Geographic biases in cane rat (thryonomyds) research may impede broader wildlife utilization and conservation in Africa: a systematic review
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Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
There is a growing body of literature about cane rat species but most of the published
work is patchy and current spatial distribution is unknown which limits its wide appli-
cation in the utilization of the species for the broader commercial game industry and for
improving wildlife conservation across Africa. We conducted a systematic review of 56
years (1964 - 2020) of cane rat research to understand existing research gaps, to analyze
the spatiotemporal and thematic patterns, and investigated factors that influence the pub-
lication of the cane rat research in widely recognized journal outlets. We found 308 pub-
lications on the cane rat species from 14 countries authored by 39 nationalities globally.
The publications increased significantly over the study period, with 97.7% of these biased
geographically and thematically towards the west and central African region. Further, the
published research mostly covered one species, the greater cane rat, and none had covered
the biogeography, food biology, and conservation of any of the two cane rat species in situ.
Also, the author’s nationality had the strongest influence on publishing the research in
journals with or without impact factor. These results suggest that the financial limitation
and quality of the research influenced most cane rat research published in local national
or regional journals which mostly had limited accessibility for widespread research use to
improve applied conservation programs. Expanding coverage of the cane rat research in
other species-range countries in the east and southern African regions will be necessary
to tap the species as a priority commercial game to reducing exploitation pressure on the
wild mammal populations particularly in the African savannas where illegal hunting for
bushmeat consumption is a growing problem.
Description
Journal article
Keywords
Bushmeat hunting, Cane rat literature, Game ranching, Insitu conservation, Spatiotemporal trend, Wildlife farming