scholarly journals Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations governing prey choice by hunters in a post-war African forest-savannah macromosaic

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0261198
Author(s):  
Franciany Braga-Pereira ◽  
Carlos A. Peres ◽  
Rômulo Romeu da Nóbrega Alves ◽  
Carmén Van-Dúnem Santos

Overhunting typically increases during and after armed conflicts, and may lead to regional-scale defaunation. The mitigation of hunting impacts is complex because, among other reasons, several intrinsic and extrinsic motivations underpin the elevated deployment of hunting practices. Here we present the first study focusing on these motivations in a post-war zone. Following persistently heavy hunting pressure during the 27-year Angolan civil war, the offtake of small to medium-bodied species has increased recently as a result of large mammal depletion. However, prey choice associated with different motivations varied in terms of species trophic level and body size. While most residents hunted large-bodied species to maximize revenues from wildlife trade, many low-trophic level smaller species were harvested to meet local subsistence demands because they were more palatable and could be captured using artisanal traps near hunters’ households. Mainly low-trophic level species were killed in retaliation for crop-raiding or livestock depredation. Considering all game species sampled in this study, 96% were captured to attend two or more motivations. In addition, hunting associated with different motivations was partitioned in terms of age and gender, with prey acquisition for the wildlife trade primarily carried out by adult men, while hunting to meet local subsistence needs and inhibit human-wildlife conflicts were carried out by adult men and women, children and even the elderly. In natural savannah areas lacking fish as a source of protein, a higher number of species was selected to supply both the meat trade and subsistence, while more species in forest areas were targeted for trade in animal body parts and conflict retaliation. Finally, local commerce in bushmeat and other body parts accrued higher domestic revenues compared to any alternative sources of direct and indirect income. However, these financial benefits were at best modest, largely unsustainable in terms of prey population collapses, and generated high long-term costs for the local to regional scale economy and native biodiversity.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 17229-17234
Author(s):  
Yadav Ghimirey ◽  
Raju Acharya

We document trade of the Clouded Leopard Neofelis nebulosa in Nepal based on pelt seizure reports published in wildlife trade reports and in newspapers.  Just 27 cases in three decades seem little to suggest targeted illegal trade of the species, the seizure information in recent years indicate that illegal trade of Clouded Leopard body parts is still taking place.  Hence an in-depth assessment is necessary to understand properly the intensity and magnitude of illegal trade on Clouded Leopard in the country.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parama Nawa Yoga ◽  
Hutomo Wahyu Adi Santoso ◽  
Ujang Tommy

Ilegal wildlife trade is a serious threat to the conservation of wildlife in Indonesia. Wildlife illegally traded based on the facts found in the wield are mostly caught from the wild, instead of breeding. Natural Resources Conservation Center as an institution that has an important role in rescue efforts are strategic and Endangered species protection of law number 5 of 1990 on Conservation of Biological Resources and Ecosystem. The problem in this study is whether the factors causing the perpetrators to commit criminal acts trade the body parts of the protected animals, and how they are accountable and what efforts to overcome them. Juridical normative and empirical research methods, using secondary and primary data, obtained from library studies and field studies. Based on the results of research and discussion, it is known that the factors causing the perpetrators to commit criminal acts trade the body parts of protected animals, namely economic factors, environmental factors, and factors of public knowledge of the prohibition. The responsibility of the perpetrator of the crime of trading the body parts of the protected animal has been decided by the defendant proven guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for: 3 (three) years and a fine of Rp. 50,000,000 (fifty million rupiah). One of the factors that caused the criminal act to trade the body parts of the protected animals was due to the lack of socialization or knowledge of the community against the prohibition on killing / selling wild animals.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (14) ◽  
pp. 4099-4114 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. T. Everatt ◽  
R. Kokes ◽  
C. Lopez Pereira

Abstract The African lion, Panthera leo, has, like many of the world’s megafauna, become threatened with extinction over the past century. Loss of habitat and prey, persecution in retaliation of livestock depredation, by-catch by bushmeat poachers and unsustainable trophy hunting are all documented anthropogenic caused threats to lion conservation. Here we present data that indicate the emergence of a further threat to lion conservation: the targeted poaching of lions for body parts. We present lion abundance and mortality data from field surveys in southern Africa between 2011 and 2018 of a resident lion population. The targeted poaching of lions for body parts accounted for 35% of known human caused mortalities across the landscape and 61% of mortalities within Limpopo National Park with a clear increase in this pressure in 2014. Retaliatory killing for livestock conflict accounted for 51% of total mortalities, however in 48% of conflict cases body parts were also removed, suggesting that a demand for body parts may incentivize conflict related killing of lions. The use of poison was the most common means of killing lions and was recorded in 61% of mortalities. Teeth and claws were the body parts harvested most often from illegally killed animals in the study area, with an increase from 2014 onwards. This pressure threatens the viability of the species in our study area and the success of current conservation initiatives. We suggest that the results of this study be viewed as a warning to the global conservation community to be vigilant of the impact that illegal wildlife trade can have on the conservation of lions, just as a similar pressure has already had on other big cat populations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lelia Bridgeland-Stephens

This paper explores the literature on the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) by following the journey of a single imagined Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) through the entire trading process. Literature on IWT frequently refers to non-human animals in terms of collectives, species, or body parts, for example ‘tons of pangolin scales’, rather than as subjective individuals. In contrast, this paper centralizes the experiences of an individual pangolin by using a cross- disciplinary methodology, combining fact with a fictional narrative of subjective pangolin experience, in an empathetic and egomorphic process. The paper draws together known legislation, trade practices, and pangolin biology, structured around the journey of an imagined pangolin. At each stage of IWT, from poaching to consumption, the relationships between various actors are contextualized, helping to untangle the complex networks and relationships (both human-human and human-animal) involved in IWT. Concluding recommendations are made about ways to address IWT, including supporting locals in source areas, educating consumers, and improving law enforcement. It is hoped that this methodology will be applied to further studies of human and non-human animal interactions in this area of research, in order to individualize non-human animals and recognize their subjective experiences.


Author(s):  
Karzan Aziz Mahmood

This paper demonstrates the appropriation of innocence in Shelley’s Frankenstein, Or the Modern Prometheus (1818) and Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013) by Ahmed Saadawi. These novels are selected because the latter appropriates the creator and creature characters and contextualizes them into the American-Iraq 2005 post-war period. In Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, scientifically, gives life to a dead body amalgamated from other body parts, which start murdering and revenging upon his creator. Whereas, in Saadawi’s twenty-first century Frankenstein, a person who is formed from others’ dead bodies by merely a junk dealer, starts murdering and revenging upon other people. On the one hand, Frankenstein, a science student, sought to answer the question of human revival theoretically and practically. Therefore, after he resurrects the dead, it becomes monstrous due to its negligence and physical hideousness by its creator. On the other hand, the Iraqi Frankenstein’s creator, Hadi, celebrates collecting old materials in a non-scientific manner, including humans’ dead body parts, in order to give value to them by offering them worthy of proper burials. The resurrected creatures transform into more powerful beings than their creators as reactions against isolation and injustice. For that, both Frankenstein and Hadi lose control over their creations, who instigate new life cycles. Hence, the ethical responsibility of invention underlies the concept of innocence which this paper intends to analyze vis-à-vis the creators and their creations.


2015 ◽  
Vol 72 (10) ◽  
pp. 1552-1564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Malick ◽  
Sean P. Cox ◽  
Randall M. Peterman ◽  
Thomas C. Wainwright ◽  
William T. Peterson

Pathways linking climate to population dynamics of higher-trophic-level fish species such as Pacific salmon often involve a hierarchy in which regional-scale physical and biological processes mediate the effects of large-scale climate variability. We used probabilistic networks to investigate 17 potential ecological pathways linking climate to Oregon coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) recruitment. We found that pathways originating with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation were the most influential on recruitment, with the net effect being two to four times greater than for pathways originating with the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation or the Oceanic Niño Index. Among all environmental variables, sea surface temperature and an index of juvenile salmon prey biomass had the greatest effects on recruitment, with a 76% chance of recruitment being equal to or below average given that ocean temperatures were above average and a 34% chance of recruitment being below average given that prey biomass was above average. Our results provide evidence that shifts in climate patterns could strongly influence recruitment simultaneously through multiple ecological pathways and highlight the importance of quantifying cumulative effects of these pathways on higher-trophic-level species.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karzan Aziz Mahmood

This paper demonstrates the appropriation of innocence in Shelley’s Frankenstein, Or the Modern Prometheus (1818) and Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013) by Ahmed Saadawi. These novels are selected because the latter appropriates the creator and creature characters and contextualizes them into the American-Iraq 2005 post-war period. In Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, scientifically, gives life to a dead body amalgamated from other body parts, which start murdering and revenging upon his creator. Whereas, in Saadawi’s twenty-first century Frankenstein, a person who is formed from others’ dead bodies by merely a junk dealer, starts murdering and revenging upon other people. On the one hand, Frankenstein, a science student, sought to answer the question of human revival theoretically and practically. Therefore, after he resurrects the dead, it becomes monstrous due to its negligence and physical hideousness by its creator. On the other hand, the Iraqi Frankenstein’s creator, Hadi, celebrates collecting old materials in a non-scientific manner, including humans’ dead body parts, in order to give value to them by offering them worthy of proper burials. The resurrected creatures transform into more powerful beings than their creators as reactions against isolation and injustice. For that, both Frankenstein and Hadi lose control over their creations, who instigate new life cycles. Hence, the ethical responsibility of invention underlies the concept of innocence which this paper intends to analyze vis-à-vis the creators and their creations.


Oryx ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Yunbo Jiao ◽  
Tien Ming Lee

Abstract China is one of the largest consumer markets in the international legal and illegal wildlife trade. An increasing demand for wildlife and wildlife products is threatening biodiversity, both within China and in other countries where wildlife destined for the Chinese market is being sourced. We analysed official data on legal imports of CITES-listed species in five vertebrate classes (mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish), and on enforcement seizures of illegally traded wildlife, during 1997–2016. This is the first study that collates and analyses publicly available data on China's legal and illegal wildlife trade and considers a broad range of species. Specifically, we estimated the scale and scope of the legal and illegal wildlife trade, quantified the diversity of species involved, and identified the major trading partners, hotspots and routes associated with illegal trade. Our findings show that substantial quantities of wildlife have been extracted globally for the Chinese market: during 1997–2016 over 11.5 million whole-organism equivalents and 5 million kg of derivatives of legally traded wildlife, plus over 130,000 illegally traded animals (alive and dead) and a substantial amount of animal body parts and products, were imported into China. Although measures to reduce demand and alleviate poverty are crucial to curb unsustainable and illegal wildlife trade in the longer term, China's wildlife regulators and enforcers must take urgent measures to disrupt the supply chains from source to market.


Author(s):  
Hannah R. Brown ◽  
Anthony F. Nostro ◽  
Halldor Thormar

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a slowly progressing disease of the CNS in children which is caused by measles virus. Ferrets immunized with measles virus prior to inoculation with the cell associated, syncytiogenic D.R. strain of SSPE virus exhibit characteristics very similar to the human disease. Measles virus nucleocapsids are present, high measles antibody titers are found in the sera and inflammatory lesions are prominent in the brains. Measles virus specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) is present in the brain,and IgG/ albumin ratios indicate that the antibodies are synthesized within the CNS.


Author(s):  
Hannah R. Brown ◽  
Tammy L. Donato ◽  
Halldor Thormar

Measles virus specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) has been found in the brains of patients with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a slowly progressing disease of the central nervous system (CNS) in children. IgG/albumin ratios indicate that the antibodies are synthesized within the CNS. Using the ferret as an animal model to study the disease, we have been attempting to localize the Ig's in the brains of animals inoculated with a cell associated strain of SSPE. In an earlier report, preliminary results using Protein A conjugated to horseradish peroxidase (PrAPx) (Dynatech Diagnostics Inc., South Windham, ME.) to detect antibodies revealed the presence of immunoglobulin mainly in antibody-producing plasma cells in inflammatory lesions and not in infected brain cells.In the present experiment we studied the brain of an SSPE ferret with neutralizing antibody titers of 1:1024 in serum and 1:512 in CSF at time of sacrifice 7 months after i.c. inoculation with SSPE measles virus-infected cells. The animal was perfused with saline and portions of the brain and spinal cord were immersed in periodate-lysine-paraformaldehyde (P-L-P) fixative. The ferret was not perfused with fixative because parts of the brain were used for virus isolation.


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