2016/02/01 by Lucienne Wilmé, Patrick O. Waeber, Joerg U. Ganzhorn · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Turtle Biology and Conservation #Marine animal studies overview #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
paper · doi:10.1016/j.crvi.2015.12.001
openalex publication_date 2016/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/27
Austronesians colonized the islands of Rapa Nui, Hawaii, the Marquesas and Madagascar. All of these islands have been found to harbor Austronesian artifacts and also, all of them are known nesting sites for marine turtles. Turtles are well known for their transoceanic migrations, sometimes totalling thousands of miles, between feeding and nesting grounds. All marine turtles require land for nesting. Ancient Austronesians are known to have had outstanding navigation skills, which they used to adjust course directions. But these skills will have been insufficient to locate tiny, remote islands in the vast Indo-Pacific oceans. We postulate that the Austronesians must have had an understanding of the marine turtles' migration patterns and used this knowledge to locate remote and unknown islands. The depth and speed at which marine turtles migrate makes following them by outrigger canoes feasible. Humans have long capitalized on knowledge of animal behavior.