Ancient Maya elite binged on big game, loved furs

By Mica Rosenberg

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Ancient Maya rulers devastated big game in Central America and Mexico by bingeing on deer meat and flaunting jaguar fur in an early example of poor resource management, new research shows.

The Maya built soaring pyramids and elaborate palaces in Central America and southern Mexico before mysteriously abandoning their cities around 900 A.D.

A population explosion in the elite class just as the Mayan culture began to decline increased the demand for big game meat, especially white-tailed deer seen as a status symbol for nobles, said Kitty Emery, a curator at Florida Museum of Natural History.

"The elite class was growing disproportionately and they had to prove their power by acquiring more high status food," Emery said.

"They are making more demands on the environment and just like in the modern world there are limited resources," said Emery, whose study appeared in the October 31 issue of the Journal for Nature Conservation.

The collapse of the Maya, who dominated the region for some 2,000 years as accomplished scientists and urban builders, is one of the great mysteries of archeology.

Scholars have blamed the demise on everything from disease to over-farming, incessant warfare or climate change that led to prolonged drought.

Massive deforestation caused by the Maya building great cities and ceremonial complexes as well as a two-century drought shrank the habitat for animals like deer, jaguars and wild boars, said Emery.