Hunting, Habitat, and Indigenous Settlement Patterns: A Geographic Analysis of Buglé Wildlife Use in Western Panama

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes indigenous wildlife use from a geographic perspective, focusing on the relationships between hunting, habitat, and settlement patterns. Fieldwork took place among five neighboring communities in the Rio Caloveborita watershed in western Panama over one year. The methodology included ethnographic research, mapping land cover and house sites, and participatory research whereby trained local investigators conducted a census, facilitated community mapping sessions, and administered weekly hunting activity questionnaires among 59 households. During their interviews with hunters, local investigators drew sketch maps showing the location of game kill sites, which were later plotted onto topographic sheets and entered into a Geographic Information System for analysis. The research shows that Bugle hunting is a predominantly male activity practiced exclusively for subsistence. The primary technologies used are firearms, rock-fall traps, hunting dogs, the bow and arrow, and slingshots. Roughly 2,500 animals were caught over a period of eight months, with a total yield of 2,580 kg within a hunting zone of 131 km2. Hunters captured well over 100 different species, but just five mammals account for over half of the total yield (Agouti paca, Dasyprocta punctata, Dasypus novemcinctus, Tayassu tajacu, and Alouatta palliata). Nearly half of all game (by weight) was encountered in agricultural areas. Six taxa caught primarily in anthropogenic habitats are classified as "garden game" while six others caught primarily or exclusively in mature rain forest are classified as "deep forest game." The spatial distribution of the 1,278 game kill sites that were documented shows a striking concentration around the study area villages. All of the principal species, with the exception of primates, are caught close to settlements, indicating that little game depletion has occurred. Indeed, approximately 90 percent of all game was caught within two kilometers of a hunter's house, showing that while the hunting zone may be large, much of it is used lightly. I argue that conditions are ideal for the coexistence of indigenous communities and wildlife in the Caloveborita region and that anthropogenic habitats resulting from shifting cultivation likely provide critical foraging opportunities for certain species when foods in mature rain forest are scarce.