LED flashlight technology facilitates wild meat extraction across the tropics

Abstract

W ild vertebrates are a source of food and income for millions of people throughout the tropics. However, overhunting is a major concern, causing the decline of large-bodied animal species and even driving some to extinction (Maxwell et al. 2016; Ripple et al. 2016; Benítez-López et al. 2017). Unsustainable hunting threatens the food security of rural human populations that depend on wild meat (Nasi et al. 2011; Cawthorn and Hoffman 2015). In tropical forests, wild animals are hunted with a variety of methods, involving both traditional (eg bow and arrow) and modern (eg firearms) weapons (Fa and Brown 2009). Methods have improved incrementally over time, through the use of metal wire for the manufacture of snares and traps in Africa, cheaper guns, and the availability of incandescent battery-powered flashlights for hunting at night (Hames 1979; Redford and Robinson 1987; Alvard 1995). Flashlights are used to locate animals using the eyeshine that many species exhibit, a method known as "spotlighting" or "lamping" (Hames 1979). Bright lights at night temporarily immobilize many animals, which appear to perceive the light as non-threatening; this behavior allows hunters to approach within a short distance of the targeted animals, thereby greatly improving their chances of making a kill. Powerful, white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are increasingly replacing incandescent bulbs in flashlights. LED flashlights are brighter and approximately 10-20 times more efficient than incandescent bulbs (Pimputkar et al. 2009). Although LEDs have existed for decades as low-power indicator lights, and high-power white-light emitters have been in production since 1999, this technology has remained prohibitively expensive for hunters in developing countries for many years. Based on observations made by our collaborative research groups, LED flashlight prices became competitive with those of incandescent flashlights around 2012, and LED flashlights are now available in rural markets throughout tropical Latin America, Africa, and Asia, where they are commonly used in nocturnal hunting. We investigated the impact of LED flashlights in increasing wild mammal offtake by hunters in tropical forests through interviews with commercial and subsistence hunters in Peru, Brazil, and Gabon. We support our qualitative analysis with data from hunting events monitored for 13 years in the Brazilian Amazon, which allow for the comparison of hunting returns before and after the introduction of LED lights. Methods Hunter interviews Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to 120 shotgun hunters in three countries (Peru, Brazil, and Gabon)

Vulnerability and morphometric characteristics of hunting game species in the Lama Forest Reserve (Southern Benin republic)

“…The results show that in the Lama Forest Reserve, hunting is mainly carried out for the bushmeat trade and consumption [47] . Subsistence poaching is mainly of monkey and antelope species [48] .…”

“…Hunting is carried out individually or in groups using various methods at night or during the day, in the rainy or dry season depending on the species. Night hunting is gradually being reinforced by the use of LED lights by increasing the frequency and efficiency of hunting, which is becoming a major threat to wildlife [47] . The results of the surveys stipulate that hunting takes place more in the dry season than in the rainy season.…”

Wild Meat Is Still on the Menu: Progress in Wild Meat Research, Policy, and Practice from 2002 to 2020

“…The protagonists and drivers in these supply chains are different but interacting. Management is also further complicated by social change and the changing role of cultural taboos (105,185) and traditional medicine (186), expansion of the market economy to include subsistence communities (187), presence of commercial hunters living in urban areas (188), changing hunting technology (189), and the intergenerational differences in actions and perceptions of people ( 131), all of which affect which species are hunted and consumed, and why.…”

Prey preferences of modern human hunter-gatherers

“…We suggest that modern hunter-gatherer prey preferences are most likely driven by species that can satisfy optimal foraging theory requirements, implementing multiple technologies (notably unselective J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f Journal Pre-proof snares used in conjunction with other hunting methods) to kill and consume them, especially in persistently overhunted areas across continents and biomes (Milner-Gulland et al, 2003). This diversity of hunting methods to capture all available prey may mean that modern human hunters are no longer constrained by morphology in what they can captureinstead utilizing and innovating technology to capture almost any species (Bowler et al, 2020).…”