Wild Animals Vital to African Wellness

In central Africa, where traditional livestock are scarce, meat from tricky to catch sources is increasingly important to the people who live there. According to the authors of a new paper in Animal Frontiers, meat from wild animals, such as antelope, frogs and rodents are essential sources of protein for central Africans.

Researchers Louw Hoffman and Donna Cawthorn refer to previous studies, which show that 20-90% of the animal protein consumed in many areas of Africa comes from bush meat, and that these unusual source-species are in fact high in wellness-boosting protein, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. According to Hoffman and Cawthorn, ‘The elephant or hippopotamus may provide food for an entire community, smaller antelope may feed a family, while a rat or lizard may quell the hunger of an individual. Alternatively, these species are often sold on the road side or at local markets to supply a much needed source of cash revenue’

These wild animals provide the nutrients that help people survive in sub-Saharan Africa, as the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation state that 25% of undernourished people worldwide live in these regions, and so the wellbeing of a quarter of the world could be improved from eating these meats. Hoffman and Cawthorn write ‘Besides the contribution of protein, the provision of calories from bush meat cannot be overlooked and while the meat of many wild animals is low in fat, some species such as rats and porcupines are prized for their fatty consistencies’.

However, environmental concerns have risen out of the increased consumption of wild meat, as it brings with it a loss of biodiversity. Manatees and pigmy hippopotamuses are being over-hunted in Ghana, and primates in central Africa are also in decline. According to Hoffman and Cawthorn ‘This situation is exacerbated by the fact that international and domestic commercial and often illegal trade in bush meat and other parts of wild animals is increasing and is largely outpacing legitimate subsistence hunting’.

Hoffman and Cawthorn suggest an alternative of ‘semi-domesticating’ certain animals. They propose that the quick rates of reproduction and simple care requirements of rodents makes them great specimens to be raised as food animals, and many African antelope are already being raised in large enclosures or in state-owned nature preserves, though that meat is often sold for export.