Distribución de especies cinegéticas en los espacios adehesados de Extremadura: comparativa entre el siglo XVIII y los cotos de caza mayor actuales

Abstract

Durante el siglo XVIII la caza mayor era una práctica reservada a las clases sociales dominantes, por razones de prestigio y distinción frente al resto de personas. No obstante, este modelo cinegético compartía protagonismo con otros tipos de caza en los que se perseguían fines diferentes. Bajo estas premisas, el objetivo de este trabajo es doble. Por una parte, analizar la distribución territorial de las especies de caza mayor a finales del siglo XVIII, basándose en los datos aportados por una fuente histórica de gran alcance, (Interrogatorio de la Real Audiencia de Extremadura de 1792) y, por otra parte, establecer una comparación con la actual distribución de los cotos de caza mayor situados sobre espacios adehesados. El material utilizado procede del Interrogatorio de la Real Audiencia de Extremadura de 1792, compuesto de 10 tomos. En concreto, se han usado las respuestas dadas a la pregunta 57, con cuya información se construyó una base de datos, se hizo un análisis semántico y se implementó la información en un proyecto SIG. Los resultados muestran que, en términos comparativos con la realidad actual, se confirma que las especies de caza mayor ocupan el mismo territorio, existiendo una alta coincidencia con extensas zonas adehesadas de Extremadura.

Sustainable Hunting as a Tourism Product in Dehesa Areas in Extremadura (Spain)

“…To do this, it is necessary to know the characteristics and needs in demand. The work carried out by Martín et al [24] showed the interest of hunting tourists in complementary activities other than hunting during their hunting trips, a situation which can also be seen in the study area. However, there are differences in terms of the characteristics of the trip between the general situation in Extremadura as a whole and that obtained for the study area.…”

“…The development of hunting tourism is conditioned by the presence of hunting species of interest to hunters that have the capacity to attract chasers due to their uniqueness and hunting values in a given territory. For this reason, and given that big game species are those of greatest interest to hunting tourists [24,43], it was considered necessary to carry out a specific analysis of the distribution of these species in the dehesa reserves located in the study area. In this sense, Figure 5 shows the undoubted hunting values present in the study area, where we can observe the great extension of the main big game species distributed throughout this territory, except in the case of the mountain goat (Capra pyrenaica).…”

“…These species were those identified by the specific bibliography on hunting as those that arouse the most interest among hunting tourists. An example of this is the work carried out by Rengifo [24], who showed how these species are the most attractive to international tourists, as well as that carried out by Coca [43], in which it was determined that hunting is one of the modalities with the greatest capacity for attraction among hunting tourists. In this respect, it is worth mentioning that, at present, hunting has been declared an asset of cultural interest in the Autonomous Community of Extremadura [52], confirming the singularity of hunting activity in this territory.…”

“…In this respect, Extremadura is among the main Spanish regions chosen as a hunting destination [23] due to its environmental and landscape values, which allow the presence of species of notable interest. Among them, the existence of big game species is considered one of the main attractions for hunting tourists [24]. Despite the importance of hunting activity in Extremadura and the large presence of game species in this region, which make it an ideal place for the development of hunting tourism, there is little research on this subject, and there is a lack of official figures to determine the importance of hunting tourism in this territory.…”