A National-Level Assessment of Lemur Hunting Pressure in Madagascar

Abstract

Hunting is one of the greatest threats to nonhuman primates worldwide. Despite Madagascar's status as a primate mega-diversity country, a critical lack of information on the hunting of lemurs at the national scale persists. Here, we synthesize the current state of knowledge of the annual rates of household-level lemur hunting near ten protected areas, representing most ecoregions in Madagascar. We examine geographic and taxonomic variation in lemur hunting, including an analysis of hunting relative to species density, extinction risk, and intrinsic ecological characteristics of species. We found that lemurs are commonly hunted across Madagascar; the rural households in our study ate, on average, more than one lemur each year, or a median of 4.1% of the lemur species' population size where densities are known. However, this pressure varied significantly across sites and species, reaching its highest levels in the northeastern rainforest region. While hunting levels are concerning for numerous threatened species, hunting pressure was driven primarily by species availability, and among ecological traits, small body size was related to increased hunting; however, conservation status showed no such relationship. This first national-level assessment of hunting, including one-third of Madagascar's lemur species and more than a tenth of the world's primates, identifies regional variation and lemur taxa at acute risk from hunting-important steps toward developing targeted strategies to conserve one of the world's most threatened groups of vertebrates.

A nutrient‐rich traditional insect for improving food security and reducing biodiversity loss in Madagascar and sub‐Saharan Africa

“…Given the high rates of child malnutrition, food insecurity, and endangered species hunting across Z. tenebrosa's range (Wilkie et al, 2016;Estrada et al, 2018;EIU 2019;SCBD 2020;Borgerson et al, 2021), the farming of this nutrient-rich insect may help support multipronged approaches to improving wildlife conservation.…”

“…Madagascar is also one of world's least food secure nations, with nearly 70% of its population living under the global poverty line, half of whom are undernourished (EIU, 2019). Within Madagascar, lemur hunting is highest in biodiverse northeastern Madagascar (Borgerson et al, 2021), where food insecurity, malnutrition, and hunting are common (Borgerson, McKean, Sutherland, & Godfrey, 2016; Borgerson, Razafindrapaoly, Rajoana, Rasolofoniaina, & Golden, Fernald, Brashares, Rasolofoniaina, & Kremen, 2011). The diet here is severely deficient in both calories and fat, and 40% of meat eaten by pregnant or lactating women comes from wildlife (Golden et al, 2019).…”

Finding food in the hunger season: A mixed methods approach to understanding wild plant foods in relation to food security and dietary diversity in southeastern Madagascar

“…Of the substantial body of research on wild food consumption in Madagascar, the majority has been on aquatic animal-source foods (Le Manach et al, 2012;Golden et al, 2019a;Taylor et al, 2019;AASFs) and wild terrestrial animals, or bushmeat (Golden et al, 2011(Golden et al, , 2016, such as lemurs (Golden, 2009;Borgerson et al, 2017Borgerson et al, , 2018Borgerson et al, , 2022, tenrecs (Stiles, 1991;Golden et al, 2014b), small carnivores (Farris et al, 2015), bats (Jenkins and Racey, 2008;Golden et al, 2014a), and frogs (Jenkins et al, 2009). And while rural communities in Madagascar still depend heavily on wild plants, not only for the provisioning of food, but also for fuel and fiber (Ingram and Dawson, 2006;Brown et al, 2011), most of the ethnobotanical research has been limited to their use in traditional medicine (e.g., Rasoanaivo, 1990;Novy, 1997;Golden et al, 2012;Razafindraibe et al, 2013;Rabearivony et al, 2015;Riondato et al, 2019;Tida et al, 2020).…”

Principal Drivers and Conservation Solutions to the Impending Primate Extinction Crisis: Introduction to the Special Issue

“…Given that yellow fever is not native to Asia, a region-wide human vaccination campaign would be an effective tool to pre-empt the spread of yellow fever to nonhuman primate populations. Borgerson et al (2021) examine the effects of household hunting on the conservation status of lemur populations (42 species) across a range of ecosystems in Madagascar. The highest levels of hunting were found to occur in the rainforests of northeastern Madagascar.…”