Local abundances of terrestrial mammal and bird species around indigenous villages in Suriname

Abstract

Hunting is an important threat to tropical wildlife, yet many people are dependent on forest fauna for protein provisioning. We analyzed abundances of terrestrial mammal and bird species around four indigenous villages in the south of Suriname, using camera trap data and the Royle–Nichols abundance model. We hypothesized that hunting pressure increases with decreasing distance to a village and with increasing village size (expressed as cropland area). We detected 24 animal species in all villages combined, including several rare species. For 11 of the 24 species, we were able to examine if and how distance to a village and village size related to local abundances and found a positive effect of distance to village on local abundances in five species, and a negative effect of village size in one species. Because villages, and thus hunting, affect local abundances of terrestrial bird and mammal species in our study, we recommend monitoring forest fauna in areas where people are highly dependent on animals for food provisioning.