6.20.08 - Sangmelima - We hit the road from Yaounde for seven days of filming in the Dja. On our way down, we ran into a few guys selling bushmeat on the roadside. Again, they probably are hunting it illegally, but no one seems to really care that much. The government and NGOs are trying to stop commercial hunters, but so many people trap one or two animals casually that its hard to say what's more destructive over time. The fact is these animals are being killed at an alarming rate and the market for bushmeat isn't slowing fast enough.
In Sangmelima, we met another hunter-turned-cane rat farmer, Samuel Ayolo, that Living Earth had trained. He is enjoying a good life raising the valuable rodents to eat and sell (new house, feeding 17 kids with a lot less effort than hunting bushmeat) and hopefully he can spread the word that hunting is rarely worth the effort to friends and family. Until then, maybe these pics will help.
Selling these animals on the road for less than $10 (for the pair). The worst part about it was that the deer was still alive. Probably the most stirring image for me of the trip.
Samuel goes down the road from his house to collect this elephant cane which he feeds to the cane rats. Imagine my surprise when I finally figured out that's why their called "cane" rats.
A man sits in Samuel's village in the late evening as a kid walks by.
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