163 

 Seasonal Variation in Plant Parts Consumed by Game Species 



Among the major CTop species, the primary plant parts consumed were fruits and seeds (Table 

 5-3). However, game species also consumed tubers (e.g., sweet potato), roots (e.g., yuca), and leaves 

 (e.g., kidney bean and zacate). 



The data suggested that there were seasonal differences in the frequency at which the different 

 plant parts were consumed. Fruits and seeds primarily were consumed during two seasons: (1) plant 

 and weed and (2) weed and harvest. Leaves and plant parts categorized as other, however, primarily 

 were consumed during the season called clear and bum. Due to small sample sizes, it was not possible 

 to test for seasonal differences in consumption by plant part. 



Selected Game Species 



Not all game species at X-Hazil Sur consumed substantial amounts of crop species. This 

 suggests that many game species obtained at least some of their food from the forest and were not 

 dependent upon garden crops for food. For example, no crop species were recorded for stomach 

 contents of the white-lipped peccary (n = 3 stomachs; Table 5-2). Further, of the 11 game species 

 (excluding pocket gophers; Table 5-1), four taxa (coati, brocket deer, white-tailed deer, thicket 

 tinamou, and plain chachalaca) consumed only a single crop species each. Except for the coati, which 

 consumed a substantial amount of com, the contribution of crops to the diets of the remaining three 

 game species was relatively minor. For this reason, these game species were not included in the 

 remaining analyses. In addition, the recorded consumption of crop species by the great curassow (n = 

 13 crop/gizzard samples) and the ocellated turkey (n = 5 crop/gizzard samples) were based on small 

 sample sizes. In order to focus primarily on those game species that frequently ate crops, except for 

 the coati, which consumed substantial amounts of com, these seven species will not be considered here 

 further. For purposes of this chapter, the remaining four game species (paca, agouti, coati, and 

 collared peccary) will be renamed here as selected game species and will form the basis for the 

 following discussion. 



