ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the predatory strategies of bow and arrow hunters with those of neighboring shotgun hunters in some native hunter-horticulturist communities in the lowland tropics of southeastern Peru. It examines how hunting strategies vary between the two technologies with respect to pursuit time and prey selection by species, age and sex. Animals are encountered by sight and/or sound, sometimes flushed by dogs if present, and for some species, lured into ambushes by imitating the animal's vocalizations. Optimal foraging models predict optimal prey choice for animals, given explicit constraints and the nature of the suite of possible prey items. Simple optimal foraging models assume discrete encounters with single prey items. Differences in kill power and pursuit times associated with the two technologies have a number of consequences for the overall strategies employed by Piro shotgun and Machiguenga bow hunters, and the resultant patterns of mortality in their prey.
