155 

 Limitations of the Data Sets 



Several factors must be considered when reviewing these results. One, these data were based 

 on reports provided by cooperating hunters (see Chapter 3 for additional information). Not all game 

 kills were reported to me. Based on my calculations, conversations with hunters, and information 

 provided by village residents, the reported number of game animals taken probably represents about 

 two-thirds of the total game harvest at X-Hazil Sur during the course of my data collection. Two, the 

 hunters selected when to hunt, what to shoot, and where to go. The reported kills, thus, do not 

 represent a random sample of the game available or the foods they would consume. Three, these data 

 were based on animals that were killed by hunters and do not reflect animals that escaped being killed. 

 For most game species, there were seasonal differences in the age, sex, and number of individuals 

 taken. These results, then, could be biased if individual preferences for or against certain crop species 

 placed a wild animal at a different risk level than other individuals in the population. As a 

 consequence, some of the results may be biased due to the actions of hunters or the behavior of 

 individual game animals. 



Another factor that must be considered while reviewing these data is that many animals, 

 especially those taken in gardens, were killed while they had empty stomachs. Hunters reported that 

 many of the animals taken in gardens obviously were looking for food and probably would have eaten 

 garden crops. As a consequence, these results of crop consumption should be taken as minimum values 

 for the importance of crops to game species. This problem will be discussed below. 



Results 

 Food Items Consumed by Game Species 



Food items were identified for 11 of the 12 game species taken by Maya hunters at X-Hazil 

 Sur. For two reasons, food items were not identified for the pocket gopher: One, local residents 

 always cooked and consumed the entire pocket gopher; thus, stomach contents normally were not 

 available for collection. Two, pocket gophers normally ground up their food into extremely fine 



