Bushmeat

Wild animals are an important food source for people across the world but there is growing evidence in tropical forests that the offtake is unsustainable and populations of many species are under threat. There are numerous accounts of bushmeat hunting from Asia, South America and mainland Africa but relatively few from Madagascar.

In 2007 we started to collect quantitative data on the consumption of bushmeat in Madagascar. Although at first our focus was on bats, we also encountered the hunting of primates, carnivores, frogs and birds. We now seek to understand the importance of bushmeat to livelihoods whilst also assessing the impact of hunting on populations of mammals and amphibians.