Lecture 10 - hunting and wildlife trade in tropical forests Flashcards
what is a ‘silent forest’
half empty forest due to hunting
- small number of species consuming large biomass of animals
- hunting is already higher than wildlife can sustain
how is density affected by accessibility
- density increases the harder the accessibility - only 1.6% of the Amazon is protected and inaccessible to hunters
why is hunting such a threat to tropical forests
each km2 of tropical forest can only sustainably provide for the annual wild meat protein needs of a single person - currently hunting is exceeding this and is a major threat to large-bodied vertebrates
why does hunting occur?
- subsistence and local trade - cheap and available to anyone that can hunt
- cultural/traditional reasons - garments and ceremonies
- religious (merit) release - releasing birds at temples
- medicinal, luxury meats etc - e.g. tiger brain cures laziness
- trophy hunting - as rarity increases so does price
- pet trade - kill mothers
what are direct consequences of hunting?
- faunal changes - small animals become more abundant due to less predation
- decline in mean body mass - hunt larger animals
- catastrophic losses of enigmatic fauna
- extinction
describe what has happened to forest elephants
massive decline
trophy hunting for tusks/ivory
population declined by 62%
lost 30% of geographical range
population <10% of potential size and occupies <25% of potential range
china has no made carving ivory illegal and cant bring in any illegal ivory
describe an extinction from hunting
- last Javan rhino shot in Cat tien national park
- horn worth more than its weight in gold
why is illegal wildlife trade so lucrative
- perpetrators are well armed and organised e.g. criminal gangs with helicopters to gun down african elephant herds
- financially worthwhile to seek out last individuals of dwindling populations
- can drive anthropogenic allee effect - premium on rarity drives extinction
- CITES listed = illegal to trade = cost alot more
what are indirect consequences
- bigger seeds ingested by bigger primates = redundancy in seed dispersal for large seeds = decrease in forest size
- wind dispersal plants are the only ones doing well in hunted sites
- affects carbon stocking
>70 % of trees have lower recruitment with hunting
what does the future of wildlife trade need to look like?
- need subsistence - work with people - find them better ways to get food - cant blame people with little money and little access to food
- trade needs to have more penalties in place