Diversity of medium and large mammals in the Loka Abaya National Park, southern Ethiopia.

Abstract

We evaluated the richness, diversity, and composition of the medium and large mammal community in the Loka Abaya National Park (LANP), southern Ethiopia, and how these parameters differ among four habitat types: wooded grassland, riverine forest, hilly scrubland and wetland, and between seasons. We recorded a total of 2,573 individual animals of 28 medium and large mammal species in the park. This included three globally threatened species: the endangered African wild dog (Lycaon pictus), the vulnerable Leopard (Panthera pardus), and Hippopotamus (Hippopothamus amphibius). Season had little effect on species richness, diversity, and composition both across and within habitat types. However, species richness across seasons was significantly different among the four habitat types, in the declining order of the following: wooded grassland > riverine forest > hilly scrubland > wetland. The strongest similarity in species composition, both across and within seasons, was found between wooded grassland and riverine forest. In terms of relative abundance, mammal assemblage of the wooded grassland and wetland habitats had more evenly distributed number of species with different relative abundance categories. Overall, Anubis Baboon (Papio anubis), Grivet Monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops), and Greater Kudu (Tragelephus strepsiceros) were the three most abundant species across habitat types. In conclusion, findings of our study reveal that LANP plays an important role in Ethiopia's mammal conservation. Our findings will serve as baseline information for managers of the park to make effective conservation decisions and as a baseline for researchers wishing to conduct related ecological studies.