ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests some conditions under which conservation is likely to evolve. The conservation prediction is that hunters decreases hunting time allocation as game depletion increases. Vickers's longitudinal study of Siona-Secoya hunting contains the most appropriate evidence for evaluating time-allocation hypotheses. The tabooing method of conservation relates to the model of diet-breadth expansion and contraction in optimal-foraging theory. The patch method relates to a concrete issue in optimal-foraging theory known as the marginal-value theorem. The existence of game taboos on animals that, because of their large size, appear to be very profitable animals to hunt presents a formidable challenge to optimal-foraging theory and especially to the optimal-diet-breadth model. Optimal-foraging theorists recognize that conservation can evolve as a means to maximize hunting efficiency. The local population would have to be territorial, that is, able to defend their resources against outsiders who might subvert their conservation plans.
