Impacts of hunting on mammals in African tropical moist forests: a review and synthesis

Available information on the consumption of wild meat in West and Central Africa is reviewed. We show that mammals are the prime source of bushmeat, and that ungulates and rodents make up the highest proportion of biomass extracted. We present data on current knowledge of extraction patterns of wild mammals in West and Central Africa, and evidence that at current off-take levels, within the range states, mammals as bushmeat are being depleted on an unprecedented scale. Extraction rates are orders of magnitude higher there than in comparable ecosystems like the Amazon, and much less likely to be sustainable. However, basic knowledge of the biology of harvestable tropical moist forest mammals, and the consequences of hunting on mammalian communities, which permits accurate estimation of maximal production rate (the excess of growth over replacement rate), is largely unavailable, and this hinders estimation of hunting quotas and sustainability. Comparisons are made with the existing information available on Amazon basin mammals and hunting patterns reported there.