Economic anatomy of the Brown Brocket deer (Mazama gouazoubira) and its relationship with other artiodactyls

Abstract

Brocket deer constitute a broadly exploited resource for many present and past Neotropical hunter-gatherers. In this paper we present results of a butchery experiment on a Brown Brocket deer (Mazama gouazoubira) individual, which was employed to calculate gross yield indices (MUI, GUI and FUI) and meat return rates for this species. Then, results are compared with available data for larger cervids (caribou, huemul and white-tailed deer) and other artiodactyls <60 kg (impala and sheep) showing strong and positive correlation in all net returns, and similar gross utility frequencies at least for cervids from 18–180 kg live weight. More variability was found among return rates, suggesting interspecific comparison of processing costs is an issue which requires more data gathering.