Hunting Pressure on Primates in Veun Sai-Siem Pang National Park, Cambodia

Approximately 60% of primate species are threatened with extinction, primarily due to hunting and habitat loss. To alleviate primate hunting pressure an understanding of human–nonhuman primate interactions is required. Six confirmed primate species inhabit Veun Sai-Siem Pang National Park (VSSP) in Cambodia, a part of the Indo-Burma hotspot. Local people in the surrounding villages rely on the national park for food, traditional medicine, and income. Illegal logging frequently occurs in the park and in recent years there has been an increase in the use of homemade guns for hunting; however, the hunting pressure on primates remains unknown. We investigated the current hunting pressure on primate species within the park using semi-structured interviews with local people in five villages adjacent to VSSP. All participants were 18 yr or older and identified as the head of the family and/or the primary resource collector. Of the 96 participants we interviewed, 64% were current hunters with 38% of these targeting primates. The pygmy slow loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus) is the most frequently hunted, sold and sought-after primate species in VSSP and is used in traditional medicine. The most wanted primate for a pet is the northern yellow-cheeked crested gibbon (Nomascus annamensis). Despite this, N. annamensis is rarely hunted in VSSP, reportedly due to a lack of suitable hunting equipment. We suggest that the importance of hunting primates for local communities and the potential impacts on these communities from conservation actions must be understood, and the potential impacts mitigated, for primate conservation plans to be effective.