Species relative abundance
A total of 763 species with evidence of mammalian species were recorded in the study area. The number of records varied among orders and families. The abundant order by the number of records from the study area was order Primates which include 480, followed by order Carnivora including 111. The least abundant order was Tubulidentata, which composes only nine records. The most abundant family by the number of records was Cercopithecidae (425), whereas the least was Felidae, comprising only three records. Based on the frequency of records,Papio Anubis (30.3%) became the most abundant in the study area, followed by Chlorocebus aethiops (22 %). Based on IUCN Red List categories, the vulnerable species such as Panthera pardus andPanthera Leo each contributed 0.79% and 0.39%, respectively.
The results of the present study showed that of the 763 total observations, 38% (N = 290) was recorded in dense forest, 17.56% (N = 134) in shrubs, 20.45% (N = 156) in crop land and 23.98% (N = 183) in grass land habitats. The number of records of mammalian species was not varied significantly among habitats by kruskal -Wallis tests (KWχ2 = 4.37; P > 0.05). Average amount of species richness and related quantities (frequency of records) computed by the rarefaction curve among the four stratified habitat types and seasons is represented by Figure 3 below. At species-specific level, Papio Anubis was the most abundant species in forest habitat (35.9%, n = 83) and grassland (25.97%, n = 60) followed by Chlorocebus aethiops(44.6%, n = 75) in forset and in grass land habitat (19.05 %, n = 32), respectively. Papio Anubis (23.37%, n = 54) was also the most abundant in crop land followed by Crocuta Crocuta (63.83%, n = 30) while, in shrubs habitat the most abundant was Chlorocebus aethiops (25%, n = 42) followed by Papio Anubis (14.7%, n = 34). Panthera pardus, Panthera Leo, and Lepus habissincuswere only recorded in forest and grassland habitats, respectively. Mammalian species frequency of records among the four habitat types is described in Figure 4 below.
The number of species records of mammals was higher in the dry season (n = 433, 56.75%) than in the rainy season (n = 330, 43.25%). The abundance of mammalian species was not significantly between seasons (χ2 = 12.12; DF = 18; P >0.05). Two species (Papio Anubis and Chlorocebus aethiops ) were relatively the most abundant in both seasons (Figure 5). These two species contributed 56.06% and 49.42% of the total records of the wet and dry season survey, respectively. The remaining mammalian records contributed between 0.17and 0.27% in the wet season and 0.14 and 0.37% during the dry season survey. Frequency of records across habitat types was significantly different (χ2 = 246.4; DF = 18; P < 0.05) between seasons.