Species Richness, Abundance and Habitat Preference of Rodents in Komto Protected Forest, Western Ethiopia
| dc.contributor.advisor | Bekele Afework (Professor) | |
| dc.contributor.author | Geleta Mosissa | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2018-07-06T12:11:05Z | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-11-09T04:21:13Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2018-07-06T12:11:05Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-11-09T04:21:13Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2010-06 | |
| dc.description.abstract | A study on the species richness, abundance and habitat preference of rodents of Komto Protected Forest was carried out from July, 2009 to Feburary, 2010 encompassing both wet and dry seasons. The study was carried out using Sherman live and snap traps in maize farm, grassland, bushland and forest habitats. A total of 312 individual rodents (live traps) and 66 rodents (snap traps) were captured over 2352 and 1200 trap nights, respectively. The species composition and their relative abundance includes: S. albipes (48.4%), L. flavopunctatus (27.6%), L. striatus (10.3%), P. harringtoni (7.7%), R. rattus (5.1%) and M. mahomet (0.9%). In addition, a species of C. flavescens was also captured. Most of the rodent species prefer grassland and maize farm to bushland and forest. Bushland and forest habitats provided more number of individual rodents with few species. Males comprised 52.9% and females 47.1% of the total capture. Among the total rodents captured, adults, subadults and juveniles comprised 60.6 %, 28.8% and 10.6%, respectively. Active burrows were not recorded in all habitats during the wet season and in the grassland and forest habitats during both seasons. Population size was estimated by Minimum Number Alive method showed variation from 42 in Fubrary to 101 in September. High population density (309/ha) and biomass (8,048 g/ha) was recorded for S. albipes and lowest for M. mahomet (6/ha) and 29 g/ha, respectively. Seasonally, maximum biomass was obtained in September (5563 g/ha) and the lowest was in February (2,342 g/ha). Key words: Abundance, habitat preference, Komto Protected Forest, rodents, species richness | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/7051 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Addis Ababa University | en_US |
| dc.subject | Abundance | en_US |
| dc.subject | habitat preference | en_US |
| dc.subject | Komto Protected Forest | en_US |
| dc.subject | rodents | en_US |
| dc.subject | species richness | en_US |
| dc.title | Species Richness, Abundance and Habitat Preference of Rodents in Komto Protected Forest, Western Ethiopia | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |