Losing threatened and rare wildlife to hunting in Ziro valley, Arunachal Pradesh, India

摘要

Harvesting wild animals through hunting has become a major conservation issue, especially for large-bodied animals. We surveyed the Ziro valley in Arunachal Pradesh in order to assess the socio-economic status and dependence of indigenous people on wildlife species. We used structured questionnaire for the survey and houses were selected randomly. Species hunted include common leopard, clouded leopard, marbled cat, leopard cat, spotted linsang, otter sp., yellow-throated marten, orange-bellied squirrel, Malayan giant squirrel, sambar, barking deer, wild pig and birds. Hunting was carried out mainly for subsistence (55%), commercial purposes (25%) and medicine (10%). There is an urgent need to assess the impact of wildlife hunting and the sustainability of such practices on the hunted species to aid in adopting strategies to improve the protection measures and making informed conservation decisions.