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

8.1.1 Hunting of white-lipped peccary, Tayassu pecari
This species, known as 'bichi' in Wapishana, is the most popular of all game animals,
both (jointly) as reported in household interviews and as people express in
conversation, although recall data on kill rates suggests that T. tajacu outnumbers it
in terms of individuals killed (chapter 4.3.3). The first question asked to people
returning from a forest trip is whether this species was seen, and all reports of
sightings, chases and kills are circulated widely within the local social network. News
of a successful hunt seems to spread quickly throughout the home village of the
hunter, and large-scale kills may be discussed in villages at considerable distances.
There is thus a constant circulation of information on the movements of herds among
hunters, and every hunting party departs for the forest with the benefit of this
knowledge of any recent sightings. Although the hunting of other species is, of
course, a popular topic of conversation, talk of 'bichi' overwhelmingly dominates. It is
possible that this is a collective adaptation to the problems caused by the ranging
behaviour of this species, herds of which move rapidly and unpredictably over vast
distances. The basic opportunistic strategy which comprises much of the hunting
undertaken in Maruranau can be viewed as being adapted to the biology of this
species more than any other, though the distributions and sightings of most game
species are to some extent patchy in both space and time. The particular importance
attached to this species of game animal is also signified symbolically, in that it
appears to be the only animal species whose spiritual aspect functions to encourage,
rather than deter, its hunting (chapter 5.4).
Bichi hunts are of two qualitatively different types: those undertaken when small
hunting parties encounter the animals in the forest, and larger-scale occasions similar
to that previously described among the Waiwai (Mentore 1995), in which the entire
population of a village might be involved. The latter situation arises during the height
of the rainy season, when peccary herds often emerge from the forest onto the
savannah. Local ethnoecological wisdom has it that they do this in order to feed on
the fruits of the etai palm (Mauritia flexuosa), which is rare in the forests of the
Kwitaro river basin, but highly abundant in the vicinity of swamps and watercourses
on the savannah. When a herd is spotted or tracked on the savannah in the vicinity of
a village, a shout is raised and word quickly spread throughout the homesteads and
farming areas. All other tasks are abandoned as men and older boys collect their
weapons and rush to the scene; women at the scene will also find or improvise
weapons in the hope that opportunities for their use may arise. A loose form of
organisation may operate among the hunters as attempts are made to surround the