Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In Bunyala, the practice of consuming wild meat does not arise from a lack of alternative protein.
The practice has become a habit nurtured by the belief that wild-caught meat is best (and it helps that
such meat is also less expensive than the alternatives). Local inhabitants of Bunyala are moderately
successful domestic animal farmers who keep a modest number of livestock animals, including
chickens, but they only eat these on special occasions. We also found that bird poachers were willing
to abandon poaching for farming if provided with initial fi nancial support to start vegetable grow-
ing and other legal businesses. However, poaching and consuming wild (bird) meat as a way of life
remains deeply ingrained in people.
3.4 The role of carbofuran in the decline of lions and other
carnivores in Kenya
Laurence Frank,
1, 2
Alayne Cotterill,
1, 3
Stephanie Dolrenry,
1, 4
Leela Hazzah
1, 4
1
Living with Lions, Panthera, 8 W. 40
th
St., New York, USA 10018
2
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, California,
USA 94720
3
Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Dept. of Zoology, University of Oxford,
Tubney, Abingdon OX13 5QL, UK
4
Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, Wisconsin, USA 53706
3.4.1 Background information
African wildlife populations have been in decline since European colonisation in the 1800s. Ever-
increasing numbers of humans have destroyed habitat through conversion to agriculture and over-
grazing by domestic livestock, and wild grazers have been decimated by the bushmeat trade. Large
carnivores are usually the fi rst species to disappear when humans expand into wild areas, killed in
retaliation for depredation on livestock (Woodroffe 2001).
As pastoralist populations increase in arid and semi arid rangeland ecosystems, cattle, goats, sheep
and camels replace native wild ungulates which are the normal prey of lions (
Panthera leo)
, leopards
(
Panthera pardus
), cheetahs (
Acinonyx jubatus),
spotted hyenas (
Crocuta crocuta),
and wild dogs
(
Lycaon pictus
). The predators turn to livestock and are poisoned, speared or shot. Although there are
no reliable data for earlier periods, until recently conservationists estimated a continental population
of 100 000 to 200 000 lions (Myers 1975; Nowell and Jackson 1996), evidence that they were still
widespread and common. By today's best estimate, fewer than 30 000 wild lions remain in Africa,
most of them in six very large national parks or managed areas (IUCN 2006). Most other protected
areas are too small to protect viable populations of wide-ranging animals, as they move beyond park
boundaries and come into confl ict with people. In Kenya today, we believe lion numbers to be well
below 2 000. Outside of national parks, it is rare to fi nd tracks or hear them roaring.
Large carnivores have been in confl ict with man over livestock depredation since ungulates were
fi rst domesticated by pre-agricultural humans. Traditional livestock husbandry systems prevent
most depredation losses through close herding by day and enclosing livestock in thornbush bomas
(i.e., enclosures) at night to prevent them from wandering (Ogada, Woodroffe, Oguge et al. 2003;
Frank, Woodroffe, Ogada et al. 2005; Woodroffe, Frank, Lindsey et al. 2007). However, depreda-
tion losses can represent a considerable threat to the livelihoods of both traditional pastoralists and
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