Abstract
Studies on species composition, distribution and relative abundance of birds and mammals in Gonde Teklehimanot and Aresema Monasteries was carried out from December, 2015 to February, 2016. In these areas, wildlife conservation is directly relevant to the local community, often as a source of livelihood, medicine and spiritual values. To collect data on population status of large mammals, we commenced a line transect while date on distribution, species composition and habitat association of Avifauna were collected by using a point transect, or point count in both Gonde Teklehimanot and Aresema monasteries. Based on these, a total of 95 and 72 species of birds and 21 and 9 species of mammal were recorded, respectively. Duncan’s Multiple Range Test showed that mean number of species did significantly differ between the two study sites. However, mean no. of species between habitats did not show a significant in both study areas. During the dry season, the highest species diversity at was recorded in farmlands and its associated habitat, 0.93 and followed by Riverine bushland, 0.75. This might be correlated with the less habitat diversity; i.e a homogenous (Ticket forest) habitat type is a dominantly habitat type in the area. Among the monastries, Gonde Teklehimanot was better in mammalian and Avifauna diversity than Aresema monastery. Both of them are rich in biodiversity, and hence, conservation practices and management innervations should be done at different levels of the local communities. Key words: Gonde Teklehimanot, Aresema monasteries, species.
Highlights
20 endemic species of birds are identified in both study areas
52 bird species were common to both Gonde Tekelhamanot and Aresema monasteries, and seasonally, 65 and 32 species were exclusive to the dry and wet seasons, respectively
In Gonde Teklehimanot monastery grassland habitat types are more diverse in species composition followed by open woodland, while the riverine forest habitat type is less diverse in species composition than other habitat types (Table 1)
Summary
Ethiopia is a country endowed with unique endemic fauna, flora and forest resources (Bongers et al, 2006). Has a long history of protecting and preserving indigenous flora as sanctuaries for prayer and burial grounds for church followers (Wassie et al, 2009). The biodiversity found in the monasteries are seen as sacred, with the trees symbolic of angels guarding the monasteries. At the communitylevel each monastery and church operates largely autonomously, with its own contextually-defined approach to natural resources management (Wassie et al, 2010)
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