Assessment of Wildlife Hunting Activities in Ido Local Government Area , Oyo State Nigeria

The study was conducted to assess hunting activities in Ido Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria. A well-structured questionnaire was administered to obtain information from fifty hunters using a simple random sampling technique. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The result showed that 96% of hunters in the study area were men. Most of the respondents were married (84%) and within the age bracket of 31 and 50 years (48%). About 34% and 40% of respondents had primary and secondary education respectively while 13% had no formal education. They had between 20 and 29 years’ experience in wild animal hunting. Sixty-eight percent of the hunters in the study area engaged in part -time hunting while 32% were full-time hunters. The study further revealed that the hunters engaged in hunting for financial gain (64%), leisure (34%) and family tradition (38%). About ten types of species of wildlife animals were commonly killed by the hunters, and the animals were sold within the community market (42%), outside the community market (32%) and to visiting bushmeat marketers (26%). The study therefore recommends a policy that will control hunting activities in the study area, knowing that animal hunting serves as another source of livelihood to the hunters. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jasem.v25i3.16 Copyright: Copyright © 2021 Layade et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCL), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Dates: Received: 12 December 2020; Revised: 26 January 2021; Accepted: 12 February 2021

Wildlife hunting is an important aspect of life in rural areas in Nigeria. Animals from the forest serve as source of animal protein to hunters' family and those that relish bushmeat. It is also a good choice of minerals and vitamins, and the meat is sometimes recommended by medical doctors to improve patient's health conditions (Bifarin et al, 2008).
The sale of animals killed from the wild also provides income for hunters and many supplement their livelihood by hunting (Ntiamoa-Baidu, 1997;Falola et al, 2015, Babalola andOladipupo, 2018). Although hunting in most of the rural areas in Nigeria are illegal, yet they are able make a living, especially during dry season.
This study was carried out to assess the activities of wild animal hunters in Ido Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. The specific objectives include: describe the socioeconomic characteristics of the hunters; examine the reasons for engaging in hunting; identify the types of wild animals killed by hunters in the study area.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Study Area: The research was conducted Ido Local Government Area, Oyo state, Nigeria. The Local Government is one of the Oldest Local Government in the State located in Southern part with an area of 986 square kilometers and lies at latitude 7°30'44.50''N and longitude 3°47'35.00''E. It has an annual rainfall ranges from 100mm to 1800mm and average daily temperature of 24.1ºC and 28ºC. The population of Ido was 103,261 as at 2006 census (NPC, 2006). The target population for this study were hunters.

Sampling Technique and Data Collection:
A random sampling technique was adopted to select the respondents for the study. The totalof fifty hunters were selected from the list provided by the Egbe Oluode Ilu Ido, Ido Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected through the use of structured questionnaire administered to the respondents complemented with oral interview. Information obtained from the respondents include: socio-economic profile (sex, age, marital status, years and level of education), LAYADE, KT; LAYADE, AA; KEHINDE, OJ; ALAYE, SA; JAYEOBA, WA information on hunting activities (years of experience in hunting, tools, selling prices of animals caught etc.) and challenges encountered.
Data Analysis: Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage and mean) were employed to describe socio-economic profile of the respondents and identify the constraints to hunting activities.

Socio-economic Characteristics of Respondents:
Wildlife hunting in the study area is done by both male and female. However, male hunters (96%) are more than female (4%), indicating that animal hunting is predominantly male activity in the study area. Women and children also play a significant role in the hunting and collection of wild resources to feed the household in Africa (Ntiamoa-Baidu, 1997). Most of the respondents were married (84%) and within the age bracket of 31 and 50 years (48%), showing that they were mature and have responsibilities. Furthermore, 34% and 40% of the respondents had primary and secondary education respectively while 13% had no formal education. On the basis of years of experience in hunting, 36% have spent 20-29 years, 26% spent 40-49 years and 10% have spent between 10-19 years. This is an indication that the respondents have been long in animal hunting ( Table 1). The income realized from bushmeat hunting ranges from ₦11,000 to ₦19,000 (52%), ₦20,000 to ₦29,000 (20%), ₦30,000 to ₦39,000 (18%) and only 2% made above ₦49,000 monthly. Information on hunting activities: In table 2, most of the respondents engaged in hunting as part-time job (68%). This is an indication that the local hunter don't often depend on animal hunting alone for their livelihood, they combine it with other jobs. Other occupations of the respondents were crop farming (70%), commercial motorcyclists (26%) and trading (4%). Moreover, sixty percent of the respondents Assessment of Wildlife Hunting Activities….. received training in hunting either from their father (42%) or other hunters in the community (50%). The hunters in the study area engage in hunting for financial gain, and also it is a family tradition for some respondents. This result corroborates the findings of Akinyemi (2018) who stated that wild animals hunting is one of the oldest professions handed down from forefathers to descendants. On the basis of membership association, all the respondents belong to hunters' association called Egbe Oluode Ilu Ido a subgroup of Hunters Association of Nigeria, Oyo State Chapter. Their membership of hunting association may be due to the fact that they derived some benefits from it (Layade and Layade, 2020). The association serves as a platform for older ones to share experience and knowledge with the younger hunters through the association activities.
The study further revealed that the wildlife animals killed by the hunters were sold within the community market (42%), outside the community market (32%) and to visiting bushmeat marketers (26%).  Types of wild animals killed by hunters in the study area: The types of species of wildlife animals commonly killed by the hunters in the study area were presented in table 3. The animals hunted were grasscutter, antelope, giant rat, gray duiker, African black snake, pangolin, squirrel, rabbit and bush buck. According to the hunters, grasscutter (Thryonomys swinderianus) is predominant among the animals (Table 3). Among the greater number of mammalian species found in the study carried LAYADE, KT; LAYADE, AA; KEHINDE, OJ; ALAYE, SA; JAYEOBA, WA out by Halidu, 2019;Tee et al, 2012, Friant et al, 2015, were grasscutter, giant rat and duiker.

Conclusion:
The study assessed activities of wildlife hunters in Ido Local Governent, Oyo State, Nigeria. Wildlife hunting was a male-dominating activities in the study area. It was shown from the study that hunting was a part-time profession as most of the hunters combined it with other jobs. Hunting in the study area is mostly a family tradition as many of the hunters inherited it and received further training from their parents or uncles. Ten wild animals were identified as commonly killed in the area.