Table 2 Components and management principles of Mayan lagarto hunting
Management components | Local expressions | Purpose and comments |
|---|---|---|
Lagartos distribution (LD) | “In the savanna there are dens, there are many […] near between 2 to 5 mecates [local measurement, 1 mecate ~ 20 m2], […] it looks like a town where lagartos live” (A.C.) | Allows hunters to identify areas where hunting is safe and effective. |
Key-hunting habitat (K-hH) | “The lagartos are in small pools or pozas in the savanna […] they are also in lagoons but the animals dens are is in the pozas and there it [the hunting] does not fail” (A.P.). | Allows hunters to minimize search time. |
Lagartos movement dynamics (LMD) | “The lagartos stay in a poza for one or two weeks and when they get upset (se fastidia) they go to another one looking for food” (J.B.S.). | Allows hunters to predict the delay in occupation of this key hunting habitat dropped off by the lagartos. |
“Sometimes we entered to work in one place and we killed 2 or 3 lagartos and when we were leaving, other lagartos came because the houses [dens] were empty, and at night as lagartos were walking, looking, they arrived” (R.Y.). | ||
Spatial orientation skills and management practices (SkMp) | “To be able to hunt lagartos it is necessary to know the places they [the lagartos] live in, the footprints and the paths to know how to follow them […] the who does not know loses […] all work has to be worked out, may be farther away, but if the soil is firmer [for walking], is faster” (J.T.). | Allows hunters to recognize the places (surfaces) where they can walk. It promotes the creation of “mental maps” (group or individual) of key-hunting habitat. |
Social organization | “If you know other hunters, they tell you where they went and you go farther away, look for another rumbo […] we worked in stages, it’s like a rotation, where we started we finished […] we waited until others lagartos arrived” (L.Y.). | Allows hunters to divide profits from huntings through cooperation among groups. The exchange of information and knowledge promotes social learning. |
“you asked where other hunter had gone and they told you; where left the Salt or in Birds [trabajaderos names] and according to what they told you, you went there or not” (A.Q.) | ||
Acces rules | “When it was burning in some place it was a sign that they were working [hunting] there and we had to find another place to go. […]” (A.Q.) | Encounters with other hunters promote flexibility in the decision-making process. Competition promotes secrecy but only in specific key hunting habitat. |
“There are some who are jealous of their hunting grounds [key hunting habitat] and did not burn so others do not know where it is” (N.C.). | ||
Regulation rules | “Many get upset when they see a destroyed den because [the lagartos] live there, it's like the tepezcuintle [Aguti paca] if you destroy the den they do not come back” (N.C.). | Underrepresented and lax rules of use. Defined by hunters and by markets. |
“We hunted animals of 7 or 8 feet, large animals, 5 feet up we hunted, not the little ones because they [the traders] did not buy” (A.P.) |