The African Great Ape Bushmeat Crisis

Abstract

The people of Africa's equatorial forest region have been hunting and eating forest animals for millennia. A mix of hunting techniques and taboos have evolved, with indigenous beliefs and methods being overlaid and infilled by the ritual and technology of myriad nomads,. missionaries, conquerors, and· colonials. As a result, the Printed on recycled paper animals eaten by humans in one forest may be quite different from those people eat in the next. To add to the complexity, millions of people have moved from forest and rural communities into towns and cities, bringing with them countless eating styles and food preferences. For many there is nothing better than pangolin or bush pig. Others prefer primates. Understandably, many of us who study and conserve primates are uncomfortable seeing them on the menu. This discomfort may be ego-centric, born of our own personal eating taboos or our concern that animals at our field sites may be killed before we've finished our research. It may be anthropocentric-a manifestation of our reluctance to eat anything so human-like as a gorilla or baboon. Or it