Predictors of Frequency and Success of Wild Meat Hunting Trips and Carcass Prices in an African Biodiversity Hotspot.

ABSTRACT: Hunting wild animals for food and income, which is pervasive across tropical regions, drives biodiversity loss. Interventions to promote sustainable wild meat harvesting require information on hunter behavior. Here we monitored the hunting activities of 33 hunters in SE Nigeria over three years (1,106 hunter-months) to identify correlates of (a) the probability of initiating a hunting trip on any given day; (b) trip success - whether an animal was caught, and if so, how many; and (c) carcass price. We found a higher probability of initiating a trip during periods with bright moon phases and in peak agriculture season. Hunters were more likely to catch at least one animal when there was less rainfall and on shorter hunting trips. However, among successful trips, the number of animals caught

SUBMITTER: Emogor CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11971138 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature