BackgroundSubsistence hunting is a traditional practice providing food and many other goods for households in the Yucatan Peninsula, southeast Mexico. Economic, demographic, and cultural change in this region drive wildlife habitat loss and local extinctions. Improving our understanding about current practices of wildlife use may support better management strategies for conserving game species and their habitat. We aimed to evaluate if wildlife use remained relevant for the subsistence of rural residents of the Yucatan Peninsula, as well as if local hunting practices were related to environmental, geographical, and cultural factors.MethodsFieldwork was done between March 2010 and March 2011. Information was obtained through conversations, interviews, and participant observation. Record forms allowed recording animals hunted, biomass extracted, distance intervals to hunting sites, habitat types and seasonality of wildlife harvests. Data were analyzed using one-way Analysis of Variance, and Generalized Linear Models.ResultsForty-six terrestrial vertebrate species were used for obtaining food, medicine, tools, adornments, pets, ritual objects, and for sale and mitigating damage. We recorded 968 animals taken in 664 successful hunting events. The Great Curassow, Ocellated Turkey, paca, white-tailed deer, and collared peccary were the top harvested species, providing 80.7% of biomass (10,190 kg). The numbers of animals hunted and biomass extracted declined as hunting distances increased from villages. Average per capita consumption was 4.65 ± 2.7 kg/person/year. Hunting frequencies were similar in forested and agricultural areas.DiscussionWildlife use, hunting patterns, and technologies observed in our study sites were similar to those recorded in previous studies for rural Mayan and mestizo communities in the Yucatan Peninsula and other Neotropical sites. The most heavily hunted species were those providing more products and by-products for residents. Large birds such as the Great Curassow and the Ocellated Turkey were extremely important for local hunters, representing around 40% of total prey taken.Final considerationsOur results suggest that hunting is frequent in our study areas. Low human densities allow low hunting pressure on most game species and favor conservation of the tropical forest. We suggest that co-management may help regulating hunting, prioritizing cultural practices of sustainable use and conservation for benefiting local users and animal populations.

Abstract:Habitat heterogeneity is an important ecological determinant of species richness. We evaluated the diversity within bird feeding guilds as related to habitat heterogeneity and land-use cover in a human-modified tropical landscape. To quantify this process, fine-scale bird census and habitat heterogeneity data were collected for a bird community in a 22.5-km2fragmented landscape in southern Mexico. Land-use cover data derived from field surveys were used to calculate habitat heterogeneity index values and the extent of each land-use cover type in 239 grid cells of 300 × 300 m. Bird diversity values were obtained based on 1195 point-counts in these cells. Product-moment correlations and linear regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between bird-guild diversity values and habitat heterogeneity. A total of 109 resident bird species grouped in six feeding guilds were recorded: insectivores (42%), frugivores (21%), granivores (17%), nectarivores (9%), omnivores (8%) and carnivores (3%). Diversity values for the entire bird community were significantly positively related to habitat heterogeneity, but feeding guilds showed contrasting responses to habitat heterogeneity and the amount of land-use cover: insectivores and frugivores were more diverse and abundant in secondary forests than in any other land-cover. Our findings illustrate the importance of small landscape fragments as potential key refuges for the most diverse and specialized feeding guilds, such as granivores and insectivores.

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Para entender la variación espacial y temporal de la diversidad de aves de sotobosque, evaluamos la diversidad de especies en cuatro sitios (Las Grutas, Yalmutz, Vivero y Yalhuech) con diferentes tipos de vegetación y manejo dentro del Parque Nacional Lagos de Montebello, Chiapas, de julio de 1997 a junio de1998. Identificamos 71 especies de aves: 50 fueron residentes y 21 migratorias. Las familias mejor representadas fueron Parulidae (15), Tyrannidae (9) y Turdidae (8). La mayor proporción de especies registradas fueron exclusivas para un solo sitio (63.4%) y tan solo 9.8% se distribuyó en los cuatro sitios. Las mayores frecuencias relativas de captura total fueron para Chlorospingus ophtalmicus (0.197), Catharus ustulatus (0.110), Lampornis viridipallens (0.083) y Myioborus miniatus (0.072). El número de capturas varió entre los cuatro sitios estudiados, donde el bosque mixto de coníferas y latifoliadas (Vivero) presentó los valores máximos y el bosque mesófilo (Las Grutas) los mínimos. Yalmutz tuvo la mayor riqueza de especies (36), y Las Grutas la menor (24). La mayor diversidad derivada del reciproco de Simpson (16.41) y uniformidad (0.68), se registraron en Las Grutas, que fue el sitio menos perturbado y con los últimos remanentes de bosque mesófilo de montaña. Sin embargo, Yalmutz presentó los valores más altos en diversidad de Shannon (4.37), así como el mayor número tanto de especies exclusivas (14) como raras (21). Yalmutz presentó una mezcla de elementos de coníferas y latifoliadas, y fue el segundo sitio con un menor grado de perturbación por actividades antropogénicas. La mayor riqueza de especies y abundancia de individuos se presentó durante la temporada seca. El Parque Nacional Lagos de Montebello presenta una importante diversidad de especies de aves por la variación en ambientes y grados de perturbación que presenta. Sin embargo, la persistencia de las poblaciones de aves y su conservación en la región dependerá tanto de la permanencia de ambientes no perturbados y de la calidad de los ambientes secundarios y manejados

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