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Chelonoidis nigra is threatened, but the utilization pattern and efforts to change the conservation status in its natural home range is yet to be recommended. Utilization of tortoise in selected communities in Udu LocalGovernment Area was therefore carried out with the aim of investigating the various ways tortoise is being utilized, factors militating against the availability of tortoise, various methods of procuring tortoise, the perceived population dynamics, and to determine the association between age and occupation with utilization and procurement in the study area. Structured questionnaire, field observations and in-depth interview were used for the study in five randomly selected communities. A set of questionnaire was administered at random to 50% of household representatives of selected communities in the study area. A total of 124 respondents were sampled and the data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics and Chi square. The study revealed that Chelonoidis nigra is popular in the study area and it is mostly utilized as food and therefore hunted for sale as a source of income for families. Majority of the respondents (90.32%) hunt tortoise, few respondents (7.26%) buy without hunting and only 2.42% buy and hunt. Factors’ militating against the availability of tortoise in the study area includes the seasonal nature of tortoise (35%) and weather (65%) including the high level of rainfall as a result of global warming which made the forests flooded thereby reducing the procurement of tortoise and extending the months of the species availability to October . Chi square tests revealed that age (X2 = 27.896) and occupation (X2 =101.75) are associated (p |
