Illegal hunting is a widespread but poorly understood problem in African savannahs. With financial and technical support from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's Technical Cooperation Programme, the research team investigated illegal bushmeat hunting around the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Data were collected through interviews with hunters, randomly selected heads of households, wildlife experts, land concession managers and anti-poaching personnel. Records of wildlife-related crimes and census data for delta wildlife populations were obtained from all available sources.