From Subsistence to Commercial Hunting: Technical Shift in Cynegetic Practices Among Southern Cameroon Forest Dwellers During the 20th Century

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Tropical rainforest dwellers, who are currently engaged in bushmeat trade, used to track game for their own subsistence. We investigate the technical evolution over the past century of bushmeat procurement by the Fang, a group of southern Cameroon forest dwellers who are renowned for their extensive cynegetic expertise. This investigation consists of a diachronic approach to assess Fang hunting and trapping technology by comparing firsthand data on bushmeat procurement collected in the early 1990s with detailed descriptions recorded in the early 1900s among the same populations by the German anthropologist Günter Tessmann. Other archive sources bequeathed by explorers in the twilight of the 19th century are also exploited. The comparison conveys a more dynamic view of hunting practices following the greater involvement of the Fang hunters in the bushmeat trade. Historical sources remind us that projectile weapons were initially destined for warfare and that trapping, mobilizing a vast panel of modalities, was the prominent means to catch game for domestic consumption. Net hunting and crossbow hunting, which used to be typical Fang activities, are now exclusively conducted by Pygmies; spear hunting with hounds has become anecdotal. If a large range of trap mechanisms is still functional, effort is now focused on snares, elicited by the banalization of twisted wire cable. The legacy of other remaining models is left to children who carry out a didactic form of garden trapping. The major detrimental change is the use of firearms, which were initially adopted as a warfare prestige attribute before becoming the backbone instrument of bushmeat depletion. Revisiting the past provides useful lessons for improving current hunting management, through the promotion of garden hunting and wildlife farming, and the revitalization of a collective and cultural art of hunting as an alternative to indiscriminate overhunting by neophyte and increasingly individualistic hunters.

A zoo‐led study of the great ape bushmeat commodity chain in Cameroon

“…Moreover, improvements in hunting technology as well as the greater availability of guns have boosted bushmeat extraction levels and the bushmeat trade (e.g. Dounias, 2016). The overall result is that bushmeat hunting has rapidly become unsustainable in many parts of the world and some wildlife species, especially large-bodied mammals, are seriously threatened with extinction (Robinson & Bodmer, 1999;Barnes, 2002;Gandiwa et al, 2013;Ripple et al, 2016).…”

Declining Ungulate Populations in an African Rainforest: Evidence From Local Knowledge, Ecological Surveys, and Bushmeat Records

“…Since our sampling approach focused on snare hunting, our analyses ignore the effects of other hunting methods such as shotgun and the contribution of other groups of prey species (e.g., arboreal primates) to the hunting profile. Nevertheless, our study still provides insightful findings on the spatial and temporal patterns in terrestrial bushmeat species in Southeast Cameroon, where wire snares remain the most widely used hunting tool and terrestrial mammals the main preys, as reported in other sites in the Congo basin (Wilkie and Carpenter, 1999;Fa and Peres, 2001;Fa et al, 2006;Dounias, 2016). We recommend analysis of the effects of hunting on prey profiles based on multiple hunting technologies, which allows reflectiveness of a more diverse range of game species.…”

“…Although the wire snare technology is known to be typically non-selective (Noss, 1998(Noss, , 2000Dounias, 2000), it allows the possibility to target in preference large body-sized animals such as red river hogs in areas where the signs of their activity are abundant. Snare hunters can target larger-sized preys by increasing the number of strands of the wire snares (Yasuoka, 2014;Dounias, 2016), by decreasing the sensitivity of the trigger mechanism, and by selecting a tougher support stick. Yet, the point that hunters can target in preference larger species by adjusting the snares design does not invalidate the use of prey composition as a reliable proxy of species abundance.…”

“…Historically, wild animals have been hunted in African forests with diverse "traditional" tools, including crossbows, nets, spears, and snares made of vegetal materials. Wire snares were introduced to Africa after the Second World War (Shetler, 2007;Yasuoka, 2014;Dounias, 2016). To date, the use of "traditional" hunting tools has considerably reduced in Central African rainforests whereas most productive tools, namely metallic snares and shotguns become widespread (Noss, 1998(Noss, , 2000Wilkie and Carpenter, 1999;Fa et al, 2005); (Kümpel, 2006).…”

A Framework for Assessing Impacts of Wild Meat Hunting Practices in the Tropics

“…As well as facilitating targeting of certain species, modern flashlights have widened opportunities for active hunting for at least two other reasons. Firstly, they allow hunting to take place during otherwise 'vacant' hours (Dounias 2016), and during times when detection by ranger patrols is less likely (Nyahongo et al 2005;Holmern et al 2007). Secondly, they allow pursuit-hunters to target nocturnal species that otherwise could only be caught in snares (Coad 2007).…”