Uncovering the fruit bat bushmeat commodity chain and the true extent of fruit bat hunting in Ghana, West Africa

Kamins, Alexandra O.; Restif, Olivier; Ntiamoa‐Baidu, Yaa; Suu‐Ire, Richard; Hayman, David T. S.; Cunningham, Andrew A.; Wood, James; Rowcliffe, J. Marcus

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2011.09.003

Cited by 155 publications

(176 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Hunting bats for food is common in West and Central African states where it can be a major threat to their populations (Funmilayo 1978;Mickleburgh et al 2009;Kamins et al 2011). Frequent bat hunting is recorded from Benin Republic, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria (Funmilayo 1978;Anstey 1991;Kamins et al 2011;Dougnon et al 2012) (Fig.…”

Section: Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Frequent bat hunting is recorded from Benin Republic, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria (Funmilayo 1978;Anstey 1991;Kamins et al 2011;Dougnon et al 2012) (Fig. 12.1), as well as in Cameroon, Congo Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.…”

Section: Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Goodman (2006) showed that in addition to fruit bats, mainly the Malagasy straw-colored fruit bat (Eidolon dupreanum), P. rufus, and the Malagasy rousette (Rousettus madagascariensis), insectivorous H. commersoni is frequently hunted, especially during periods of food shortages. In addition, while fruit bats are probably the most commonly hunted group, 64 % of the 55 bat species hunted in Africa are animalivores (Appendix).Hunting bats for food is common in West and Central African states where it can be a major threat to their populations (Funmilayo 1978;Mickleburgh et al 2009;Kamins et al 2011). Frequent bat hunting is recorded from Benin Republic, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria (Funmilayo 1978;Anstey 1991;Kamins et al 2011;Dougnon et al 2012) (Fig.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The authors used their results from this sample to extrapolate to hunting pressure over all hunters during the two month hunting season on the island. Kamins et al (2011) interviewed a total of 551 Ghanians including hunters, vendors and consumers, demonstrating a high off-take of >128,000 E. helvum per year. A recent study on the same population used annulus markers in teeth to age bats and develop a static life table to determine age structured survival rates (Hayman et al 2012).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploitation of Bats for Bushmeat and Medicine

Mildenstein

Tanshi

Racey

2015

Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of Bats in a Changing World

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Bat hunting for consumption as bushmeat and medicine is widespread and affects at least 167 species of bats (or c. 13 % of the world's bat species), in Africa, Asia, across the islands of Oceania, and to a lesser extent in Central and South America. Hunting is particularly prevalent among the large-bodied fruit bats of the Old World tropics, where half (50 %, 92/183) the extant species in the family Pteropodidae are hunted. Pteropodids that are hunted are six times more likely to be Red Listed as threatened: 66 % of species in IUCN threatened categories (CR, EN, VU, NT), compared to 11 % of species in the 'Least Concern' (LC) category. However, there still appears to be an information gap at the international level. One third of the hunted species on the Red List are not considered threatened by that hunting, and nearly a quarter of the bat species included in this review are not listed as hunted in IUCN Red List species accounts. This review has resulted in a comprehensive list of hunted bats that doubles the number of species known from either the IUCN Red List species accounts or a questionnaire circulated in 2004. More research is needed on the impacts of unregulated hunting, as well as on the sustainability of regulated hunting programs. In the absence of population size and growth data, legislators and managers should be precautionary in their attitude towards hunting. Roost site protection should be a priority as it is both logistically simpler than patrolling bat foraging grounds and reduces the comparatively larger scale mortality and stress that hunting at the roost can cause. Education and awareness campaigns within local communities should demonstrate how bats are a limited resource and emphasize characteristics (nocturnal, slow reproducing and colonial) that make them particularly vulnerable to hunting pressure. IntroductionMost of the chapters in this book (Voigt and Kingston 2016) consider negative consequences for bats from indirect effects of anthropogenic perturbations. In contrast, this chapter explores the direct exploitation of bats by humans for bushmeat and medicine.A global review of bats as bushmeat was published in 2009 providing an overview of bat hunting based on published literature and a questionnaire widely distributed among bat biologists in (Mickleburgh et al. 2009). Here, we summarize what is currently known about the exploitation of bats for consumption and medicinal use, synthesizing the 2009 review with what has been published since and unpublished information the authors have gathered from colleagues. The result is a comprehensive list of hunted bats species that contains nearly twice as many species as known from either the IUCN Red List species accounts or the 2009 review. It is unclear whether the increased concern about hunting is the result of greater actual hunting pressure, or just represents our increased understanding of hunting impacts. What is clear is that reviews now explicitly attribute species declines and extinction risk to hunting pressure.Most of t...

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Section: Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Exploitation of Bats for Bushmeat and Medicine

Mildenstein

Tanshi

Racey

2015

Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of Bats in a Changing World

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“…In Los Tuxtlas, Mexico, this pattern is thought to have resulted in dense seedling carpets dominated by large-seeded species in the understory, and may explain the low seedling diversity in heavily hunted areas elsewhere (Dirzo et al 2007). In fragmented landscapes, large fruit bats (Kamins et al 2011) and pigeons are particularly important for seed dispersal, but they also face heavy hunting pressure, which reduces dispersal volume and distance (Corlett 2009). The community level alterations that result from hunting may affect ecosystem services and processes.…”

Section: Ecosystem Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%