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Shotguns and sustainable hunting in the Neotropics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2009

M. Alvard
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, SUNY, 380 MFAC, Buffalo, NY 14261, USA.
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Abstract

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The shift to the use of shotguns from traditional hunting weapons has often been mentioned as one of the factors contributing to over-hunting in the tropics. It has also been argued that indigenous people using traditional hunting methods are conservationists because they do not over-exploit natural resources. A study of two Indian communities in south-eastern Peru, one of which hunted with guns and the other with traditional weapons, found that there was little difference in the amount of meat consumed per capita in each village and that shotgun hunters were no more exploitative than the traditional hunters.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna and Flora International 1995

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