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

Overall, the dietary data in the present study exhibits both overlap and contrast with
the results of the ecological studies cited. All but two of the eighteen food plants
recorded in this study correspond at the family level, and five at generic and specific
levels. This is despite the geographical separation of the study sites and the relatively
small proportion of food plants identified to generic or species level in the ecological
studies cited. Various food items, both specific and categorical, commonly reported in
ecological studies were either not recorded in or eliminated from this study, indicating
that a comprehensive list of foods was not obtained.
In other aspects of ecology investigated, the present study corresponds closely
to the results of ecological studies (table 7.2). Twenty-one observations were
derived from the ethnoecological data set for which information on corresponding
subjects was available in the biological literature on this species, and in all cases the
information provided was either identical or consistent. The ethnoecological data set
also includes a number of important observations not included in any of the published
data.
7.3 White-lipped peccary
The list of foods reported in multiple ethnoecological interviews on bichi included
the reproductive parts (fruits or seeds or both) of the plant species listed in table
7.3. Other plant foods included those already listed for the collared peccary: wild
banana, and the cultivated tubers cassava (Manihot esculenta), sweet potato
(Ipomoea batatas), yam (Dioscorea cayennensis) and eddo (Colocasia esculenta).
Animal foods listed were earthworms, yapun, snakes - of which bushmaster
(Lachesis muta), labarria (Bothrops atrox) and land camoudi (Constrictor constrictor)
were all specified - fish found in drying pools and bird eggs, of which those of the
maami (Tinamus major, and possibly other closely related species of ground-nesting
birds) were specified.
Stomach contents of white-lipped peccaries in Peru included seeds of Mauritia
flexuosa and species of Astrocaryum and Oenocarpus (Jessenia) (Kiltie 1981a). Later
studies from Peru reproduced these findings, and also identified seeds of Euterpe,
Spondias, Inga and Virola. Remains of plant reproductive parts identified to the family
level included members of the Apocynaceae, Bombacaceae, Chrysobalanaceae,
Lecythidaceae, Moraceae and Sapotaceae (Bodmer 1989: 467). Oenocarpus bataua
has since been specifically identified in stomachs of peccaries in this area (Bodmer et
al. 1997b: 18-19). Consumption of Spondias mombin was reported from dry forests
of the Venezuelan llanos (Barreto et al. 1997: 281) All but two of the twenty-five