Yellow-breasted Bunting, also known as Grass Sparrow. It has become a critically endangered species due to widespread hunting. Picture: Liao Zhikai

The illegal hunting of wild animals in China has been comprehensively and scientifically assessed for the first time.

On October 25, the aforementioned research results were published online in the international academic journal Nature.

The first author and corresponding author of the paper is Liang Dan, a 2018 PhD graduate of Sun Yat-sen University. He is currently an associate researcher at Princeton University, USA.

On the 25th, Liang Dan told The Paper that in their research, they summarized the most hunted species among the four groups. Currently, some of them have been included in the "List of National Key Protected Wild Animals" updated in February 2021, such as yellow-breasted bunting, thrush, etc. However, some threatened species that are heavily hunted and listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red Book have not yet been included in the list of nationally protected wild animals, such as field buntings and spiny-breasted frogs . "In the legal documents we analyzed, we found (them) that a large number of individuals were hunted ."

The results of this study can provide scientific basis and reference for the future revision of China's national key protection lists.

The above research results involve four animal groups in China: amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The data comes from the Chinese public legal database for a total of 6 years and 3 months from January 2014 to March 2020 and more than 9,000 animals. A legal document involving illegal hunting of wild animals.

The study found that illegal hunting is widespread in 319 municipal-level cities. Among them, East China and Central China are hot spots where related cases have occurred. These areas not only contain more cases of illegal hunting, but also more cases of large-volume hunting. However, cases involving threatened species are mostly distributed in South China and Southwest China.

The author believes that the reason why the southwest region is not shown as a hot spot may be due to its remote location, relatively weak law enforcement, and high difficulty in law enforcement. However, the Southwest is a hotspot for cases involving rare and endangered species and deserves the attention of law enforcement agencies.

Comprehensive analysis of socioeconomic factors shows that some areas closer to urban markets have higher density of illegal hunting cases, further confirming the commercial nature of illegal hunting .

A total of 673 species were recorded in the aforementioned legal documents of 6 years and 3 months, including 89 threatened species distributed in China and listed in the IUCN Red Data Book.

The aforementioned documents record that more than 3 million individuals of just four taxonomic categories of wild animals have been illegally hunted. Among them, about 90% of hunted individuals come from only 5% of hunting cases, which indicates the existence of large-scale illegal hunting groups.

Among the aforementioned heavily hunted species, there are 8 threatened species and 18 virus-carrying species , posing significant risks to biodiversity and public health.

The aforementioned legal documents show that the main use of some hunted animals is animal products, and some of the birds are sold as pets .

Research results show that most hunting cases and cases with large numbers of hunting mainly occur in artificial habitats, while cases involving threatened species and mammals mostly occur in forest habitats. These two habitats should be the focus of law enforcement.

In addition, because not all illegal hunting incidents are successfully enforced and adjudicated, the study further analyzed the extent to which hunted species are underestimated. Through species accumulation curves and prediction models based on species traits and phylogenetic relationships, the study identified 781 species that are not recorded in legal documents but have a high risk of being hunted , including 90 threatened species. These analyzes overcome to a certain extent the bias caused by assessing illegal hunting and trade of wildlife through public data, and provide scientific references for species with high hunting risks that should be focused on in future law enforcement activities on wildlife hunting and trade.

The title of the paper is "Assessing the illegal hunting of native wildlife in China." In addition to Liang Dan, postdoctoral fellows Dr. Hu Sifan and Associate Professor Ma Liang from the School of Ecology at Sun Yat-sen University, Associate Professor Xingli Giam from the University of Tennessee, and Professor David Wilcove from Princeton University are co-authors.

The journal "Nature" specially invited David P. Edwards, a professor at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, to comment on the paper in a "News and Views" article published at the same time. Professor David Edwards believes that the aforementioned paper evaluates wildlife hunting through legal instruments, fills the gap in national-level wildlife hunting and trade research, and provides inspiration for other countries to conduct similar research.

Related paper links : https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06625-0