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And there are efforts to help those who rely on bushmeat to develop alternative sources of protein and income, such as farming cane rats and beekeeping.

Combating the bushmeat tradeĮducation campaigns are raising awareness about health and ecological risks associated with the bushmeat trade. Fruit bats were also the likely source of the Ebola epidemic in western Africa that killed more than 11,000 people between 20. Researchers believe, for example, that bonobos, chimpanzees, and other primates spread HIV to people hunting or butchering them. People most at risk are hunters, those who prepare bushmeat, and consumers of undercooked bushmeat (cooking meat all the way through kills the pathogens). Wild animals are reservoirs for pathogens, and people who come in contact with their bodily fluids risk becoming infected with a zoonotic disease-a disease that jumps from animals to humans. It’s possible that the meat is a primary motivation for the hunters and that the elephant’s tusks, hacked off for the more-publicized ivory trade, are a mere byproduct. On Bioko Island, off the coast of Equatorial Guinea, for example, hunting for bushmeat has decimated populations of the island’s seven endemic monkey species, which are all endangered.Įven forest elephants, considered vulnerable to extinction, are targeted for their meat in parts of central Africa. Hunting for bushmeat is considered one of the most immediate threats to African wildlife.Ĭonservationists are especially concerned about the large-scale commercial hunting of slower-breeding species like apes and monkeys.

Conservation concernsĪlthough no one keeps track of how much bushmeat is hunted in total, conservation experts estimate that up to six million tons of bushmeat are taken from the Amazon and the Congo Basin each year. A smaller international market for exotic meat thrives in Europe and the United States.Īs hunting becomes more widespread, risks to the environment and public health become grave. Hunting and selling bushmeat can also serve as an important source of income.īut the scale of hunting is far greater today and has been increasing, facilitated by road building in the forest for logging and mining operations and fueled by growing demand in urban markets, where comparatively well-off customers consider wild-sourced protein a delicacy and a status symbol. Smoked, dried, or cooked, the meat provides a valuable source of protein for people in rural communities where farming domesticated animals is too expensive or impractical. Bushmeat is a catchall phrase for the meat of wild animals, but it most often refers to the remains of animals killed in the forests and savannas of Africa.Īfrican people have long hunted bats, monkeys, rats, snakes, and other wild animals for sustenance.