Does anyone know of any Great Bustard bones which may have turned up in
British archaeological excavation collections? The birds went extinct in
Britain in the 1840s although they still occur in Europe. They live in
rolling agricultural land and were common around Salisbury Plain.
Does anyone know of any bone collections in which they might have occured,
and been mis-identified as goose or swan? We know from historical records
that they were widely hunted and eaten.
We're trying to identify the cause of their extinction in Britain, which
could be due to loss of habitat, to hunting or to environmental change.
Thanks,
Erika
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Dr. E.B.A. Guttmann
Department of Environmental Science
University of Stirling
Stirling FK9 4LA
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