Silver Spring, MD BCTF volume number pages 1-2 edition
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Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, 8403 Colesville Road, Suite 710, Silver Spring, MD 20910
AFRICA; African; ape; apes; BCTF; bonobo; bushmeat; bushmeat trade; chimpanzee; CONGO; Congo basin; DEFORESTATION; disease; Ebola; gorilla; great ape; great apes; HABITAT; habitat loss; human; hunter; hunters; hunting; population; primate; PRIMATES; snare; SUBSISTENCE; Task Force; TRADE; WEST AFRICA
Habitat loss and deforestation have historically been the major causal factors for declining populations of Africa's great apes, but experts now agree that the illegal commercial bushmeat trade has surpassed habitat loss as the primary threat to ape populations.
The primary reason that primates are hunted is for human consumption either by subsistence hunters, or for the commercial bushmeat trade.
Apes fall victim to 'collateral damage' from snares intended for other target species, leading to serious injury and even death.
Due to the low reproductive rates of the great apes, even present levels of hunting may threaten the long term survival of all ape populations within all range states in the Congo Basin and West Africa.
Hunting, butchering and consumption of primates places both people and primates at increased risk of contracting virulent diseases. Due to our close genetic relationship, humans and other primates can easily transmit diseases to one another. HIV/AIDS and Ebola are tw