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Differences between Pygmy and Non-Pygmy Hunting in Congo Basin Forests

Fa ,, JE; Olivero, J; Farfán, MA; Lewis, JD; Yasuoka, H; Noss, A; Hattori, S; ... Nasi, R; + view all (2016) Differences between Pygmy and Non-Pygmy Hunting in Congo Basin Forests. PLoS One , 11 (9) , Article e0161703. 10.1371/journal.pone.0161703. Green open access

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Abstract

We use data on game harvest from 60 Pygmy and non-Pygmy settlements in the Congo Basin forests to examine whether hunting patterns and prey profiles differ between the two hunter groups. For each group, we calculate hunted animal numbers and biomass available per inhabitant, P, per year (harvest rates) and killed per hunter, H, per year (extraction rates). We assess the impact of hunting of both hunter groups from estimates of numbers and biomass of prey species killed per square kilometre, and by examining the proportion of hunted taxa of low, medium and high population growth rates as a measure of their vulnerability to overhunting. We then map harvested biomass (kg-1P-1Yr-1) of bushmeat by Pygmies and non-Pygmies throughout the Congo Basin. Hunting patterns differ between Pygmies and non-Pygmies; Pygmies take larger and different prey and non-Pygmies sell more for profit. We show that non-Pygmies have a potentially more severe impact on prey populations than Pygmies. This is because non-Pygmies hunt a wider range of species, and twice as many animals are taken per square kilometre. Moreover, in non-Pygmy settlements there was a larger proportion of game taken of low population growth rate. Our harvest map shows that the non-Pygmy population may be responsible for 27 times more animals harvested than the Pygmy population. Such differences indicate that the intense competition that may arise from the more widespread commercial hunting by non-Pygmies is a far more important constraint and source of conflict than are protected areas.

Type: Article
Title: Differences between Pygmy and Non-Pygmy Hunting in Congo Basin Forests
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161703
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161703
Language: English
Additional information: © 2016 Fa et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1514502
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