Diversity of medium and large-sized mammals across habitats and seasons
in the Faragosa-Fura landscape, Gamo Zone, Southern Ethiopia
Abstract
The survey was conducted from August 2019 to February 2020, aimed at
assessing medium and large-sized mammals’ diversity, richness, and
relative abundance in the Fura-Faragosa Landscape (FFL), Gamo zone,
Southern Ethiopia. Fixed-width line transects sampling method was used
to collect data among four stratified habitats: forest, wet-land,
grass-land and cultivated-land, and between seasons. A total of 685
mammalian records belong to 21 species, six orders and 13 families were
identified, including globally vulnerable species such as Panthera leo,
Panthera pardus and Hippopotamus amphibius. Overall, Papio Anubis and
Chlorocebus pygerythrus were the four dominant species, while
Civettictis civetta, Panthera leo and Panthera pardus were the least
abundant in the FFL. The study revealed that the dry season was
characterized by higher mammalian species abundance (377 records) but by
lower species richness (20) than the wet season. At habitat level, all
the species encountered in the three habitats (Except Panthera leo,
Panthera pardus, and Colobus guereza - habitat specialists) are subsets
of the species recorded in the grass-land habitat. Grass-land had the
highest diversity index (H = 2.543) even though its area is small except
wet-land. Wet-land had the lowest diversity index (H = 1.845) but
contained species of conservation concern such as vulnerable Panthera
leo and Hippopotamus amphibius. The species abundance was highest in the
forest. The similarity index of mammalian species was highest between
grass-land and forest (0.609). In general, the findings reveal that FFL
is the potential area for mammalian conservation in Ethiopia. The
findings will serve as baseline information for stakeholders to make
effective conservation decisions and as a baseline for researchers
wishing to conduct related ecological studies. As the area is rich in
mammalian diversity and abundance, urgent conservation action is highly
recommended. Keywords: distribution, diversity, Faragosa-Fura Landscape,
mammals, relative abundance