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 GAME-MEAT
HUNTING
1. Illegal game-meat hunting in the Serengeti ecosystem
and its impact on the spotted hyaena population
2. Optimality model: costs and benefits of game-meat hunting
in the Serengeti
Illegal game meat hunting in the Serengeti ecosystem and its impact
on the spotted hyaena population
Prior to the establishment of the Serengeti National Park and associated
protected areas in northwest Tanzania, game-meat hunting within the Serengeti
ecosystem was a component of the lives of many local communities. The
establishment of the Park effectively outlawed all hunting activity within
the Park, whilst hunting in the protected areas adjacent to the Park as
only legal if conducted under license.
Game-meat hunting provides both protein and cash income. These and related
benefits have drawn people to villages close to the park boundary, causing
a rise in human population density well above the regional average.
Serengeti ecosystem (Natural Resource Modeling, 2000, p. 154)  
rock hyrax und lion with wire snare 
spotted hyaena with wire snare
Optimality model: costs and benefits of game-meat hunting in the Serengeti
From the originally hyaena concentrated view of the game-meat hunting, Prof.
Hofer and collegues from the Natural Resources Institute in Great Britain
developed a research program that investigates the causes of game-meat hunting
and assesses the impact of poaching on the entire herbivore population of
the Serengeti.
It concerns in particular models which accurately predict the spatial
distribution of the hunting activity. Hence, such models are of practical,
strategic use and could support the park administration when making decisions
about the placement of new ranger posts or how best to direct law enforcement
patrols. Secondly, optimality models from the behavior ecology with considerable
success are used, which were originally developed for the solution of
other problems.
This allows the insight that basic research and interdiciplinarity for
a deepened understanding of applied problems are important and the linkage
of both most interestingly. Optimality models can help to answer the following
questions: How profitable is hunting? How are the costs and benefits of
the hunters distributed? Where is hunting most likely to occur? Where
should we expect to see the biggest impact of hunting on resident herbivores?
The problem of which location to choose for hunting is similar to the
task that many animals face when searching for food (i.e. the smallest
input with the highest yield). We constructed such a model of the spatial
distribution of economic costs and benefits of illegal hunting during
the late 1980s and early 1990s where costs and benefits were defined in
monetary terms.
Costs included capital investment in hunting weapons, WR, and the opportunity
cost of hunting, WO, both held to be constants; and two spatially variable
components, the logistic effort of traveling to hunting areas, WL, and
the penalties incurred if arrested, WP. Benefit was the expected income
from the sale of meat from resident wildlife species.
Spatial distribution of the modeled profitability of hunting in USD
in the protected area of the Serengeti
The model suggests: (1) WR is the most important cost. (2) WL is the second
most important cost and likely to determine the spatial distribution of
hunting activity if hunters seek to minimize costs. (3) WO and WP are of
minor importance, the former because alternative sources of income provide
low pay, the latter because the overall chance of being arrested is low.
(4) WP exceeds WL only in areas close to the boundary of protected areas.
(5) Although resident wildlife contributes only a minor share of illegal
offtake compared to the migratory herds, hunting resident wildlife is profitable
in 68% of the area. This suggests that hunting of resident and migratory
wildlife is highly profitable and may explain why the utilization of the
target populations has become increasingly unsustainable.
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