Bushmeat trade is the commercial selling and hunting wild animals for food. Bushmeat brings humans and wildlife closer which creates a prime path for the transmission of diseases. Wild animals are reservoirs for pathogens, and people who come in contact with their bodily fluids risk becoming infected with a zoonotic disease, a disease that jumps from animals to humans. Some animals are traded as bushmeat are snakes, rats, monkeys, bats and other wild animals. Africa has the largest bushmeat market. Bushmeat trade is a major threat to African wildlife and must be stopped as it is endangering species. Hunting for bushmeat impacts over 500 wild species in Africa, but is particularly harmful to great apes, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos, whose small, endangered populations struggle to rebound from over-hunting. Along with other major stressors including habitat loss, trafficking and climate change.
