Domestication of red jungle fowl: A case study of red jungle fowl poaching by communities in North Bengkulu

Abstract

Setianto J, Prakoso H, Sutriyono. 2015. Domestication of red jungle fowl: A case study of red junglefowl poaching by communities in North Bengkulu. Pros Sem Nas Masy Biodiv Indon 1 (2): 207-212. The red jungle fowl is an economically important species, that growing frequency of its poaching could lead to extinction. This study aims to gather information about capturing techniques used by the local communities in North Bengkulu. The data was obtained from in-depth interviews and questionnaires to selected respondents. Respondents were chosen by using snowball sampling method because little is known about the domestication of birds. The results showed that 65.22% of respondents captured the wild birds from the forests, while the other 34.78% did not. Several techniques were used to capture the birds. These techniques include the use of decoys with net traps (56.67%), decoys with line traps (26.67%), decoys with a combination of net and line traps (13.33%) and compartment traps (3.33%). The average number of wild fowls captured using a decoy and a trap was 1.44 individual per poacher and 1.25 individual per hunter using a decoy and a line trap. About 26.67% of captured wild fowls were domesticated and about 73.33% were for other purposes, including for food or being sold. In summary, the local communities living in plantation areas and forest buffer zones in North Bengkulu used a decoy and traps (net, line, and compartment) to capture red junglefowl. The captured fowls were then domesticated, bred, traded or eaten.