Meat Hunting: Page 3 Endangered Species Handbook

Persecution and Hunting

Meat Hunting: Page 3

Fruit bats of Asia and Pacific islands are killed in large numbers for food, sold by the tens of thousands to markets in Southeast Asia. Two species of the western Pacific, the Little Mariana Fruit Bat (Pteropus tokudae) of Guam and the Mariana Fruit Bat (Pteropus mariannus mariannus) of Guam, Rota, Tinian, Saipan and Agiguan have both been exploited so heavily that they are nearly extinct. Both bats are listed on the US Endangered Species Act as Endangered, yet the trade continues. On Sulawesi Island in Indonesia, thousands of bats are caught by young boys using kites to entangle them as they fly overhead. These bats are vital as pollinators of many species of commercially important fruit.

Bushmeat hunters in Indonesia and Malaysia are wiping out the populations of many animals. On the island of Borneo, a study conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society found that hunting, legal and illegal, was the single greatest threat to wildlife (Bennett 1994). In Sarawak and Sabah, two northern states on Borneo, Elizabeth Bennett and her assistants conducted a three-year study of native hunting. These rural people, who previously had hunted only for subsistence, now hunt to sell the meat to town markets (Bennett 1994). Areas that had been inaccessible were opened up by logging roads, and hunters now swarm in the forests, killing any animal they see (Bennett 1994). Except in the most remote areas, all local people now possess shotguns. Squirrels, which have a great diversity of species on Borneo, nearly disappeared in some areas, along with leaf monkeys (Bennett 1994). Bearded Pigs, macaques, deer and porcupines are hunted, speared and trapped by some tribes (Bennett 1994). The only taboo involves the killing of Orangutans, who are protected by legend. Hunting pressures were so great that Bennett predicted extinctions for many animals, and the effects on the forest ecology were equally dire, as seed dispersers are killed off (Bennett 1994). WCS is working with local peoples to educate them about the effects of their hunting, with the cooperation of the Forest Department of Sarawak and the Wildlife Department of Sabah (Bennett 1994).

On the neighboring island of Sulawesi, formerly known as Celebes, WCS conducted a similar study in the Tangkoko-DuaSudara Nature Reserve. The study found that in the past 15 years, populations of the endemic Bear Cuscuses (Ailurops ursinus), bear-like marsupials who hang by their prehensile tails from branches, had declined by 95 percent from hunting (Kinnaird and O'Brien 1996). Crested Black Macaques or Celebes Apes (Macaca nigra), tailless, all-black monkeys found only on Sulawesi and listed as Endangered by the 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, have declined by 90 percent, due in large part to meat hunting (Kinnaird and O'Brien 1996). An extraordinary turkey-like bird that incubates its eggs in large, leaf mounds, the endemic Maleo (Macrocephalon maleo), a Vulnerable species (BI 2000), has declined 75 percent from hunting (Kinnaird and O'Brien 1996). Other endemic species affected by this hunting are the Mountain Anoa (Bubalus quarlesi), a CITES Appendix I threatened dwarf buffalo found only on Sulawesi that is on the verge of local extinction, and the threatened, gargoyle-headed Babirusa (Babyrousa babyrousa), a tusked wild pig, whose total wild population is about 5,000 (Kinnaird and O'Brien 1996). Highly organized networks hunt and trade the meat from these threatened species. Some dealers acquire animals on order for traders in North Sulawesi by driving up to 375 miles to buy Babirusa and other meat from forest hunters (Kinnaird and O'Brien 1996).

When native peoples cease hunting for subsistence only and begin hunting for markets, wildlife can be decimated quickly. Even subsistence hunting has been shown to be detrimental in some areas, but when wild animal meat becomes an economic commodity, overhunting usually results. Market hunting in the United States caused the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) and Labrador Duck (Camptorhynchus labradorium). The Eskimo Curlew (Numenis borealis), heavily hunted for meat in the 19th century, is probably extinct as well. The American Bison, Elk, White-tailed Deer and many waterfowl species also nearly disappeared. Following the 19th century slaughters that decimated these animals, laws banning the sale of wild meat from mammals and birds were enacted and remain in force today. In other parts of the world, only extinctions may bring about strong legislation banning market hunting of wildlife.