Canal-U

Smoking out the porcupine. A hunting party between brothers. Chronicle Baka, District of Messok, East Cameroon, June 2013

Camera, sound, editing : Romain Duda

Hunting strategies among the Baka are multiple, their choice is based on different incentives and preferences : daily and seasonal needs, mobility, human and financial resources, or involvement in the bushmeat trade.

Although they are known to be traditionally spear hunters, shotgun and snare trap made with a metallic wire are nowadays the most widely used hunting techniques. However, other methods exist, highlighting ecological knowledge and practices adapted to forest species ecology. The practice of rodent smoking out is one of those. It offers the possibility of acquiring game with reduced technical means, and often opportunistically during fortuitous encounters while traveling in the forest.

 That day, Kanja, 17 years old, borrows his father's hunting dog to reach the burrow of a porcupine (Atherurus africanus), which he spotted during a previous outing in forest. He leaves with two of his brothers and a cousin. 

While hunting birds (with slingshot, bow or trap) and mice (with snare trap or small spears) are child-specific "hunting games", rodent hunting is in fact an adult practice that teenagers will learn very quickly, either by accompanying their parents, or, as here, leaving between young people.

 Before departure, Kanja ties at the dog’s neck a bell (gala in Baka) made from a hollow kernel, allowing to follow the animal during a tracking. 

 In recent decades, the Baka have increasingly used the dog as a hunting assistant, an animal previously owned only by their farming neighbors.If the children remain vigilant with their spear and machete in front of the burrow, that is the dog who plays here a key role in the capture. 

 About butchering and cooking a brush-tailed porcupine see the video « Forest camp cooking : a meal of porcupine »