Introduction

The wildlife that people consume for food covers the range of the diversity of species. Wildlife as food is a complicated issue as not only does it include luxury ‘exotic’ foods like caviar, whale and bear paws, but also includes common species such as deer, rabbits and snakes. Adding to the complexity is that some species, like caviar, were at one time common, but because of over-exploitation and unsustainable consumption have become a luxury (Bronzi and Rosenthal, 2014). Or, in the case of some bushmeat species, the wildlife may be a staple for people in the wildlife's home range, but a luxury product when transported thousands of miles to a diaspora market far from where the wildlife was kidnapped. In addition, even though a non-human animal may be common, such as the pangolin once was, consumption can still be considered a luxury (Pantel and Anak, 2010). The pangolin has been and still is a special meal in wildlife restaurants in parts of Southeast and East Asia.

Clearly, many human communities have historically been and continue to be reliant on wildlife for food. That reliance may stem from necessity that the wildlife is one of the few, if not the only, protein source available to people living in the wildlife's habitat. In addition, the reliance may be underpinned by many years of tradition in which particular wildlife feature in cultural traditions of a community and may even have significance for ethnic identity. Whereas in the first case, alternative protein sources may reduce the consumption of wildlife as food, in the latter case, consumption may be difficult to change and reduce. The reason why there needs to be a focus on reduction is because as Ripple et al (2019: 3) found in their study: ‘Our results suggest that we are in the process of eating the world's megafauna to extinction.’ They found consumption for vertebrates other than megafauna (mammals, cartilaginous fish and ray-finned fish weighing more than 100kg, and birds, reptiles and amphibians weighing more than 40kg) are also threatened because of human demand for the wildlife as food.