Ethnozoology in Brazil: analysis of the methodological risks in published studies/Etnozoologia no Brasil: análise de riscos metodológicos nos trabalhos publicados

There has been a growth in the field of ethnozoology throughout the years, especially in Brazil, where a considerable number of scientific articles pertaining to this subject has been published in recent decades. The studies were assessed based on their nature, sampling methods, use of hypotheses and tests, journal's impact factor, and animal group studied. The majority of the studies analyzed exhibited problems associated with the samples, as 144 (66.98%) studies were classified as having a high risk of bias. With regard to the characteristics analyzed, we determined that a quantitative nature and the use of tests are essential components of good sampling. Studies performed with vertebrate groups were of high risk. Most of the papers analyzed here focused on fish, insects, and/or mollusks, thus highlighting the difficulties associated with conducting interviews regarding tetrapod vertebrates. Such difficulties are largely related to the extremely strict Brazilian laws, justified by the decline and extinction of some species, related to the use of wild tetrapod vertebrates.