About half said they would give up hunting if they had regular employment or government assistance for agriculture, though most of the specialized hunters said they would continue hunting, as they can oftentimes make more money on the black market than through legal work. Most of the hunters also farmed, fished, worked in forestry or had some other source of income. As such, they are considered “opportunistic” hunters, who kill great apes if they encounter them but do not necessarily search them out. The remainder said they were subsistence hunters, hunting mainly to feed their families, though selling surplus bushmeat in the local market. Only seven of the 51 hunters interviewed admitted to specializing in hunting great apes. You talk about other things and gradually get to the questions you want to ask.” Even so, Tagg cautioned, some interviewees may give incomplete or inaccurate information to protect themselves. “You don’t go in with a questionnaire and a clipboard. “You need to spend a lot of time with the communities to gain their confidence, so you can ask the right questions,” says Fa. “If you do this, you should be able to have meat coming from the forest without any problem.” “Certain species of animals can be taken sustainably because they are much more resilient to hunting pressure,” says Fa. Great ape body parts are sometimes used in traditional medicine.īut the greatest threat to great apes’ survival is the hunting that feeds the supply for the luxury meat market in cities, Tagg says, where certain bushmeats such as ape – along with elephant, pangolin, large cats and others – have acquired high-end status, and high price points, for their prized flavors.īreaking the chain that supplies meat to urban consumers and ensuring that subsistence hunters target other more plentiful animal species would reduce the pressure on great apes. Many people living in rural communities around the Dja Biosphere Reserve depend on bushmeat to feed their families, some killing gorillas or chimpanzees from time to time. Uncontrolled hunting has contributed to plummeting primate populations, and understanding how the trade works is important for designing and enforcing efforts to stop the trade in great ape meat, say the authors of the study, which was led by Nikki Tagg of the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp and sponsored by a consortium of zoos.
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