Hunting Areas Research Articles

Marabou Stork Leptoptilos crumenifer breeding in the greater Gorongosa landscape, Mozambique

The Marabou Stork Leptoptilos crumenifer is a large wading bird that occurs extensively throughout sub-Saharan Africa in savanna and wetland habitats. Despite its widespread occurrence in southern Africa, the number of known breeding localities and the numbers of nests are limited. We report on large, dispersed nesting colonies in the greater Gorongosa landscape in central Mozambique. We counted the number of active Marabou nests in Gorongosa National Park and adjoining areas by conducting annual aerial (helicopter) surveys between 2016 and 2019. The Muaredzi colony within Gorongosa National Park has been expanding annually from 82 active nests in 2016 up to 258 nests in 2019. Similarly, the Mussicadzi colony has increased from five nests in 2016 to 81 nests in 2019. A total of 373 active nests were recorded in 2019 in Gorongosa National Park. Since 2017, a small number of additional nests were also observed in the Coutada 11 and Coutada 12 hunting areas, adjacent to Gorongosa. The total count for the greater Gorongosa landscape was 380 active nests in 2019. This represents the first formal record of what appears to be the single largest breeding assembly of Marabou Storks south of the Zambezi and Cunene Rivers. The observation of a significant number of active Marabou nests in the greater Gorongosa landscape has important conservation implications.

Seasonal variation in the diet of the serotine bat (Eptesicus serotinus): A high-resolution analysis using DNA metabarcoding

Bats play an important role as predators of insect populations but are threatened by a variety of factors, including the loss of foraging habitat and insect declines. Knowledge on trophic interactions, foraging strategies, and hunting areas is key to understanding the ecology of bat species, to assess their impact on ecosystems and to optimize conservation strategies. We investigated seasonal trends in the diet of two nursery colonies of the serotine bat, Eptesicus serotinus, from an intensively farmed agricultural landscape in Germany. Using DNA-metabarcoding of food remains in bat droppings collected from May to July 2018, we identified 254 taxa of 13 arthropod orders to species or genus level, including numerous pest species. Our results indicate an equal use of Coleoptera, Diptera, and Lepidoptera, contradicting previous morphological dietary analyses that had shown beetles to be the most frequent prey. The dietary composition was seasonally highly variable and mainly determined by prey phenology. Dietary richness significantly increased throughout the sampling period, reflecting increasing insect activity with progressing season. Our findings demonstrate that E. serotinus is a generalist forager, linking different habitat types through trophic interactions.

Wild ungulate overabundance in Europe: contexts, causes, monitoring and management recommendations

Abstract High‐density populations of large ungulates are now widespread. However, the perception of overabundance only appears when it produces a problem for humans, such as a loss of plant diversity, damage to agricultural crops and forestry, ungulate‐vehicle collisions, a nuisance to humans, disease transmission to livestock or changes in habitat for other species. The admissible level of density depends on the ecological and socio‐economic context in which the population is located, and defining this level is important, in order to determine management strategies and actions. We describe the main contexts in which ungulate overabundance occurs in Europe, record the causes of overabundance and evaluate which set of indicators of ecological change is the most appropriate for monitoring and diagnosing overabundance in each scenario. Our review of 318 published papers revealed six contexts of wild ungulate overabundance in Europe (protected areas, hunting areas, forestry, arable farming, livestock farming and [peri]urban areas). In addition to population abundance, four sets of indicators of environmental change could be used to monitor overabundance within these contexts (impacts on habitats, impact on animal performance, increments in diseases and parasite loads, and increments in nuisance to humans). Nine species of ungulate were found to be overabundant. Red deer Cervus elaphus was the species most likely to be overabundant in the contexts of protected areas (detailed in 27% of papers on that context) and hunting areas (38%); roe deer Capreolus capreolus in forestry (28%); wild boar Sus scrofa in arable farming (60%), livestock farming (29%) and (peri)urban areas (38%). Our evidence shows that the diagnosis and monitoring of ungulate population overabundance via indicators of ecological change, and the management actions required to control these undesirable situations, are strongly context‐dependent.

Potentials and Challenges for Community Based Ecotourism Development at Haro Aba Diko Controlled Hunting Area, South Western Oromia

This study was conducted to identify the potentials, Challenges of community- based ecotourism at Haro Aba Diko Controlled Hunting area, South western Ethiopia. Community -based ecotourism has become the most basic tool to meet livelihood demand across the world. Primary and secondary data were used for this study. Purposive and simple random sampling methods were used to select kebeles and 140 sample respondents respectively. To select key informant snowball method was used. Quantitative data was analyzed using frequency, percentage and mean whereas the qualitative data was used to triangulate and authenticate the study. The result of the study indicated that Haro Aba Diko Controlled Hunting area had huge resource potentials such as attractive flora and fauna ,Dabena and Didesa river with attractive cultural resource like Cultural dance, cultural food and drinks .Having this potentials community based ecotourism establishment is constrained by lack of awareness, basic infrastructures, tourism professionals and Illegal activity of community like Settlements within the Controlled Hunting Area and Conversions of forest lands to Agricultural lands. To empower the establishment of community based ecotourism, awareness creation program, promotion activity, filling gap of community social infrastructures and further study in the study area should be needed. Keywords: Community -based, Ecotourism, Challenges, Potentials DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/68-01 Publication date: August 31 st 2020

Population Trends of the Most Common Large Game in the Hunting Area in Eastern Croatia in 2008 – 2018

Red deer, roe deer, and wild boar belong to a group of large game and are the most common species of game in the hunting area in Eastern Croatia. The research was conducted by the company hunting staff in the Osijek-Baranja County, area of Kućanci in the interval from 2008 to 2018. Knowing the number of wildlife in the hunting area is the base for establishing growth and planning shootings. It is important to keep the balance in the hunting ground to avoid transmission and spreading of diseases and reduce traffic accidents as well as vehicle and wildlife damages. Given the fact that populations of large game have great importance in Croatia, the main objective of the study was to determine population trends of red deer, roe deer, and wild boar in the hunting ground in Eastern Croatia in 2008 – 2018.

Re-emergence of bluetongue virus serotype 4 in Iberian ibex (Capra pyrenaica) and sympatric livestock in Spain, 2018-2019.

Between early October and mid-December 2018, mortalities were detected in Iberian ibex (Capra pyrenaica) populations in southern Spain. In the same region and period, bluetongue virus (BTV) circulation was also reported in sentinel and clinically affected domestic ruminant herds. Molecular analyses confirmed BTV serotype 4 (BTV-4) infection in eight Iberian ibexes from six hunting areas, and in 46 domestic ruminants from seven herds in close proximity to affected hunting estates. Histopathological analyses revealed vascular changes in several organs, pneumonia, lymphoid depletion, inflammatory mononuclear cell infiltrate and fibrosis as the most frequently observed lesions in the affected Iberian ibexes. Epidemiological and laboratory results indicate that BTV-4 was the main aetiological agent involved in outbreaks detected in Iberian ibex populations during the study period. Sequence analyses indicated that the BTV-4 strain detected in Iberian ibex had high homology (99.4%-100%) with strains isolated in livestock during the same period, and with previous isolates (≥98.9%) from Spain and Mediterranean Basin countries. Further studies are warranted to determine the impact of BTV-4 on the health status of Iberian ibex populations after the outbreaks. The inclusion of this species in the surveillance programme may be useful for early detection of BTV, especially in epidemiological scenarios at the wildlife-livestock interface.

Evaluating Indirect Effects of Hunting on Mule Deer Spatial Behavior

ABSTRACTMule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) are widely hunted throughout western North America and are experiencing population declines across much of their range. Consequently, understanding the direct and indirect effects of hunting is important for management of mule deer populations. Managers can influence deer mortality rates through changes in hunting season length or authorized tag numbers. Little is known, however, about how hunting can affect site fidelity patterns and subsequent habitat use and movement patterns of mule deer. Understanding these patterns is especially important for adult females because changes in behavior may influence their ability to acquire resources and ultimately affect their productivity. Between 2008 and 2013, we obtained global positioning system locations for 42 adult female deer at the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range in northeast Oregon, USA, during 5‐day control and treatment periods in which hunters were absent (pre‐hunt), present but not actively hunting (scout and post‐hunt), and actively hunting male mule deer (hunt) on the landscape. We estimated summer home ranges and 5‐day use areas during pre‐hunt and hunt periods and calculated overlap metrics across home ranges and use areas to assess site fidelity within and across years. We used step selection functions to evaluate whether female mule deer responded to human hunters by adjusting fine‐scale habitat selection and movement patterns during the hunting season compared to the pre‐hunt period. Mule deer maintained site fidelity despite disturbance by hunters with 72 ± 4% (SE) within‐year overlap between summer home ranges and hunt use areas and 54 ± 7% inter‐annual overlap among pre‐hunt use areas and 56 ± 7% among hunt use areas. Mule deer diurnal movement rates, when hunters are active on the landscape, were higher during the hunting period versus pre‐hunt or scout periods. In contrast, nocturnal movement rates, when hunters are inactive on the landscape, were similar between hunting and non‐hunting periods. Additionally, during the hunt, female mule deer hourly movements increased in areas with high greenness values, indicating that mule deer spent less time in areas with more vegetative productivity. Female mule deer maintained consistent habitat selection patterns before and during hunts, selecting areas that offered more forest canopy cover and high levels of vegetative productivity. Our results indicate that deer at Starkey are adopting behavioral strategies in response to hunters by increasing their movement rates and selecting habitat in well‐established ranges. Therefore, considering site fidelity behavior in management planning could provide important information about the spatial behavior of animals and potential energetic costs incurred, especially by non‐target animals during hunting season. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.

Application of acoustic intelligent leak detection in an urban water supply pipe network

Abstract Different leakage detection technologies present different efficiency and precision of leakage detection in water distribution systems due to their own properties. This study aimed to investigate the use of acoustic sensors to locate the exact position of leaks, which work 24 hours per day in different modes, i.e. fixed installation and mobile exploration. The results showed that the maximum distance between the acoustic sensors installed on the pipeline was 380 m. Field application results indicated that detecting threshold of the distance was 300 m and the intensity ratio of leaking state noise (LSN) to background noise was 1.9 respectively. The pipeline length by manual hunting area (MHA) is 1.3 times longer than the acoustic logger tested area (ALTA), but the detected leakage points in MHA is 20% less than in ALTA. Furthermore, the cost of leakage detection in MHA was about 6,000 yuan/detected leakage point. That in ALTA was about 2,500 yuan/detected leakage point. The case study also indicates that the acoustic logger is a promising tool with the advantage of lower cost and faster detection, compared to manual ground listening with a sound stick. The acoustic leakage detection method can detect the leakage in different sized pipelines, whereas the manual detection was concentrated in small-sized pipelines.

Drivers of leopard (Panthera pardus) habitat use and relative abundance in Africa's largest transfrontier conservation area

Transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) have the potential to provide havens for large carnivores while preserving connectivity across wider mixed-use landscapes. However, information on the status of species in such landscapes is lacking, despite being a prerequisite for effective conservation planning. We contribute information to this gap for leopard (Panthera pardus) in Africa, where the species is facing severe range contractions, using data from transect surveys of a 30,000km2 area across Botswana and Zimbabwe in the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) TFCA. We used occupancy models to assess how biotic, anthropogenic, and management variables influence leopard habitat use, and N-mixture models to identify variables influencing the species' relative abundance. Leopard were detected in 184 out of 413 sampling units of 64km2; accounting for imperfect detection resulted in mean detection probability p̂¯ = 0.24 (SD = 0.06) and mean probability of site use ψ̂¯ = 0.89 (SD = 0.20). Habitat use was positively influenced by prey availability and high protection. Relative abundance was best predicted by trophy hunting, which had a negative influence, while abundance was positively associated with high protection and availability of steenbok. Our findings suggest that securing prey populations should be a priority in conservation planning for leopard in Africa, and underline the necessity of preserving highly-protected areas within mixed-use landscapes as strongholds for large carnivores. Our findings also support calls for better assessment of leopard population density in trophy hunting areas, and illustrate the value of N-mixture models to identify factors influencing relative abundance of large carnivores.

English

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the viability of wildlife corridors between the Benue National Park and the Faro National Park through the hunting areas, by identifying the main threats to their integrity, mapping of land use, characterization of their flora and the wildlife inventory that frequents these corridors in order to propose measures for their sustainable management. Field observations, land use mapping from the 2016 Landsat 8 image classification, and 60 floristic surveys at six sites (corridors) on 20 m × 20 m plots treated under R resulted in the following results: nine types of activities were identified, including logging, agriculture, grazing and forestry. With ggold panning the main threats to corridors, the species mostly used by these farmers are Piliostigma thonningii (82.674 ± 4.24), Combretum sp. (78.18 ± 4.01) and Tamarindus indica (75.06 ± 3.85) among the most threatened woody species. On the floristic level, vegetations under the influence of anthropic activities present a large number of rejections, a small number of adult stems. The Shannon diversity index varies between 4.30 and 5.07 in all corridors. On the other hand, the index of equitability varies from 0.50 to 0.59. On the faunal plan, 204 individuals, belonging to 12 animal species, grouped into 6 families frequent the corridors. This number is well below what was achieved in 2010 when there was a decrease of 1024 individuals in the corridors, a decrease rate of 83.38%. In the face of these threats, which risk irreversibly damaging the corridors, a restoration and conservation plan for these corridors that will integrate community management based on strengthening the participatory approach is essential.   Key words: Corridor, planning, national park, biodiversity, inventory, socio-economic surveys, anthropogenic activities, north.

Socioeconomic Drivers of Hunting Efficiency and Use of Space By Traditional Amazonians

Although critical in understanding human societies relying on natural game stocks, little attention has been paid to how socioeconomic traits can influence hunter behaviour. Our research focuses on whether village size, household size and age, and hunter age and monetary income affect hunting efficiency (catch-per-unit-effort) and catchment areas of traditional Amazonians. In collaboration with 13 volunteer hunters from six villages, we assessed social traits, and identified hunting areas with GPS and animal kills over six months. Contrary to expectations from central-place foraging, hunters in larger villages used smaller catchment areas, potentially because cassava-associated game species are more common near larger villages. Older hunters were more efficient, emphasizing the role of experience gained through time. Catchment areas increased with hunters’ income, but apparently the hunting efficiency did not. Overall results support the notion that a spatial arrangement of fewer large villages, rather than many small ones, maximizes hunting efficiency and minimizes catchment areas.

Comparable space use by lions between hunting concessions and national parks in West Africa

Abstract Spatially varied resources and threats govern the persistence of African lions across dynamic protected areas. An important precursor to effective conservation for lions requires assessing trade‐offs in space use due to heterogeneity in habitat, resources and human presence between national parks (NPs) and hunting areas, the dominant land‐use classifications across their range. We conducted a large camera survey in West Africa, encompassing three NPs and 11 hunting concessions (HCs) in Burkina Faso and Niger. This equates to half of the 26,500‐km2 transboundary W‐Arly‐Pendjari protected area complex. We combined occupancy and structural equation modelling to disentangle the relative effects of environmental, ecological and anthropogenic variables influencing space use of Critically Endangered lions across 21,430 trap‐nights from 2016 to 2018. National parks are intended to serve as refuges from human pressures, and thus we expect higher lion occupancy in NPs compared to neighbouring HCs. But because prey availability drove lion occupancy and was comparable between NPs and HCs, lions exhibited no spatial response to management type. Prey availability was primarily influenced by edge effects and natural water availability. Furthermore, water availability and habitat diversity were higher in HCs, possibly outweighing disturbances from higher human occupancy and road density and contributing to comparable lion space use between management types. Synthesis and applications. We found that lions exhibited no avoidance hunting concessions, despite higher human occupancy than in neighbouring national parks. This may be due to the lions’ heavy reliance on depleted prey populations and preferred habitat characteristics in hunting concessions. We offer potential management interventions to indirectly influence lion space use, such as enhancing water availability and reducing human disturbance at park edges. Our findings provide insight into lion habitat preferences in a system degraded by human pressures and prey depletion, aiding in the understanding of the management's role in the ecology and conservation of apex predators and hunted species.

Evaluating the spatial intensity and demographic impacts of wire-snare bush-meat poaching on large carnivores

The bush-meat poaching crisis is a significant threat to biodiversity in tropical forest and savannah biomes, however its impacts on wild animal populations are often difficult to quantify across large spatial scales. Using data from 17 camera trap survey sites in southern Africa, within the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area, we show it is possible to assess the demographic impact of wire-snare bush-meat poaching on large carnivore populations, distribution of snaring hotspots and drivers of bush-meat poaching prevalence across this landscape. Results suggest that mortalities in snares may have significant demographic effects on lions (Panthera leo) and spotted hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta) with evidence for population declines and extirpation of large carnivores in the most heavily affected areas. Spatial drivers of bush-meat poaching were found to be a composite of anthropogenic threat scores, environmental resource extraction, protected area size and land-use type. Incidences of snared large carnivores were more prevalent in trophy hunting areas than national parks. Across our study sites, bush-meat poaching has the potential to cause severe declines in populations of large carnivores, particularly in small isolated protected areas surrounded by areas of high human population growth, with resulting loss of regional connectivity and increasing fragmentation of the KAZA landscape.

Should I stay or should I go? Determinants of immediate and delayed movement responses of female red deer (Cervus elaphus) to drive hunts.

Hunting can be used as a tool for wildlife management, through limitation of population densities and dissuading game from using sensitive areas. The success of these approaches requires in depth knowledge of prey movement. Indeed, movement decisions of game during hunting may affect the killing success of hunters as well as the subsequent location of surviving animals. We thus investigated red deer movement responses to drive hunts and their causal factors. We studied 34 hunting events in the National Estate of Chambord (France) and thereby provided a fine-scale characterization of the immediate and delayed movement responses of red deer to drive hunts. Red deer responded to drive hunts either by immediately fleeing the hunted area, or by initially remaining before ultimately fleeing after the hunters had departed. A few hours after the hunt, all individuals were located in distant areas (> 2 kilometres) from the hunted area. Immediate flight responses were less common when drive hunts occurred in areas with dense understorey. However, neither beater/dog densities nor site familiarity influenced the immediate flight decision. Following a drive hunt, red deer remained outside the hunted areas for periods twice as long compared to periods when no hunting occurred (34 hours vs. 17 hours). Such knowledge of game movement rates in response to drive hunts may help the development of informed management policy for hunted red deer populations.

Testing the importance of harvest refuges for phenotypic rescue of trophy‐hunted populations

Abstract Sustainable exploitation must minimize its impact on the ecology and evolution of exploited wildlife. Intense phenotype‐based selective harvests can induce evolutionary change. Refuges could mitigate those evolutionary effects if individuals not subject to selective hunting in harvest refuges migrated and reproduced in hunted areas. The role of harvest refuges on phenotypic rescue of trophy‐hunted species, however, has rarely been tested. We investigated spatial and temporal variation in the effect of refuges on horn size and age at harvest in bighorn sheep Ovis canadensis. We analysed data on 5,826 males harvested over 39 years in Alberta, Canada. Horn length, a trait targeted by hunters, and age at harvest increased with the amount of protected areas 5–40 km around each kill. Horn base circumference, however, was independent of proximity to refuges. The number of males harvested increased during the last 10 days of the hunting season in late October, corresponding to the timing of bighorn male breeding migrations. Males shot during those 10 days were on average 17% closer to a refuge than males shot earlier in the season. Apparently, some large males exit refuges late in the hunting season, are shot, and cannot contribute to rescue. Uncertainty remains about the proportion of males exiting refuges after the hunting season and how many survive to reproduce. Synthesis and applications. Harvest refuges are unlikely to rescue hunted populations of bighorn sheep in Alberta, because some males exiting refuges are at risk of harvest before they mate. For phenotypic rescue to be effective, unselected males must reproduce before they are shot. Closing the hunting season 10 days earlier would increase survival of unselected rams exiting refuges.

Critical assessment of Asiatic ibex (Capra ibex sibirica) for sustainable harvesting in northern areas of Pakistan

Northern regions of Pakistan support a relatively large population of wild ungulates, the preferred prey of sympatric carnivores. The Asiatic ibex (Capra Ibex Sibirica) is one such an ungulate species which also serves as an important trophy animal. The maintenance of trophy hunting programs rely on estimates of harvestable population sizes derived from rigorous methods. The present study successfully used the double observer-based Capture-Mark-Recapture (CMR) method to produce a reliable and accurate estimate of the Asiatic ibex population in the Community Control Hunting Areas (CCHAs) of Socterabad, Gojal watershed and Khunjerab National Park (KNP). Surveys were conducted from February to March 2018 and from March to April 2019. The total ibex population was calculated to be 1075 individuals (95%CI ± 670) with a density of 1.43 ibex/km2 in Gojal watershed, followed by Socterabad with 856 individuals (95%CI ± 680) and a density of 6.24ibex/km2, and lastly KNP with 463 individuals (95%CI ± 93.5) and a density of 0.14ibex/km2. A total of 52 herds were sighted in Gojal watershed with mean size of 19 ibex/herd (SE ± 3.2). In Socterabad, 28 herds were sighted with mean size of 16.07 ibex/herd (SE ± 2.4) and in KNP 28 herds were sighted with average recorded size of 16.5 ibex/herd (SE ± 3.4). In KNP Sex ratios of female to young, female to yearling and female to male were 1:0.7, 1:0.4, and 1:0.5 respectively. The detection probability of observer two was less than observer one. Ibex biomass recorded is insufficient for current recorded snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and wolf (Canis lupus) population in the area. Our study validates the use of Capture Mark Recapture as a viable tool in discerning ungulate populations, and shows that the population of the Asiatic ibex is viable in the study area, making it suitable for trophy hunting programs but need to modify the hunting law.

Impact of conservation and hunting on big game species: comparison of the genetic diversity of the red deer population groups from a national park and neighboring hunting areas in northern Poland

The conservation of biodiversity and rational use of biological resources should be conducted with a view to population genetics. Thus, the purpose of this study was to compare the genetic diversity of highly distributed red deer groups from Słowiński National Park (NP) and hunting areas (HA) in northern Poland using 10 dinucleotide microsatellites. In 254 animals, 112 alleles were observed with a high allelic number (NA = 7–15). The NP and HA groups showed high mean heterozygosity (Ho = 0.548 ± 0.063–0.613 ± 0.061) compared to other deer populations in Europe, although a slight decrease in heterozygosity and an increase in inbreeding was identified in NP, compared to HA. A high level of intra-group and a low level of inter-group genetic differentiation was found, which was supported by a high level of gene flow between NP and HA. Structure analysis revealed two genetic clusters (NP and HA) within the population. The HA cluster was distinguished by numerous private alleles, although the NP cluster was distinguished by a high frequency of two private alleles. These study results show that unhunted conservation areas may affect red deer density without increasing genetic diversity whereas hunting does not seem to have a negative impact on deer genetic diversity. This study affirms the anthropogenic impact on the red deer groups in both NP and HA. Ongoing monitoring of the red deer population with an effective sampling strategy is recommended.

Valuation of Large Carnivores and Regulated Carnivore Hunting

Large carnivores are keystone species but represent economic costs to hunters. In Sweden, carnivore territories generally overlap with hunting areas, and as a result, conflicts occur because of the competition for prey. The wolf, lynx, and brown bear are protected species by law but are hunted when authorities allocate license hunting quotas. The aim of these quotas is to limit carnivore numbers. We estimate a hedonic model using ordinary least squares to address the effect of large carnivore occurrence on hunting lease prices by accounting for the presence of license hunting quotas for predators. This result is compared with the least absolute deviation estimations, which reduce the influence of outliers in the survey data. To isolate the effect of carnivores on hunting lease prices, we use snow depth and forest productivity as proxy variables for game harvest in the absence of carnivores. Our results show that lynx and wolf presence reduce hunting lease prices, but lynx presence shows higher significance and robustness. Based on median regressions, the marginal implicit price of an additional wolf territory is about 15% larger than that of an additional lynx territory. In contrast, we found no conclusive evidence that bear abundance directly affects hunting lease prices, but regulated bear hunting is found to have a positive and significant impact on hunting leases, suggesting indirect positive net benefits of increased brown bear abundance.

An evaluation of traumatic deaths associated with animal attacks: A 10-year autopsy study.

Just as throughout the world in general, deaths related to animal attacks continue to be a public health problem in Turkey. A decrease in areas of natural habitat because of human invasion, and the use of these areas for hunting, wood-cutting, recreational and sporting activities has increased the possibility of humans encountering wild animals. A physical retrospective screening was made of the forensic records of a total of 8944 autopsy cases in the Forensic Medicine Institute of the Trabzon Group Directorate in the 10-year period between Januarry 2007 and December 2016. When the types of animals causing the traumatic death were examined, the most frequent was cattle in 15 cases followed by horses in 7 cases, bears in 4 cases, wolves in 2 cases, and wild boars in 2 cases. According to the autopsy results, the cause of death was most often intrathoracic bleeding and intrathoracic organ damage, the regions of the body injured were seen to be most often the chest and back, and the most common form of injury was blunt/crush trauma. From these records, cases were identified where the cause of death was traumatic animal attack, and examination was made of the sociodemographic characteristics, the type of animal that caused the injuries, information about the location of the incident, witness statements, information about the healthcare centre, findings of external examination and autopsy, and the cause.

Social Organization and Activity Patterns of Common Warthog (<i>Phacochoerus africanus Gmelin, </i>1788) in Dabena Valley Forest, Western Ethiopia

Studies on social organization and activity patterns of common warthog (Phacochoerus africanus Gmelin, 1788) was conducted in southwestern and northeastern Dabena Valley Forest from May 2016 to June 2018. These were in Gassi Controlled Area (GCHA) the southwestern part and in Haro Aba Diko Controlled Hunting Area (HADCHA); the northeastern part of the Valley. Group sizes of common warthogs whose center were on or very near the strip line transect were detected using binoculars and naked eyes. Population structure and group categories were recorded. Observations on diurnal activity patterns were carried out using naked eyes and binoculars. The duration of each activity was recorded using mobile electronic stopwatch. Continual scan sampling methods were used to assess the activity budgets of common warthog populations. The sounder size of common warthog population in GCHA was 246, in HADCHA, it was 652. The population size in the study areas showed a significant difference (χ2=18.78, df=1, P=0.05). The highest common warthog population sounder was formed by unidentified juvenile sex: 235 (26.5%), followed by sub-adult male: 191 (21%). During the wet season, the adult male common warthog population sounder size was significantly different (Mann– Whitney: U=1.5, P< 0.005) compared to the sub-adult female. There were significant differences in walking (F122=6.65, P < 0.05) and vigilance (F122=26.21, P < 0.05) between GCHA and HADCHA during the wet season. Adult common warthogs spent the highest proportion of the daytime feeding (47.21%), followed by resting (14.29%) and walking (11.94%).