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Extractive Foraging Hypothesis, The (Parker and Gibson 1997, 2015)

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Synonyms

Scavenge hunting

Definition

Intelligent tool use arose as an adaptation for extractive foraging, i.e., feeding on embedded food sources (susceptible to extraction from a matrix or a case).

Introduction

The Extractive Foraging Hypothesis (EFH) is one of three interrelated hypotheses, first proposed by Parker and Gibson in 1977, about object manipulation and tool use in nonhuman animals. It states that intelligent tool use arose as an adaptation for extractive foraging, i.e., exploiting a variety of seasonally limited, local, high-energy, embedded food sources. The hypothesis further states that increased brain size of great apes and hominids arose as part of this adaptation.

A Taxonomy of Object Manipulation and Tool Use

Parker and Gibson (1977, 1979) proposed three distinct hypotheses about object manipulation and tool use in nonhuman animals. First, they suggested a taxonomy of object manipulation (including simple prehension, simple object manipulation, object-substrate...

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Correspondence to Ludwig Huber .

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Huber, L., O’Hara, M. (2016). Extractive Foraging Hypothesis, The (Parker and Gibson 1997, 2015). In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3104-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3104-1

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