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 10 manatee spear DHJanzen100464.jpg high resolution
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| While Doyle and our hunter host made their purchases of staples not aquired earlier in Edea (one always forgets something on a hunting trip, and therefore has to buy it at a higher price further from its base market source, thereby supporting the existence of the intermediate supply depot - smile), I explored the house. Discovering this obviously home-made spear (bent iron rods and soft iron wire - ideal for snares, see below) under the eaves, I walked it back into the store and asked what it was for. For the manatees that used to be in the lake, came the reply (manatees Trichechidae, and this one is Trichechus senegalensis). When? Oh, 10? years ago. The manatees had gone the way of the other bushmeat in the vicinity of this country store. The ensuing discussion told me that there was NO bushmeat in the forest there any more, and of course that is why there were no more hunters operating from this place. This left me mulling over how drastically the interactions of the hundreds of species of trees in this forest must have changed, in the absence of their seed predators and their seed dispersers. It also left me mulling over for how long the remaining game populations - whatever they were - could begin to build back up (or arrive from other areas) before their increasing density would be noticed and again driven down to near zero by bushmeat hunting originating once again from this very building. No hunters operating here would mean no notice, but there would be a point when the game animals would again wander by the building and their tracks be noticed. | ||
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