We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Trapper profiles and strategies: insights into sustainability from hunter behaviour.
- Authors
Kümpel, N. F.; Rowcliffe, J. M.; Cowlishaw, G.; Milner-Gulland, E. J.
- Abstract
Hunters are the critical link between demand and supply of bushmeat. An understanding of the incentives that drive hunter behaviour might thus help to predict the impacts of hunting and inform management of bushmeat hunting systems. However, hunter behaviour has been generally under-represented in studies of exploitation, in particular trapper behaviour, despite the fact that trapping is the most common form of hunting in central Africa. We collected data on hunter profiles and measures of catch and effort over 15 months in the Monte Mitra area of continental Equatorial Guinea, through interviews, hunter follows and an offtake survey. Younger trappers, and those not born in the village, were found to expend the greatest trapping effort. Trappers operated under three distinct strategies, reflecting different levels of effort and impact: low-impact village trappers, medium-impact forest trappers and high-impact forest trappers. Among different measures of effort, time expended and distance travelled were found to be less important in predicting trapping success than the number of effective traps, a measure that incorporates trap age. Regular checking of traps was found to be important in reducing wastage and therefore increases trapping success. Trapping is currently the main hunting method in Monte Mitra, due to lower barriers to entry and higher profits compared with gun hunting, but increasing affordability and availability of guns and cartridges warns of a possible future switch to gun hunting in the area, which is likely to have adverse impacts on vulnerable species, particularly arboreal primates. An understanding of the influence of a hunter's profile on hunting effort and success enables a prediction of the impacts of socioeconomic changes on wildlife populations and management actions to improve hunting sustainability.
- Subjects
TRAPPERS; HUNTERS; MOUNTAIN men; TRAPPING; HUNTING
- Publication
Animal Conservation, 2009, Vol 12, Issue 6, p531
- ISSN
1367-9430
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1469-1795.2009.00279.x