Livestock Grazing in Afromontane Grasslands in the Northern Bale Mountains, Ethiopia: Implications for Bird Conservation

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of livestock grazing on Afromontane grassland bird assemblages in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia. Birds were counted along 28 (14 in ungrazed site and 14 in grazed site) 1 2014) and dry season (November 2014). In addition, height and cover of shrubs, grasses and herbs were recorded within 10m ×10m quadrats established along each transect at a distance of 250m. These data were used to abundances of overall assemblages and guilds (habitat, feeding and/or conservation priority guilds) between the ungrazed site and grazed site, and to examine how these patterns are related to grazing-induced veg showed relatively greater species evenness compared to the grazed site, both observed and rarefied species richness estimators showed non assemblage richness between the two sites. Bird assemblage abundance was significantly greater in the grazed site than the ungrazed site, especially during wet season and when seasons were pooled. At guild level however, species richness and/or abundances of grassland habitat specialist, insectivore dietary, and high conservation priority guilds were significantly greater in the ungrazed site compared to the grazed site. Bird assemblages significantly differed between sites and showed significant positive relationships with shrub and grass height. These findings suggest that the effect of grazing on birds of the area is changing assemblage composition rather than resulting into declined assemblage species richness. Thus allowing livestock grazing in the ungrazed site in the future will lead to los of several grassland specialist and high conservation priority species.

Typology of the woody plant communities of the Ethiopian Nech Sar National Park and an assessment of vegetation-environment relations and human disturbance impacts

“…It is well known that Lantana camara performs well in human disturbed canopy gaps across the tropics (Totland et al 2005) and negatively impacts the establishment of native plants through shading, jeopardizing regeneration of the native flora (Sharma & Raghubanshi 2007). Also studies conducted elsewhere have found that species richness and diversity can increase with human disturbances due to influx of shrubs following disturbance (Sahu et al 2008;Asefa et al 2015). In the long term, increasing cover of such disturbance affiliated species may jeopardize recovery and establishment of native species (Asefa et al 2015).…”

A preliminary study on bird diversity and abundance from Wabe fragmented forests around Gubre subcity and Wolkite town, Southwestern Ethiopia

“…Moreover, identifying the existing threats in a particular area is also essential for developing effective conservation efforts and management actions. 8,11 Although, birds are among the key components of the earth's biodiversity, information on birds check list is still far from complete for most species in many countries including Ethiopia, and this might be an obstacle in the development effective conservation planning at the local/regional, national and global scales. 6,7,12 In Ethiopia, some studies are conducted on the diversity, distribution and abundance of birds predominantly in protected areas such as National parks.…”

Species diversity and Abundance of Mammals (Medium and Large sized) in Yotyet/Yewezera Community Forest, Gurage Zone, Southern Ethiopia

“…Habitat disturbance has also a negative impact for forest specialist species as they do not have any alternative foraging or breeding sites (Asefa et al ., 2017). According to Asefa et al ., (2015) allowing large and repetitive livestock population in to unprotected area will also lead to los of grassland specialist species.…”