ANALYSIS OF HUNTERS' RETURN IN THREE MAJOR BUSHMEAT DEPOTS, IN SOUTH-WEST NIGERIA

Abstract

Submissions of game harvested by hunters per expedition to bushmeat landing depots in Southwestern Nigeria were studied for one year. Three established bushmeat landing depots were purposively selected for the study. Olomore and Kila in Ogun State and Odo Ona in Oyo State. The three were so selected because of their distribution along almost the same line of geographical placement on a line with Kila falling in between the other two on a line. Hunters’ return of harvested game after overnight hunting to the three locations on weekly basis was identified and counted for a year. Twenty-one (21) species of Vertebrates in the class Mammalia, reptiles and birds were returned to the three bushmeat depots by hunters during the study. Location-wise, Olomore had the highest return (1,457) and the least was returned to Kila (987) both in Ogun State. Species-wise, Thryonomys swinderianus (Grasscutter) had the highest population of 2,383 animals with a mean value of 794.3 ± 180.58, followed by Cephalophus maxwelli (duiker) with a mean value of 184.0 ± 32.51. The least hunters’ returns were Bitis gabonica (Black cobra) and Perodicticus potto (Bosmans potto) with a mean value of 0.33 ± 0.58 and 0.67 ± 1.15 respectively.