Ethnozoology of the mayo-yoreme people in northern sinaloa : use of wild vertebrates

Abstract

An ethnozoological study was performed in 11 indigenous communities of the municipality of El Fuerte, Sinaloa, México, to describe the use of wild vertebrates. Of the people who used this resource, 53 % belonged to the Mayo-Yoreme people, but only one third still speaks their native tongue. Hunting is carried out only by men, primarily day laborers, who took advantage of 34 wild species, distributed in 21 families and 12 orders, with mammals being the most widely used. Hunting is carried out during most of the year, on weekends and during the first hours of the morning, although also during the night, both on foot and with the help of a vehicle. The main uses were for food, handcrafts and medicinal. The hunt was done primarily in shrubs and agricultural areas. The most frequently used hunting means were sling-shot (fork with a handle with a rubber tied to its ends, to be stretched out and used to shoot small stones), and rifle caliber 022. Of the people, 43.2 % considered the species as regularly abundant, while 18.7 % perceived them as scarce as the result from furtive hunting, deforestation and people’s needs. More than 90 % recognized as actions necessary for conservation the following: vigilance, not hunting in abundance and respecting the closed season.