Douglas Bird

Professor of Anthropology

Douglas Bird

Research Summary

Livelihood decisions and habitats, exploring the dynamics of human subsistence practices, their role in ecosystem function, and their archaeological implications in Australia and Western North America.

Huck Affiliations

Most Recent Publications

Why do humans hunt cooperatively? Ethnohistoric data reveal the contexts, advantages and evolutionary importance of communal hunting

Eugene Morin, Douglas Bird, R Bird, Bruce Winterhalder, Current Anthropology

Seed dispersal by Martu peoples promotes the distribution of native plants in arid Australia

Rebecca Bliege Bird, Douglas W. Bird, Christopher T. Martine, Chloe McGuire, Leanne Greenwood, Desmond Taylor, Tanisha M. Williams, Peter M. Veth, 2024, Nature Communications

Foraging strategies

Jeremy Koster, Douglas Bird, 2024, on p. 48-75

The role of theory and ethnographic analogies in understanding paleoindian obsidian acquisition, mobility, and mating strategies in the Great Basin

Zeanah, Codding, D , Rebecca Bliege Bird, McGuire, Jones, Elston, 2023,

Resource Acquisition Risk and the Division of Labor: Austral Lessons for Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology

Brian F. Codding, Rebecca Bliege Bird, David W. Zeanah, Douglas W. Bird, 2023, on p. 129-146

Regenerative landscape design: an integrative framework to enhance sustainability planning

E Smithwick, Jennifer Baka, D Bird, Christopher Blaszscak-Boxe, C Blaszczak-Boxe, C Cole, J Fuentes, Sarah Gergel, Leland Glenna, C Grady, A Graefe, C Hunt, L Iulo, Carter Hunt, L Iulo, Jason Kaye, Klaus Keller, J Kaye, Klaus Keller, 2023, Conservation Ecology

A collaborative agenda for archaeology and fire science

Grant Snitker, Christopher Roos, Alan Sullivan, S. Maezumi, Douglas W. Bird, Michael Coughlan, Kelly Derr, Linn Gassaway, Anna Klimaszewski-Patterson, Rachel Loehman, 2022, Nature Ecology and Evolution on p. 835-839

Deconstructing Hunting Returns: Can We Reconstruct and Predict Payoffs from Pursuing Prey?

Eugène Morin, Douglas Bird, Bruce Winterhalder, Rebecca Bliege Bird, 2021, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory on p. 1-63

Mass procurement and prey rankings: insights from the European rabbit

Eugène Morin, Rebecca Bliege Bird, Douglas Bird, 2020, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences

Erratum: Opinion: To understand how migrations affect human securities, look to the past (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (2020) 117 (20342–20345) DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2015146117)

Jeffrey H. Altschul, Keith W. Kintigh, Mark Aldenderfer, Elise Alonzi, Ian Armit, Juan Antonio Barceló, Christopher S. Beekman, Penny Bickle, Douglas W. Bird, Scott E. Ingram, Elena Isayev, Andrew W. Kandel, Rachael Kiddey, Hélène Timpoko Kienon-Kaboré, Franco Niccolucci, Corey S. Ragsdale, Beth K. Scaffidi, Scott G. Ortman, 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on p. 27059

Most-Cited Papers

Behavioral ecology and the future of archaeological science

Brian F. Codding, Douglas W. Bird, 2015, Journal of Archaeological Science on p. 9-20

Human behaviour as a long-term ecological driver of non-human evolution

Alexis P. Sullivan, Douglas W. Bird, George H. Perry, 2017, Nature Ecology and Evolution

Variability in the organization and size of hunter-gatherer groups: Foragers do not live in small-scale societies

Douglas W. Bird, Rebecca Bliege Bird, Brian F. Codding, David W. Zeanah, 2019, Journal of Human Evolution on p. 96-108

Aboriginal burning promotes fine-scale pyrodiversity and native predators in Australia's Western Desert

Rebecca Bliege Bird, Douglas W. Bird, Luis E. Fernandez, Nyalanka Taylor, Wakka Taylor, Dale Nimmo, 2018, Biological Conservation on p. 110-118

A landscape architecture of fire: Cultural emergence and ecological pyrodiversity in Australia’s Western Desert

Douglas W. Bird, Rebecca Bliege Bird, Brian F. Codding, Nyalangka Taylor, 2016, Current Anthropology on p. S65-S79

Conservation or co-evolution? Intermediate levels of aboriginal burning and hunting have positive effects on kangaroo populations in Western Australia

Brian F. Codding, Rebecca Bliege Bird, Peter G. Kauhanen, Douglas W. Bird, 2014, Human Ecology on p. 659-669

Fire mosaics and habitat choice in nomadic foragers

R Bliege Bird, Rebecca Bliege Bird, Chloe McGuire, Douglas W. Bird, Michael Price, David Zeanah, Dale Nimmo, 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on p. 12904-12914

The life history of human foraging: Cross-cultural and individual variation

Jeremy Koster, Richard McElreath, Kim Hill, Douglas Yu, Glenn Shepard, Shepard, Glenn, Jr., Van Vliet, Nathalie, Nathalie Van Vliet, Michael Gurven, Benjamin Trumble, Rebecca Bliege Bird, R Bliege Bird, Douglas Bird, Brian Codding, Lauren Coad, Luis Pacheco-Cobos, Bruce Winterhalder, Karen Lupo, Dave Schmitt, Paul Sillitoe, Margaret Franzen, Michael Alvard, Vivek Venkataraman, Thomas Kraft, Kirk Endicott, S Beckerman, Stuart Marks, Thomas Headland, Margaretha Pangau-Adam, Anders Siren, Karen Kramer, Russell Greaves, Victoria Reyes-García, Victoria Reyes-Garcia, Maximilien Gueze, Maximilien Guèze, Romain Duda, Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares, Alvaro Fernandez-Llamazares, Sandrine Gallois, Lucentezza Napitupulu, Roy Ellen, John Ziker, Martin Nielsen, Elspeth Ready, Christopher Healey, Cody Ross, 2020, Science advances

Shellfishing and human evolution

Richard G. Klein, Douglas W. Bird, 2016, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology on p. 198-205

People, El Niño southern oscillation and fire in Australia: Fire regimes and climate controls in hummock grasslands

Rebecca Bliege Bird, Douglas W. Bird, Brian F. Codding, 2016, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

News Articles Featuring Douglas Bird

Oct 10, 2024

Landscape effects of hunter-gatherer practices reshape idea of agriculture

Indigenous hunter-gatherer practices play key role in plant dispersal, genetic diversity and conservation, according to new research led by Penn State anthropologists.

Full Article

Nov 06, 2023

Collaborative landscape design approach may improve resiliency, human well-being

A newly proposed landscape stewardship framework may lead to a more resilient and adaptable environment and improved quality of life for people.

Full Article

Jun 12, 2023

Penn State announces tenure-line faculty promotions, effective July 1, 2023

The following is a list of academic promotions for tenured and tenure-line faculty members at Penn State, effective July 1, 2023.

Full Article

Dec 18, 2019

Playing with tools—and weapons—was a ‘normal’ part of prehistoric childhood

Prehistoric children may have been cherished by their parents—but until recently, they’ve been neglected by many archaeologists, who assumed that childhood is simply about toys and games. Now, a new study adds to the growing literature that prehistoric children were hard workers, who learned from an early age to use the weapons and tools that would help them with the rigors of adulthood.

Full Article

Feb 08, 2019

Aboriginal Hunters’ Fires Help Restore an Australian Desert

A study of how the Martu shaped their land presents an example where humans seem to benefit an environment perceived as wilderness.

Full Article