Meeting Abstract

59.1  Sunday, Jan. 5 13:30  Long term monitoring of a bushmeat market in Bioko, Equatorial Guinea CRONIN, D.T.; WOLOSZYNEK, S.; MORRA, W.; HONARVAR, S.; LINDER, J.; O’CONNOR, M.P.**; HEARN, G.S.; Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA; Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA; Arcadia Univ., Glenside, PA; Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA; James Madison Univ., Harrisonburg, VA; Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA; Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA mike.oconnor@drexel.edu

Since 1997, the Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program has monitored the market for wildlife sold as food (bushmeat) in Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea. A 13 year long record of nearly every carcass sold in the market reveals substantial changes over time in the species taken, the number of carcasses, the methods by which animals were captured, and seasonal variation in the number of carcasses sold. Rate at which carcasses are sold has increased across the record, with three distinguishable periods (epochs). In particular, carcass rates of monkeys has increased strongly in recent years. Boundaries between the epochs correspond to significant governmental and political events suggesting that the bushmeat market is susceptible to modification by government action. Shifts in carcass rates, carcass prices, and changes in the market operation (including methods by which animals are taken) suggest that the bushmeat market on Bioko may be an increasingly commercialized, luxury market rather than a subsistence market as is thought typical of other bushmeat markets in sub-Saharan West Africa. Taxonomic makeup of the market and seasonality of the take are related to a shift from trapping as the most common method of animal capture to the use of shotguns.