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Tired of chicken? Bored with burgers? The growth in the last 10 years of the African timber industry has led to a dramatic increase in the illegal harvest of ape meat. Timber roads give hunters easy access to the forests, and logging communities provide the market. The carcasses, either smoked or sun-dried, are trucked into towns. The meat is said to be “palatable, soft, and sweet.”
It’s not just the locals sitting down to a succulent side of simian, either. The ALL AFRICA NEWS AGENCY reports that bush meat from African rainforests appears on European and North American menus as well. The harvest runs to over a million tons per year, and could threaten the survival of some species within decades.
