228 

 Four game species were the primary consumers of crops: paca, agouti, coati, and collared 

 peccary (Tables 5-4 and 5-5). These four taxa composed four of the top six game species harvested by 

 number of individuals (rank order 1, 4, 5, and 6) and by total body weight (rank order 2, 3, 4, and 6; 

 Table 3-1). This indicates that at Ejido X-Hazil y Anexos some of the most frequently taken game 

 species were major consumers of crops and supports one of Linares' (1976) assumptions. 



In conclusion, these data suggest that Maya Indians at Ejido X-Hazil y Anexos did not practice 

 garden hunting, where the biomass of game, it is proposed, is increased and able to offset the loss due 

 to hunting. Rather, the data suggest that gardens are acting as a sink (cf., Pulliam, 1988; PuUiam and 

 Danielson, 1991) and that Maya hunters are taking as game those species that occasionally feed on 

 crops. 



In order to help develop wildlife management plans for the area, it would be important to calculate 

 wildlife production and potential harvest for the main game species (Redford, 1992). Productivity is 

 measured by calculating population density and reproductive rate (cf . , Eisenberg and Seidensticker, 

 1976; Eisenberg et al., 1973). Robinson and Redford (1991c) proposed a model to calculate production 

 using three elements: (1) population density at carrying capacity, (2) the maximum rate of population 

 increase, and (3) the density that produces the maximum sustainable yield. Unfortunately, the 

 production and potential harvest values calculated by Robinson and Redford (1991c) are not directly 

 applicable to the present study because the average densities they used were at least 10 times greater ~) 



than those at Ejido X-Hazil y Anexos. Additional census and reproductive data are necessary to 

 determine potential harvest levels. 



Of Linares' (1976) four premises, three were supported: one, wild animals clearly used gardens; 

 two, hunters concentrated their hunting on those animal species that occurred in gardens; and three, 

 game species consumed crops found in gardens. The X-Hazil data, however, did not support the model 

 of garden hunting with respect to wildlife densities. Linares (1976) predicted that game species taken 

 by garden hunting would have greater densities in the vicinity of gardens than in forests without 

 gardens. Hunters at X-Hazil Sur commonly reported that many game species were more abundant in 



