Bushmeat hunting and extinction risk to the world’s mammals

Carregando...
Imagem de Miniatura

Data

2016-10-19

Autores

Ripple, William J.
Abernethy, Katharine
Betts, Matthew G.
Chapron, Guillaume
Dirzo, Rodolfo
Galetti, Mauro [UNESP]
Levi, Taal
Lindsey, Peter A.
Macdonald, David W.
Machovina, Brian

Título da Revista

ISSN da Revista

Título de Volume

Editor

Resumo

Terrestrial mammals are experiencing a massive collapse in their population sizes and geographical ranges around the world, but many of the drivers, patterns and consequences of this decline remain poorly understood. Here we provide an analysis showing that bushmeat hunting for mostly food and medicinal products is driving a global crisis whereby 301 terrestrial mammal species are threatened with extinction. Nearly all of these threatened species occur in developing countries where major coexisting threats include deforestation, agricultural expansion, human encroachment and competition with livestock. The unrelenting decline of mammals suggests many vital ecological and socio-economic services that these species provide will be lost, potentially changing ecosystems irrevocably. We discuss options and current obstacles to achieving effective conservation, alongside consequences of failure to stem such anthropogenic mammalian extirpation. We propose a multipronged conservation strategy to help save threatened mammals from immediate extinction and avoid a collapse of food security for hundreds of millions of people.

Descrição

Palavras-chave

Bushmeat, Extinction, Hunting, Mammals, Wild meat

Como citar

Royal Society Open Science, v. 3, n. 10, 2016.