Abstract
The study was carried out to assess a Checklist of avifauna and small mammal species along Bade catchment area of Yobe State, Nigeria. Preliminary survey was conducted around the river, three (3) habitat types were identified; (river bank, farm lands and flood plain). The line transect was 8 km in length. Two (2) transects were established per habitat type, making a total of six (6) transects. The transects were 100 m apart to the left or right in order to avoid double counting of species. A distance of 200m was maintained between each habitat. The data obtained were analyses using descriptive statistics (Frequency tables and Charts were used to portrayed the findings. The result of the study; showed that a total of 50 bird species in 28 families were recorded. RB had the highest individuals of Fifty (50) species while FP has the lowest with ten (10) species. The Bird family Columbidae has the highest number with six (6) of species, while the lowest were Ardeidae, Sturnidae and Tytonidae with one species in each of the habitat types. However, checklist of small mammal species also indicated that a total of 6 species of small mammals belonging to 4 families were identified. The result of the study shows that the family Muridae has 3 species which was the highest number of per family identified in the study area, this is due to the fact that Muridae family are the most common small mammals in the study area. And both bird small species fell under least concern (LC) category except Pallid Harrier Circus macrourus which felled under near threatened (NT) species. However, awareness campaign should also be organize for the residents around the study area on the presence, distribution of bird and small mammal species and also disturbing effect of their activities on bird and small mammal around the segment area of river Yobe.
Highlights
Bird species are warm blooded vertebrates in the scheme of biological classification
All species recorded occurred around the River Bank (RB) area, Twenty Nine (29) species occurred around Farm Lands (FL) and Ten (10) species in Flood plain (FP) areas respectively
The findings further reveals that most of the species were identified through Dead Animal (DA) and Visit to bush meat processing and selling centers (BMPSC) which has 6 species each, followed by Direct Sighting (DS) and Burrow (BURR) which has 4 species each
Summary
Bird species are warm blooded vertebrates in the scheme of biological classification. They belong to the phylum chordate because of the presence of backbone and to the class Aves for possessing feathers on their bodies (Kwaga, et al, 2017). There are approximately 8,700 living species and more than 1,000 extinct species identified from fossil remains (Safra, 1998) They are the good indicators of ecological status of any given ecosystem (Castelletta, et al, 2000). Small mammals have long been used as bio-indicators and model organisms to study patterns of species abundance and diversity along different land use gradients (Michel, et al, 2007).
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