de ocupação no PNI, que juntamente com poucas áreas protegidas do sudeste do Brasil representam as únicas áreas do bioma que ainda abrigam uma fauna de grandes mamíferos intacta. No entanto, a distribuição de 11 das 17 espécies analisadas não foi homogênea, tendo sido afetada por pelo menos um dos fatores de ameaça estudados, principalmente a distância da borda do parque e proximidade a atrativos turísticos. O efeito negativo destas ameaças deve ser ainda mais forte em áreas protegidas menores e mais isoladas, que representam a maioria em biomas muito alterados como a Mata Atlântica. Medidas como o restabelecimento e manejo de zonas tampão, a manutenção de atrativos turísticos em áreas restritas, o combate efetivo das atividades ilícitas e a redução de conflitos entre animais silvestres e o homem, são fundamentais para a efetividade de áreas protegidas para conservação da biodiversidade no longo prazo / Protected areas are widely recognized as the main strategy for biodiversity conservation. Evaluating the effectiveness of these areas, especially in biomes such as the Atlantic Forest where protected areas are forest islands immersed in highly altered landscapes, is of paramount importance. The Iguaçu National Park (INP) harbors one of the largest Atlantic Forest remnants in Brazil, receives vast number of tourists, is located on productive soils, suffering many threats from the adjacent human-modified landscapes, and is considered one of the best managed parks in the country. This study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of this protected area through the analysis of the occupancy patterns of 17 terrestrial large mammals relative to the proximity to tourism attractions, distance from the edge of the park and hunting pressure. Occupancy information was obtained from 2009 to 2013 with camera traps distributed systematically across 37 sites covering around 300 km2, one-sixth of the park. Many species that are rare or locally extinct in other Atlantic Forest remnants presented high occupancy within the INP, which together with few protected areas from southeastern Brazil represent the only areas of this biome that still harbor an intact large mammal fauna. The distribution of 11 of the 17 analyzed species was not homogeneous across the park, however, being affected by at least one of the studied threat factors, mainly the distance from the edge of the park and proximity to tourism attractions. The negative effects of these threats should be even stronger on smaller and more isolated protected areas, which are the majority in highly altered biomes such as the Atlantic Forest. Measures such as the re-establish and management of buffer zones, the maintenance of tourism in restricted areas, the effective combat of illicit activities and the reduction of human-wildlife conflicts are essential to the effectiveness of protected areas for biodiversity conservation in the long run

[pt] O objeto da pesquisa foi comparar e compreender as transformações da paisagem do município do Rio de Janeiro, por meio da reconstituição de práticas e motivações de caçadores nas décadas anteriores a 1970, quando foi criado Parque Estadual da Pedra Branca. Por meio da coleta e análise de histórias orais e de entrevistas semi-estruturadas com moradores antigos do lugar, obteve-se uma visão mais clara sobre a relação entre a sociedade e a floresta ao longo dos últimos 40 anos. A caça praticada antes dos anos 70 era mais importante para a subistência cultural dos moradores pobres do entorno da floresta do que propriamente para a subsitência alimentar. O processo de urbanização da cidade alterou a relação dessas populações com a floresta em diversos aspectos, como o acesso à alimentação industrializada e o uso de refrigeradores domésticos, que praticamente eliminou a necessidade cultural dessa prática, embora a caça clandestina ainda seja praticada. A identificação das diferentes motivações e sentidos atribuídos às práticas antigas de caça lança luz sobre as políticas de conservação da natureza e ajuda a compreender o papel dessas populações na composição da atual floresta. / [en] The purpose of this thesis is to compare and comprehend landscape transformation in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil through reconstruction of various hunting practices and motivations in the decades prior to the 1970s, when the Pedra Branca State Park was established. By collecting and analyzing oral histories through semi-structured interviews with often poor, older residents in proximity to the park, a clearer picture of the relationship between society and the forest over the past 40 years is obtained. Hunting practiced in the years prior to the 1970s was much more important to these residents for their cultural subsistence than dietary needs. Urbanization of this region of the city altered the relation that these populations had with the forest in various manners, such as greater access to industrialized food products and more ample use of refrigeration. This process practically eliminated the cultural necessity of hunting, although clandestine hunting continues, driven by a black market for animals and animal products. The identification of different motivations and feelings attributed to hunting sheds light on nature conservation policies and helps to understand the role of these marginalized citizens in the composition of the current forest.

In the Diploma thesis called "Research of seasonality in the animal dental cement and the use of this method in archaeology", I devote myself to one of the most reliable methods for determining the age cementochronology, or the analysis of increments of the dental cement. By using the method, it is possible to relatively accurately evaluate the age of an individual and to determine the death season, and thus we penetrate deeper not only to problems of palaeoecological conditions of archaeological situations, but also to economical-social relationships of then populations. Cementochronology also allows trace hunting and settlement strategies, i. e. when and for a what purpose the specific site was settled. The Diploma thesis summerizes previous knowledge about the method and compares it with the results obtained by the analysis of increments of the dental cement, which was applied on referential zoological and archaeozoological material.

En milieu marin, les oiseaux sont souvent observés en groupe lors de la recherche et de la chasse de proies. Les mécanismes sous-jacents à ces comportements ainsi que leurs conséquences sur l'approvisionnement alimentaire des individus sont peu connus du fait des difficultés d'observation en mer. Pour expliquer ces stratégies de groupe communes à de nombreuses espèces d'oiseaux marins, la principale hypothèse propose qu'elles répondent aux spécificités de leurs champs de proies. Le milieu marin pélagique est caractérisé par une forte variabilité spatio-temporelle. Dans ce milieu ouvert, les ressources sont agrégées de façon hiérarchiques et leur localisation est changeante. Le milieu marin est ainsi propice au développement de stratégies de groupe pour l'approvisionnement alimentaire. Cette thèse étudie les interactions sociales lors des voyages en mer d'un oiseau marin, le fou du Cap. L'objectif est d'en évaluer la prévalence et les effets sur l'approvisionnement alimentaire des individus. Des adultes reproducteurs ont été équipés de GPS et de micro-caméras afin d'étudier leurs mouvements en mer en relation avec leur contexte proximal. Tous les oiseaux équipés ont interagi avec des congénères, lors des phases de posées sur l'eau, en vol pour la recherche de proie, ou en chasse sur un banc de proies. La présence de congénères est le moteur principal des mouvements des fous du Cap à une échelle inférieure à la dizaine ou la vingtaine de kilomètres. Plusieurs types d'interactions ayant une influence sur les capacités d'approvisionnement alimentaire des individus ont été mis en évidence. Lors de la recherche de proies, les fous réagissent à leurs congénères en modifiant leur direction de vol, et réduisent ainsi leur temps de recherche. Les fous sont attirés par les agrégations de congénères ; la détection de groupes de prédateurs en chasse augmente les distances de détection des proies. Par ailleurs, des observations vidéos sous-marines de groupes de prédateurs en chasse sur des bancs de poissons ont été utilisées pour quantifier l'influence des prédateurs sur les captures de proies des fous du Cap. Les attaques successives des prédateurs déstructurent les bancs et augmentent les succès de capture des individus. La thèse met en évidence le rôle prépondérant des interactions sociales entre oiseaux marins au cours de toutes les étapes d'un voyage d'approvisionnement alimentaire : de l'orientation vers une zone potentielle de nourrissage à la capture de proies, en passant par la localisation et l'exploitation de bancs de poissons. Le développement des stratégies de groupe chez les fous du Cap répond d'une part à la difficulté de localisation et d'autre part aux stratégies d'évitement de leurs proies. La capacité à former des groupes de chasse pour rechercher et exploiter des proies pourrait constituer une condition essentielle au maintien des populations de fous du Cap, et pourrait expliquer la forte occurrence de ce comportement chez les oiseaux marins. La notion de compétition entre oiseaux de mer serait donc à tempérer, tant la facilitation entre eux est importante. / In the marine environment, seabirds are commonly observed foraging in groups. The mechanisms underlying these behaviours, and their consequences on the foraging success of individuals, are poorly understood due to the difficulties in studying their behaviour at sea. The main hypothesis proposed to explain these group strategies, which are common to many seabird species, is that seabirds respond to the characteristics of their prey fields. The marine environment is vast and highly dynamic. The resources are aggregated in hierarchical patches of which the location is constantly changing. The marine environment therefore favours the evolution of foraging group strategies to increase the success of individuals. The objective of this thesis is to study the social interactions during the foraging trips of a seabird, the Cape gannet, and to study their effects on the foraging decisions of individuals. Breeders were equipped with GPS devices and video-cameras in order to study their movement at sea in relation to their proximate environment. All the individuals equipped in this study interacted with conspecifics at sea, either when sitting on the water, flying in search for prey, or hunting at a school of fish. Predators within the proximate environment of Cape gannets were the main drivers of their movement patterns at scales roughly < 20 km. Several types of interactions were observed to affect the foraging capacities of individuals. While searching for prey, gannets reacted to conspecifics by changing their flight direction thereby reducing the time to find prey. Gannets were attracted to aggregations of conspecifics, and the detection and joining of foraging groups increased their abilities to find and hunt for inconspicuous prey. Furthermore, underwater video footages of pelagic fish schools under predation were used to quantify the influence of group foraging on the feeding success of Cape gannets. Successive attacks by several individuals disorganized the fish schools and increased the feeding success of individual birds. This thesis highlights the important role of social interactions along all stages of a foraging trip in Cape gannets: when choosing a direction from the colony to orientate towards a patch of food, in order to locate inconspicuous prey, and to capture fish in schools. The use of group strategies in Cape gannets seems to have evolved in response to both the difficulties in locating prey in the marine environment and the anti-predatory behaviour of fish schools. The ability to form groups to forage at sea could be essential to the persistence of Cape gannet populations. These mechanisms could partly explain the prevalence of colonial breeding in seabirds. Competition between seabirds should therefore be moderated, as facilitation during foraging seems to play a crucial role in enhancing feeding success of individuals.

Áreas protegidas são consensualmente reconhecidas como a principal estratégia para a conservação da biodiversidade. Avaliar a efetividade destas áreas, especialmente em biomas como a Mata Atlântica onde as áreas protegidas são como ilhas de floresta em paisagens altamente alteradas pelo homem, é de suma importância. O Parque Nacional do Iguaçu (PNI) abriga um dos maiores remanescentes de Mata Atlântica do Brasil, possui alta visitação turística, assenta-se sobre solos férteis, sofrendo muitas pressões advindas das paisagens antropizadas adjacentes, e é considerado um dos parques mais bem geridos no país. Este trabalho buscou avaliar a efetividade desta área protegida através da análise do padrão de ocupação de 17 espécies de mamíferos terrestres de maior porte em relação à proximidade a atrativos turísticos, distância da borda do parque e pressão de caça. Informações sobre ocupação foram obtidas entre 2009 e 2013 através de armadilhas fotográficas distribuídas sistematicamente em 37 sítios amostrais em cerca de 300 km2, um sexto da área do parque. Muitas espécies raras ou localmente extintas em outros remanescentes de Mata Atlântica apresentaram altas taxas de ocupação no PNI, que juntamente com poucas áreas protegidas do sudeste do Brasil representam as únicas áreas do bioma que ainda abrigam uma fauna de grandes mamíferos intacta. No entanto, a distribuição de 11 das 17 espécies analisadas não foi homogênea, tendo sido afetada por pelo menos um dos fatores de ameaça estudados, principalmente a distância da borda do parque e proximidade a atrativos turísticos. O efeito negativo destas ameaças deve ser ainda mais forte em áreas protegidas menores e mais isoladas, que representam a maioria em biomas muito alterados como a Mata Atlântica. Medidas como o restabelecimento e manejo de zonas tampão, a manutenção de atrativos turísticos em áreas restritas, o combate efetivo das atividades ilícitas e a redução de conflitos entre animais silvestres e o homem, são fundamentais para a efetividade de áreas protegidas para conservação da biodiversidade no longo prazo / Protected areas are widely recognized as the main strategy for biodiversity conservation. Evaluating the effectiveness of these areas, especially in biomes such as the Atlantic Forest where protected areas are forest islands immersed in highly altered landscapes, is of paramount importance. The Iguaçu National Park (INP) harbors one of the largest Atlantic Forest remnants in Brazil, receives vast number of tourists, is located on productive soils, suffering many threats from the adjacent human-modified landscapes, and is considered one of the best managed parks in the country. This study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of this protected area through the analysis of the occupancy patterns of 17 terrestrial large mammals relative to the proximity to tourism attractions, distance from the edge of the park and hunting pressure. Occupancy information was obtained from 2009 to 2013 with camera traps distributed systematically across 37 sites covering around 300 km2, one-sixth of the park. Many species that are rare or locally extinct in other Atlantic Forest remnants presented high occupancy within the INP, which together with few protected areas from southeastern Brazil represent the only areas of this biome that still harbor an intact large mammal fauna. The distribution of 11 of the 17 analyzed species was not homogeneous across the park, however, being affected by at least one of the studied threat factors, mainly the distance from the edge of the park and proximity to tourism attractions. The negative effects of these threats should be even stronger on smaller and more isolated protected areas, which are the majority in highly altered biomes such as the Atlantic Forest. Measures such as the re-establish and management of buffer zones, the maintenance of tourism in restricted areas, the effective combat of illicit activities and the reduction of human-wildlife conflicts are essential to the effectiveness of protected areas for biodiversity conservation in the long run

Durant la seconde moitié du xxe siècle, la chasse a changé. D'une libre cueillette aléatoire du gibier, elle a été peu à peu dirigée vers des concepts de récolte modérément intrusive et vers la gestion de la faune sauvage. Caractérisant la chasse française, particulièrement lorsqu'elle est pratiquée traditionnellement, aux chiens courants, le jeu-duel avec le gibier a persisté, parfois avec difficulté. Longtemps peu abondant, le sanglier, comme tout le grand gibier de plaine, a observé une forte croissance démographique au cours des trente dernières années. Il engendre désormais de plus en plus de nuisances aux activités humaines. Alors que seuls les chasseurs régulent les sangliers, tout en assurant le financement de l'Administration de la chasse et l'indemnisation des dégâts à l'agriculture, leurs effectifs connaissent un déclin prononcé et continu. Les pouvoirs publics sont confrontés à un impératif de maîtrise des populations de sangliers. Afin d'optimiser l'efficacité des actions de chasse, les doctrines longuement enseignées et imposées au chasseur sont progressivement remises en cause au profit du rétablissement de techniques si longtemps bannies. Mus par une passion extraordinaire, les chasseurs, grâce à leur loisir, contribuent à l'intérêt public. Néanmoins, ils acceptent avec difficulté les objectifs qui leur sont fixés mais aussi et au-delà, la seconde révolution conceptuelle qui leur est imposée. Cultures cynégétiques, représentations symboliques, rapport au gibier, au sauvage et à la nature sous-tendent comme ils président à l'acte de chasse. Au risque d'hypothéquer les chances de réussite des nouvelles politiques publiques, il apparaît que ces dimensions fondatrices et essentielles doivent être prises en compte dans la promotion des mesures comme dans l'action normative conduites par cette Administration tripartite "sui generis" qui caractérise la chasse française, impliquant l'État, un établissement public dédié et les fédérations des chasseurs. / In the second half of the 20th century, hunting has changed. From a free random sampling of game, it has been orientated towards concepts of mildly intrusive wildlife harvest and management. Characterizing French hunting, in particular when practiced traditionally, with hounds, is that the dueling-play with the wild game has persisted, though with some difficulty. Having been scarce for a long period, wild boar, just as other lowland ungulates, experienced a strong demographic increase over the last three decades. The species nowadays causes harm to human activities which can be rather serious. And while only the hunters regulate wild boar population, contributing at the same time to the financing of the Hunting Administration and of the compensation of agricultural damages, their own numbers are in a clear and ongoing decline. Public authorities are confronted with the necessity to control wild boar populations. In order to optimize the efficacy of hunting activities, the rules submitted and imposed to the hunter are progressively put into question to the benefit of the return of techniques which had been barred much earlier. Moved by an extraordinary passion, hunters, through the practice of their leisure activity, make a contribution to the public interest. However, they do not eagerly accept the objectives which are set for them, nor the second conceptual revolution which is imposed on them. Representations, symbolism, the relationship with game, wildlife and nature are equally underlying in the hunters’ culture and way of thinking, and at the same time they do guide his actions and choices. With the risk to jeopardize the chances of success of the new public policies, it appears that these founding and essential dimensions of the hunting act need to be taken into consideration when promoting measures such as in the normative actions undertaken by the three-party Administration “sui generis” characterizing hunting in France, involving the State, a specific public establishment and the hunters’ federations.

Predicting language outcomes in children who at age two are "late talkers" is a concern of Speech Language Pathologists. Currently, there is no conclusive data allowing specialists to predict which children will outgrow their delays and which children will not. The purpose of the present study is to analyze the effect of a receptive language delay on the outcome of the slow expressive language delayed child, and determine whether or not it is a viable predictor of poor outcomes. The subject information used in this project was compiled from the data collected and reported by Paul (1991) during the Portland Language Development Project (PLDP). Children in the PLDP first participated in the longitudinal study between the ages of twenty to thirtyfour months. They were categorized as being slow in expressive language development if they produced fewer that fifty intelligible words during this age range. They were then subgrouped into an expressive-receptive delayed group if they scored more than one standard deviation below the mean on the Reynell Developmental Language Scales. Of the twenty-five subjects with complete data over the five years of the study, nineteen were considered to be solely expressively delayed, while the remaining six were classified as having both an expressive and a receptive language delay. Lee's Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) (1974) was used to track the subject's expressive language abilities to the age of seven. DSS scores were analyzed yearly, using the Mann-Whitney nonparametric statistical test. This would determine whether the subjects considered to be both expressively and receptively delayed were exhibiting more difficulties in their expressive language abilities than those subjects with expressive delays alone. The results of the study indicated that significant differences did not exist between the two groups. Therefore, there was insufficient evidence to conclude that a receptive language delay at twenty to thirty-four months of age is a feasible predictor of lasting expressive language delays. This leads to the recommendation that additional research be conducted focusing on areas other than receptive language abilities as being predictors of poor expressive language outcomes.

The sooty shearwater (also known as the muttonbird, Titi, Puffinus griseus) is a long-lived super-abundant, burrow nesting petrel, harvested by Rakiura Maori from breeding colonies, located in southern New Zealand. The harvest is culturally defining and enormously important for Rakiura Maori. The work in this thesis contributes to the Kia Mau te Titi Mo Ake Tonu Atu Research Project being undertaken by Rakiura Maori and the University of Otago, towards assessing ongoing sustainability of the harvest and future threats. Analyses of eight muttonbirder harvest records spanning, 1938 to 2004, show that harvest rates demonstrate, systematic commonalities in seasonal patterns and broad-scale consistency in trends of chick abundance and quality across harvested islands. If co-ordinated and well replicated, harvest records offer Rakiura Maori a low-cost and effective monitoring tool of sooty shearwater reproductive success and long-term population abundance. Hunt tallies provide additional evidence of a dramatic reduction in sooty shearwater abundance from the late 1980s that was also detected by counts from boats off the western seaboard of the USA. A conservative estimate of overall decline in hunt success across diaries, for the period 1972 to 2004, is 1.89 % (CI₉₅ 1.14 to 2.65) per annum, a total reduction of 39.2%. The harvesting records show a sooty shearwater mortality event occurred just prior to the 1993-breeding season at the same time as a severe negative anomaly in both the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and Southern Oscillation Indices. The hunting diaries show a decoupling of chick size with harvest success in the early 1990s. This resulted from a decline in harvest success and an increase in its variability, while chick size remained correlated with changing chick abundance and maintained its pre-1990 average. Long- lived seabirds maintain high survival by skipping breeding and abandoning breeding attempts when oceanic conditions deteriorate, increasing variability in chick abundance is also evidence of pressure on adult survivorship. The multiple diaries confirm these were major demographic events not confined to a single island. My survival estimates for The Snares and Whenua Hou were very high 0.952 (0.896-0.979) compared to earlier estimates for this species. Transience at the colonies is high due to the presence ofjuvenile and pre-breeding birds. Both naturally high survival and the large number of transient pre-breeders indicate sooty shearwater are more resilient to harvest than earlier survival models suggested. There was no evidence for directional change in sooty shearwater breeding phenology over 49-years of harvest. Climate fluctuation/change is therefore apparently not altering egg-laying. Peak fledging occurred fairly consistently in the 2nd of May (IQR = 2.91 days). Yearly variability in emergence occurs primarily due to provisioning and localized fledging conditions. Larger chick size was strongly correlated with delayed fledging and is consistent with the traditional ecological knowledge of the birders. There was no evidence for chicks becoming smaller or that years with starving chicks were more common, so increasing mismatch of breeding with optimal forage was not indicated. The past proportion of birders over the last 20 years (1985 - 2005) has been ~2% all of Rakiura Maori. Approximately 376 birders participated in the 2006 season with an estimated of overall harvest intensity 19.4% (CI₉₅ = 13.8 - 24.2%) and a total catch of 381,000 (CI₉₅ = 262,257 - 487,186) chicks. This study found evidence that catch rates reduced with increasing birder competition partially mitigating effects on harvest pressure. The combined effects of potential climate change on bird abundance and increased harvester competition suggests that the proportion of Rakiura Maori whom choose to bird is likely to decrease as tallies reduce and cost recovery becomes more difficult. Rakiura Maori have for many years cherished and maintained their islands and implemented protective measures to safeguarded titi breeding habitat. Future harvest management will have additional issues to contend with, but Rakiura Maori are necessarily confronting these issues as the titi culture rests on the maintenance of their taonga. The information presented in this thesis shows that combining science and traditional knowledge is a powerful tool for managing harvest sustainability.