Species distribution and relative abundance
The distributional pattern of mammals in the current study area varied
across the study habitats. About 90% of the species were observed in
both open grassland (9 species) and natural forest (9 species) and least
species in human plantation (3 species). However, it was not
statistically significant (χ2 =3.000, df = 2, p= 0.223). The overall
difference in abundance of medium and large mammal species among three
habitats was not statistically significant (χ2 =6.000, df =2, p=0.199).
But, Natural forest harbored more mammalian records (424) followed by
open grassland (114) and the least was in human plantation (15). Certain
species were also limited to specific habitat type. For instance,Colobus guereza and Leptus starcki were only recorded from
natural forest and open grassland respectively. Among the 10 recorded
species of mammals, Chlorocebus aethiops (42.9%) was the most
abundant mammalian species followed by Colobus guereza (22.2%).Leptus starcki (1.6%), Traglaphus scriptus (2.9%),Crocuta crocuta (3.3%) were the least abundant species (Table
2).