Full text
Widespread bushmeat hunting represents one of the major threats to manymammals and birds in Africa. We studied the influence of illegal bushmeat hunting onlarge grassland birds in the Serengeti National Park (SNP) and adjoining protected areas,by using the ostrich (Struthio camelus) as a case study. First, we documented illegalhunting of both small and large birds by using a questionnaire in the villages on the westernand eastern side of the SNP. Second, we studied the effect of illegal hunting on density bydriving 4,659 km of transects inside SNP and on the adjacent protected areas, where thedata were analysed by DISTANCE sampling. Last, we used flight initiation distance (FID,i.e. the distance between an approaching predator (human) and prey when flight is started),to assess possible impacts on behaviour from illegal hunting. We found that people fromthe western side of the SNP admitted to hunting both small and large grassland birds, andcollect ostrich feathers and eggs. Although the Maasai also hunted small birds, only ostrichfeathers and eggs of the large grassland birds were used. Surprisingly, we found no sig-nificant differences in densities between the SNP and adjoining partially protected areas,but ostriches had longer FID to an approaching human outside the SNP. Currently illegalhunting does not appear to affect the ostrich population, but given the extensive use ofbirds for consumption more awareness educational programs accompanied by provision ofagricultural incentives within the protect