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 began within 5-10 min of the notification. In order to avoid problems among hunters and to guarantee 

 hunter anonymity, no details of the hunt were divulged to other village residents. Two unresolvable 

 problems were that not all hunters agreed to participate in the study and not all participating hunters 

 reported all the game they took. These problems will be addressed below. 



Another matter to be resolved was how to distinguish between game and nongame species. 

 Hunters at X-Hazil Sur took a wide range of animal taxa for subsistence purposes. However, hunters 

 also captured some species to keep as pets. Other species were killed because they were dangerous 

 (e.g., venomous snakes), killed domestic animals (e.g., Didelphis spp.), possessed valuable skins (e.g., 

 Felidae), or were crop predators (e.g., birds of the Psittacidae, Columbidae, and Icteridae families). 

 Although young boys with slingshots frequendy killed small animals for target practice, adult hunters 

 did not kill animals for this purpose. In order to focus on species taken for subsistence purposes, local 

 hunters were interviewed to develop a list of primary game species. Game species were defined as 

 taxa that were taken regularly by a large number of hunters and whose meat would be socially 

 acceptable to most X-Hazil Sur residents. 



Four taxa were excluded from consideration although Uiey were taken for subsistence purposes 

 by some hunters. Doves (Columbidae) and parrots and parakeets (both Psittacidae) were crop predators 

 and frequently were taken by young boys protecting gardens. These species were excluded because 

 they were not widely consumed by X-Hazil Sur residents. Fish were excluded from this study because 

 only a few residents went fishing, fish generally were available only during a short period of time each 

 year (April-June), and most hunters viewed fishing mainly as a reaeational activity where consumption 

 of the meat was of minor importance. 



The project had several phases and not all types of data were recorded during the entire study. 

 Initially, data were recorded on hunting oufings for game and nongame species. Subsequently, 

 nongame species were excluded from consideration. Effective 31 July 1990, a decision was made to 

 stop recording data for the pocket gopher (Orthogeomys hispidus [Geomyidae]) and plain chachalaca 

 (Ortalis vetula [Cracidae]). This decision was made for three reasons: One, research priorities had 



