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Season change provokes a transformation in the environment of the Urukauá which directly interferes in indigenous economy. At the height of summer, between July and September, water is concentrated in the rivers, which become quite dry, thus facilitating fishing with hook and line, spear, or bow and arrow. In this period, almost all kinds of fish are eaten, especially the most prized fish, such as tucunaré, tamuatá and pirarucu. According to internal legislation, elaborated in an Assembly of the Indigenous Peoples of the Oiapoque, the pirarucu cannot be fished at any time of the year. The time of spawning, March, must be respected in order to guarantee their preservation. Given the abundance of fish, a part of the fish is salted for internal consumption in the period of scarcity.

With the fields dry, the Palikur easily discover nests of tracajá, alligator and chameleon eggs, highly prized animals that are caught in their flight from the burning of the dry rush of the fields, a technique which seeks not only to get game animals, but also make possible the transit of canoes pushed by long poles (takahi) when the fields are flooded during the winter.

It is also in the summer that they begin to look for the best places to make gardens. The procedures followed are felling, burning, burning of the brush, and finally planting. They plant bananas, abacaxi, cherry pepper, yams, among other species, but the principal product is wild manioc for the production of manioc cereal and its derivatives – beiju, tapioca, manioc residue for porridge, etc. Manioc cereal is the basis of the food diet in the whole region of the Oiapoque, and it is the Palikur, Karipuna and Galibi-Marworno Indians who supply close to 80% of the cereal that is sold in the market of the city of Oiapoque.

The place chosen for the garden could be, in the summer, the equivalent of an hour on foot over buriti trunks, which are absolutely necessary for people to avoid stepping in the thick, dark mud of the dry fields, or more or less the same time that canoes pushed by poles take to cross the flooded fields in the winter.

In the winter, fishing becomes very difficult because the fish disperse in the flooded field. In this period, hunting is the principal activity. The Palikur go upriver in the direction to the terra firme forest, where they spend the night waiting for animals such as tapir, deer, pig, cutia, monkey (they don’t specifiy which species, but they do insist that they do not eat coamba) and howler monkey. The use of shotguns produces better results in hunting. At times, one night is enough to get the food necessary to feed a domestic group for a week. If they don’t want to go very far, they go downriver in the direction of the Tipoca, Soussouri and Ucupi “islands”, which also shelter the same species of animals. Birds are another source of food. Species such as the heron, the maguari, the loon, the jaburu are mainly found on the banks of the rivers or in open fields, while the doves, tucanos and other species of small birds are hunted in the forest.

In the winter, taking care of the manioc gardens basically involves cleaning and maintenance. In December, they begin producing manioc cereal which is partly consumed and partly stored in large barrels with screwed-on tops, which are bought in French Guiana and used to keep the cereal always toasty, a feature which makes it very much appreciated in the region. This production supplies internal demand for a year and commercialization in the cities of Oiapoque and Saint Georges.