14 DAY TRIAL // About 1 million years back, the Kenyan Rift was kind of like a buffet for our ancestors in the area. The region was populated by elephants, hippos, baboons and many other large animals, which early humans would hunt down, butcher and feed on.
Interestingly, a team of researchers at Bournemouth University say these forefathers of ours in ancient Kenya didn't just aimlessly chase prey around hoping to make a successful kill.
Rather, they were witty enough to make local landscapes work to their advantage. They would wait for their meals to wander off into narrow pathways and then they would ambush the animals. This strategy allowed them to attack large, dangerous prey.
Stone tools designed to cut meat and bones, together with many butchered remains scattered all across the region, testify to this hunting behavior on behalf of early humans in Kenya.
“Animal movements were constrained to particular pathways due to the restrictions imposed by the landscape,” the Bournemouth University researchers explain in a report.
“Early humans became adept at predicting these pathways enabling them to ambush large and dangerous animals as evidenced by the butchered remains present at the site, in association with numerous stone tools,” the scientists further detail.
Our ancestor were quite fond of the Kenyan Rift
Judging by the age and the distribution of the stone tools and animal remains uncovered in the Kenyan Rift, study leader Sally Reynolds and fellow researchers say it was a habit for early humans to hunt in this region, meaning that they would often return here.
As noted, the area was populated by many large animals come to graze on the shores of an ancient freshwater lake and there weren't a whole lot of predators such as lions anywhere near. Plainly put, there was plenty of food to go around and little competition.
Besides, the landscapes were perfectly suited for ambush-based hunting, what with many areas of high elevation that made brilliant lookout points. The lake meant drinking water was always close by and there were also plenty of stones that could be made into tools.
So, yes, it really was an ancient hunter's dream through and through.
