Throughout the tropics, hunting and fishing are critical livelihood activities for many Indigenous peoples. However, these practices may not be sustainable following recent socio-economic changes in Indigenous populations. To understand how human population growth and increased market integration affect hunting and fishing patterns, we conducted semi-structured interviews in five Kukama-Kukamilla communities living along the boundary of the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, in the Peruvian Amazon. Extrapolated annual harvest rates of fish and game species by these communities amounted to 1,740 t and 4,275 individuals (67 t), respectively. At least 23 fish and 27 game species were harvested. We found a positive correlation between village size and annual community-level harvest rates of fish and a negative relationship between market exposure and mean per-capita harvest rates of fish. Catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) analyses indicated local depletion of fish populations around larger, more commercial communities. Catch-per-unit-effort of fish was lower in more commercial communities and fishers from the largest village travelled further into the Reserve, where CPUE was higher. We found no effect of village size or market exposure on harvest rates or CPUE of game species. However, larger, more commercial communities targeted larger, economically valuable species. This study provides evidence that human population growth and market-driven hunting and fishing pose a growing threat to wildlife and Indigenous livelihoods through increased harvest rates and selective harvesting of species vulnerable to exploitation.

An unusual combination of two major conservation threats, invasive species and bushmeat hunting, has had a positive outcome for wildlife conservation in the Brazilian Pantanal. The Pantanal is a wetland and one of the few non-protected areas in the Neotropics where people live but rarely hunt native wildlife. To understand why wildlife hunting is not a major conservation issue in the Pantanal an exploratory survey, semi-structured interviews, skull collection and tooth wear analysis of feral pig Sus scrofa, white-lipped peccary Tayassu pecari and collared peccary Pecari tajacu were conducted, and hunting registers distributed, in the central region of the Pantanal. The results showed that feral pigs are the main hunting target. Feral pigs are effectively acting as a replacement species for hunting of native wildlife because the pigs provide a constant, culturally acceptable, readily available and free source of meat and oil to remote ranches. We cannot evaluate, however, if the buffer from hunting that feral pigs provide to native wildlife outweigh this species’ potential negative ecological impacts.

The giant otter Pteronura brasiliensis was hunted almost to extinction in the Peruvian Amazon during a period of professional trade in wild animal skins during 1920–1973. In 1973 the Department of Agriculture of Peru (INRENA) prohibited commercial hunting in the Peruvian Amazon, and the giant otter was included in Appendix I of CITES. From 1973 to 2004 giant otter populations experienced a slow recovery in numerous rivers of the Peruvian Amazon. Here, we report the population growth of the giant otter on the Yavarí-Mirín and Yavarí Rivers in north-east Peru. The first evaluations of giant otter populations in these rivers, in which no individuals were sighted, were in 1992–1993. During surveys in 1996 and 1997 two individuals were sighted. In 2001, 19 individuals were sighted and in 2003 and 2004, 41 individuals were observed. This increase demonstrates a slow recovery and shows that the population has not yet reached its carrying capacity. The prohibition of international trade in otter skins by CITES, supported by INRENA, helped the population recover and was important in the conservation of this species.

Terrestrial ungulates use different strategies to cope with widespread annual flooding of the Amazon basin. Red brocket deer (Mazama americana) and collared peccary (Tayassu tajacu) retreat to floodplain islands and shift from a frugivorous to a woody browse diet. However, both white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) and lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris) diets are unaffected by inundations; in the case of white-lipped peccary because they migrate into and out of flooded areas and in the case of lowland tapir because of their semi-aquatic nature. These-strategies of white-lipped peccary and lowland tapir enable them to exploit the greater fruit production of flooded forests more frequently than brocket deer and collared peccary.

Four species of the avian family Cracidae were studied in the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve in north-eastern Peru. These large-bodied birds are an important source of protein for local communities on the periphery of the reserve. An estimated 425 kg of Cracidae biomass were harvested over a 1-year period by three communities. Pipile cumanensis was the most frequently hunted bird, both in terms of individuals hunted and biomass extracted. Mitu tuberosa and Penelope jaquacu also made up a substantial amount of the biomass extracted, but were hunted less frequently. Densities of all species of Cracidae within 5 km of the villages were substantially lower than in the interior of the reserve. Our results suggest that M. tuberosa and P. cumanensis are overharvested and P. jaquacu and Ortalis guttata are harvested within the maximum estimated sustainable levels. In this study hunting grounds were along waterways and adjacent to protected populations, which created a source-sink arrangement. If sink areas are overhunted, the unhunted populations inland of the waterways could be acting as source populations that replenish overhunted areas.

White-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari) and collared peccaries (Tayassu tajacu) are common ungulates of Amazonia that are integral to the ecosystem and are important sources of meat for local people. Information on the reproduction and productivity of peccaries is essential for implementing management practices that conserve peccary populations over short and long time-scales. This paper examines the reproductive biology of white-lipped and collared peccaries in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon in and around the Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo Community Reserve. Skulls and reproductive tracts of white-lipped and collared peccary were examined from hunted samples collected by local people, as part of a participatory wildlife management programme. In this Amazonian site both white-lipped and collared peccaries were in follicular and luteal stages year round. Similarly, conceptions, births and pregnancies were aseasonal for both species. Of white-lipped peccary females, 32.4% were pregnant (n = 219 adult females examined) compared with 46% of collared peccary females (n = 89 adult females examined). Overall, gross productivity was 0.53 foetuses/adult female for white-lipped peccaries and 0.89 foetuses/adult female for collared peccaries. Gross fecundity (number of female young produced/number of adult females) was 0.26 for white-lipped peccaries and 0.37 for collared peccaries. The estimated parturition–conception interval was 250 days (192–331 at the 90% confidence interval) for white-lipped peccaries and 129 days (80–205 at the 90% confidence interval) for collared peccaries. This study shows that reproductive productivity of white-lipped peccary is lower than collared peccary in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon. This difference in reproductive productivity has implications for management strategies, and suggests that white-lipped peccaries are more susceptible to the effects of hunting than collared peccaries.