Impact of Human Activities on the Rodent Species Specific Richness in the Masako Reserve Forest in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Abstract

Slash-and-burn shifting agriculture, still common in Africa, is one of the major causes of deforestation in regions where excessive population pressure has accelerated the rate of agricultural rotation. The transformation and fragmentation of natural habitats, affects the structure and functioning of the forest ecosystem, leading to erosion and biodiversity loss. The main purpose of this research was to analyze capture, marking and recapture techniques, the specific richness of the rodent population in some habitats selected on the basis of an anthropogenic gradient in Masako forest reserve. The study was conducted in Masako Forest Reserve located in the Northeast of Kisangani city, Province Orientale, Democratic Republic of the Congo between February and June 2018. In fact, rodents were captured in different habitats namely primary forest, secondary forest, old fallow and young fallow where square grids were installed with Sherman traps. The number of trapping days depended on the habitat and an alphanumeric code was used for each individual for identification. Five campaigns of trapping were performed while different indices of biodiversity were used to assess the specific richness. The findings showed that a total of 545 specimens were collected distributing into 10 species. The most abundant species were: Praomys spp, Hylomys spp., Deomys ferrugineus and Lophyromys dudui but Praomys spp. was the most predominant and the most motile of identified species in the studied habitat. From different similarity indices used, it was found that the secondary forest has a large number of individuals while the high number of species was observed in the secondary forest and young fallow respectively. It was observed that the most important recaptures were obtained in primary and secondary forests while in both fallows the recapture rate was weak. Thus, human activities such as slash-and-burn shifting, although modifying the environment, and also acting on relative abundance, appear at the current stage, is not significantly affecting the rodent community.