100 

 frequently taken in gardens when lactating. Male mammals, according to hunters, were less vulnerable 

 than females to hunters for behavioral reasons; adult males tended to occur individually and could 

 quickly and quietly escape, while adult females tended to occur in groups that included young and other 

 females. Large groups with young, according to hunters, could not escape detection easily as the 

 young frequently made loud noises as they foraged or attempted to flee hunters. Male birds, according 

 to hunters, were easier to take than females because males often displayed from tree tops. While 

 displaying, males were highly visible and less wary of hunters than they normally were. This 

 suggested that female mammals and male birds were more frequently taken as a consequence of their 

 behavior, including different habitat use patterns between sexes, and not as a result of active selection 

 by hunters. 



At X-Hazil Sur, birds and mammals exhibited similar patterns of take by age in that adults 

 composed > 70% of the harvest although young and subadults also were taken. For mammals, 

 substantial numbers of subadults also were taken (ca. 28%), but few subadult birds were taken (ca. 

 17%). Hunters at X-Hazil Sur offered no explanation about these differences other than to suggest that 

 birds matured faster than mammals. It was clear, however, that game of any age class, regardless of 

 species, was potential prey for hunters. 



Only a few studies have documented the age or sex of game taken by subsistence hunters. 

 Age and sex are summarized, however, for three studies in lowland Peru. Pacheco (1987) showed that 

 for both mammals and birds, slightly more females than males were taken by forestry technicians 

 conducting a tree survey, but the study was short (13 days) and sample sizes small (14 species, n = 46 

 game animals). At the second site, Alvard and Kaplan (1991) reported that adults composed 57% of 

 the pacas taken, 83% of the brocket deer, and 74-76% of the peccaries. At the third site, Bodmer (in 

 litt.) reported that males were more frequently taken than females for the collared peccary (1:0.66, 

 males; females, n = 164 individuals), grey brocket deer {Mazama gouazoubira, 1;0.75, n = 28), and 

 paca (1:0.57, n = 174), while females were more frequently taken than males for the white-lipped 

 peccary (1:1.10, n = 166), red brocket deer (1:1.31, n = 60), agouti (1:1.31, n = 97), and acouchi 



