Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

feeding, and another two of their preference for areas of forest dense with lianas.
Twelve interviewees described their ranging behaviour, all agreeing that herds roam
over huge areas - two interviewees said they might travel to the Essequibo or further
- without inhabiting any particular home range. Three of these also suggested that a
herd will migrate some considerable distance out of an area in response to hunting.
Of eleven figures given for litter size, eight were within the range 1-3, one other
was 2-4. Two aberrant answers were 6-8 and 5-7, the latter of which was qualified by
comparison with domestic pigs. Seven interviewees considered there to be no fixed
breeding season, but five others said that births were concentrated in the rainy
season.
6.3.3 Red brocket deer, ‘bush deer’.
All thirteen interviewees listed fruit and leaves among the food items consumed. Two
also listed flowers, one grass and one seeds. Only four specified foods of major
importance: two of these said the fruits of naata (Hymenaea oblongata), one of
these adding those of kumaraokou (Ficus sp./spp.), the others both saying crops:
young black-eyed beans in one case, leaves of various crop plants in another. Only
three interviewees considered there to be a seasonal food shortage, which they
agreed occurred in the dry season. Two others said that although food scarcity was
not a problem, this species could suffer from water shortage during the dry season.
Another interviewee said that migration to the vicinity of large watercourses might
occur in the dry season as a result of this. Seven interviewees made statements
about dry season foods, of whom five said leaves, one specifying those of tooru
(Cecropia sp.). Two of these and one other considered farms to be an important food
source during the dry season. The final interviewee said the dry season diet consisted
of the fruits of manicole (Euterpe spp.), and flowers; the latter answer was
corroborated by one of the others. Twelve interviewees talked about crop-raiding by
this species, generally agreeing that the young pods of black-eyed beans as well as
the leaves of several crop species - cassava, sweet potatoes, yams, eddoes and
pawpaws - are all eaten. Interviewees' statements about the use of seeds were
contradictory. Five said that seeds were destroyed by chewing during the
consumption of fruit, although one of these said that a small number of species may
be dispersed. Four other interviewees claimed that seeds regurgitated following
rumination could subsequently grow, and hence were dispersed that way. Two others
suggested that some seeds could be dispersed endozoochorously in the faeces.