Knowledge, attitudes and practices of local people on Siberut Island (West-Sumatra, Indonesia) towards primate hunting and conservation

Abstract

The Mentawai Archipelago (West-Sumatra, Indonesia) harbours a wealth of endemic animals and plants including six unique primate species, all threatened by habitat loss and hunting. Although hunting is known to be widespread, little systematic work has been carried out to examine its scale and impact on Mentawai´s primate populations. Here we report an island-wide survey carried out on Siberut, the archipelago’s largest island, to assess hunting behaviour with respect to the four locally-occurring primate species, as well as the attitudes of indigenous inhabitants to resource utilization. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in mid-2012 with 390 respondents from 50 villages using a structured questionnaire. Overall, ca. one quarter of the respondents (24%) are still active hunters, generally targeting Simias concolor (77%), Macaca siberu (71%) and Presbytis siberu (68%); Hylobates klossii is rarely hunted (3%). Mostly, a single animal is captured per hunt, with average numbers per three months ranging from 1.9–2.3 individuals (for S. concolor, M. siberu and P. siberu). We found that in many aspects our data did not differ between the protected area (Siberut National Park) and the rest of the island, although hunting was significantly more prevalent within the protected area’s boundaries. Our approximation of annual offtake leads us to conclude that no less than 4,800 primates are taken every year (min. 6.4 % of the population). We provide recommendations on how to reduce hunting as a driver for population decline.