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Ecology and Society 28(2): 32
<br />htt.psf.l� sy/ar[3.2/
<br />Fig. 3. Current issues and concerns with hunting and/or management mentioned by
<br />participants. Participants often mentioned multiple issues and concerns. The most common
<br />issue brought up was "community engagement and education" (n = 12).
<br />Lack of funding
<br />Amount of hunting lands available
<br />State's current management techniques
<br />Liability
<br />L) Current mindsets and practices
<br />�° Poaching/trespassing
<br />-0
<br />m
<br />User conflict in hunting areas
<br />ai Tras h
<br />ai Current rules/regulations by the State
<br />Lack of respect between groups
<br />Lack of access
<br />Stakeholder engagement and education
<br />participant (18 27 age category) hunted because "it brings
<br />everyone together. It's family and friends. It's a good feeling all
<br />getting together and taking part in that." Other less common
<br />reasons for hunting that emerged from the interviews included
<br />the protection of natural resources, continuously learning,
<br />satisfaction from training hunting dogs, and education (teaching
<br />others). One participant assisted with pig eradication efforts in
<br />neighborhoods and for golf courses, areas where pigs can cause
<br />damage if not removed. He stated about he and his friends, "We're
<br />just doing it [hunting] out of love to save the forest ..." Hunting
<br />was an important food source, and also source of peace,
<br />adrenaline, and exercise, while offering participants means to
<br />connect to Hawaiian culture, to family practice across
<br />generations, to friends who were also hunters, and with nature,
<br />as well as to a lesser degree, protecting forests, training, learning,
<br />and teaching.
<br />Indigenous and local knowledge of' hunters
<br />We asked various questions about hunter preferences such as
<br />"how do you select hunting areas?," "where do you like to hunt?,"
<br />and "what does it take to be an efficient hunter?" Asking these
<br />types of questions revealed some of the ILK that hunters acquired
<br />from hunting feral pigs. Participants mentioned that they selected
<br />their hunting areas depending on ecological variables including
<br />weather (e.g., rain, wind, heat), food availability for the pigs (e.g.,
<br />fruiting guava trees), seasons, presence of water, terrain, moon
<br />phase, along with the ability to access the area. One participant
<br />stated, "When we go hunting, we'll look for a food source and a
<br />lot of times, the waiwi [strawberry guava] is pretty much our main
<br />[food] source down here, or the yellow [common] guava.
<br />Mountains that don't have food like that, there will be purple
<br />plums, so you'll need to find the source." Food availability
<br />depended on the different seasons of the year, so the health and
<br />size of the pigs were likely to vary as well. Another participant
<br />stated, "Certain times of the year, you see skinny, real sick [pigs].
<br />Number of Participants
<br />When get ginger, the fruits like waiwi [strawberry guava] ... That's
<br />when they get healthy. But usually from August to ending of
<br />October, that's when get the feed and the pigs [are] more healthy
<br />and fat." Some participants mentioned that they looked for other
<br />signs when popular fruiting plants were not in season, "That's
<br />one way that I use to find those guys, by looking at the destruction
<br />that they've done, so the diggings, all that stuff and they tear up
<br />a lot of stuff in the mountains." One participant valued the
<br />presence of water to determine whether or not pigs were in the
<br />area: "I always told my boys, wherever you find water, that's where
<br />the pig going be ... you gotta think like the pig yeah. Why you
<br />going far when you can live close to the water yeah? ... Guarantee
<br />every time we find water, the pigs stay in that area." To find pigs,
<br />hunters need to know and, in many ways, study ecological factors,
<br />including those that change with the time of year and within lunar
<br />months.
<br />One participant talked about how pig activity changed with the
<br />moon: "When get full moon, they [pigs] up all night usually. So
<br />when you go hunt in the morning, they sleeping already, so the
<br />scent going [to] be faint I guess ... the dogs going [to] have [a] hard
<br />time finding them." Understanding the different variables that
<br />affect pigs' activity and presence can greatly improve a hunter's
<br />ability to catch pigs. An older participant (> 58 years old) talked
<br />about the importance of taking notes to catch pigs, "I had a
<br />notebook when I first moved up here [Maui] in [the] 1980s.
<br />Wherever I caught a pig, I would put down the location and the
<br />time of the year. And pigs, they habitual. If they was born here
<br />and feeding here. Certain times of the year, get certain kind of
<br />feed. They [pigs] come back. And that's what I used to do. It used
<br />to pay off." An older participant from Oahu (> 58 years old) also
<br />took similar notes, "It was a eight and a half by eleven sheet that
<br />I cut in half. I had two forms per page. And I filled one out every
<br />time I caught a pig. I marked date, time, location, the weather
<br />conditions. I marked boar or sow, weight. I put down the shape
<br />of the hoof. Pointed or really rounded, whether they're walking
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