The role of the introduced rusa deer Cervus timorensis for wildlife hunting in West Papua, Indonesia

The rusa deer has been introduced to Merauke region and later to Vogelkop Peninsula in Indonesian New Guinea (West Papua) in 1928. It has widely dispersed across much of the West Papuan lowlands, but little is known on population size and its role for the livelihoods of rural communities. Here, our aim was to assess the population status of rusa deer, and to investigate the extent of hunting practices on this mammal in West Papua.

We conducted camera trapping and line transect surveys simultaneously to estimate rusa deer population abundance in the Kwoor basin of the Tambrauw regency, Papua Barat province, Indonesia. We also interviewed hunters (n = 134), informants (n = 9) and households (n = 91) to assess hunting patterns and socioeconomic importance of rusa deer across fifteen districts of the Tambrauw regency.

We estimated rusa deer density within a 48 km² forested area at 10.34 (5.36–19.98) and 21.04 individuals/km² using line transect and N-mixture modeling approach using ca...