title: Bushmeat hunting and extinction risk to the world's mammals.
abstract: Terrestrial mammals are experiencing a massive collapse in their population sizes and geographical ranges around the world, but many of the drivers, patterns and consequences of this decline remain poorly understood. Here we provide an analysis showing that bushmeat hunting for mostly food and medicinal products is driving a global crisis whereby 301 terrestrial mammal species are threatened with extinction. Nearly all of these threatened species occur in developing countries where major coexisting threats include deforestation, agricultural expansion, human encroachment and competition with livestock. The unrelenting decline of mammals suggests many vital ecological and socio-economic services that these species provide will be lost, potentially changing ecosystems irrevocably. We discuss options and current obstacles to achieving effective conservation, alongside consequences of failure to stem such anthropogenic mammalian extirpation. We propose a multi-pronged conservation strategy to help save threatened mammals from immediate extinction and avoid a collapse of food security for hundreds of millions of people.
authors.affiliation: GlobalTrophic Cascades Program, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA; Forest Biodiversity Research Network, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
authors.forename: William J
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6557-3043
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Ripple
authors.affiliation: School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK; Institut de Recherche en Ecologie Tropicale, CENAREST, BP 842 Libreville, Gabon.
authors.forename: Katharine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Abernethy
authors.affiliation: GlobalTrophic Cascades Program, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA; Forest Biodiversity Research Network, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Betts
authors.affiliation: Grimsö Wildlife Research Station, Department of Ecology , Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences , 73091 Riddarhyttan , Sweden.
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chapron
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology , Stanford University , Stanford, CA 94305 , USA.
authors.forename: Rodolfo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dirzo
authors.affiliation: Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Instituto Biociências, Departamento de Ecologia, 13506-900 Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil; Department of Bioscience, Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Galetti
authors.affiliation: GlobalTrophic Cascades Program, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA; Forest Biodiversity Research Network, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA; Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
authors.forename: Taal
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Levi
authors.affiliation: Panthera, 8 West 40th Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10018, USA; Mammal Research Institute, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa.
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Lindsey
authors.affiliation: Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology , University of Oxford , The Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Tubney House, Tubney, Abingdon OX13 5QL , UK.
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Macdonald
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences , Florida International University , Miami, FL 33199 , USA.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Machovina
authors.affiliation: GlobalTrophic Cascades Program, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA; School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Centre for Integrative Ecology, Deakin University, Burwood campus, Geelong, Victoria 3125, Australia; School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia; School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas M
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3457-3256
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Newsome
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental Sciences , University of East Anglia , Norwich NR4 7TJ , UK.
authors.forename: Carlos A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Peres
authors.affiliation: Centre for Compassionate Conservation, School of Life Sciences , University of Technology Sydney , PO Box 123 Broadway, New South Wales 2007 , Australia.
authors.forename: Arian D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Wallach
authors.affiliation: GlobalTrophic Cascades Program, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA; Forest Biodiversity Research Network, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5519-3845
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology , University of California Santa Barbara , Santa Barbara, CA 93106 , USA.
authors.forename: Hillary
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0449-8582
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Young
keywords: bushmeat; extinction; hunting; mammals; wild meat