Hunting in Indonesian New Guinea: dogs, conservation and culture

Hunting has an ambivalent relationship with conservation: it can deplete and threaten vulnerable wildlife but can also motivate protection and good stewardship. Here we advance the understanding of this relationship by examining the different forms of hunting in one community with a particular focus on the motivations and implications surrounding the use of dogs. We present a case study from Indonesian New Guinea. We use self-reported information concerning the hunting activities and success of thirty-three hunters who frequent the lowland costal forest of Tambrauw in West Papua Province. The hunters identified 301 successful kills in a total of 654 hours of hunting over a 7-month period. Five different prey species were reported. In declining order of kills there were the Timor deer (Cervus timorensis), Wild pig (Sus scrofa), Common spotted cuscus (Spilocuscus maculatus), Dusky pademelon (Thylogale brunii) and Grizzled tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus inustus). While hunting with guns was the least frequently used method it was the most effective while passive methods (traps and snares) was the least efficient in terms of time (49 hours with 50 kills), but also the most commonly employed (352 hours with 123 kills) Interestingly, active hunting without dogs or guns yielded more kills per hour than hunting with them (0.70 versus 0.38 kills per hour), especially for deer, but hunting with dogs is the only method that seems to favour pigs over deer. Hunting in the daytime was more effective for pigs and less effective for all other species regardless of method. Dogs are also valued for guarding hunters and their families (from animals, enemies and spirits). We find that dogs sometimes provoke conflicts and cause other problems. Hunting method impacts the quantity and composition of the hunt, but as we see for dog ownership and use also relates to other practices. More attention should be given to local hunting and the methods used.