Data collection method
Data was collected from the established line transect in each habitat from March 2019 to April 2019. Transect surveys was made walking slowly along the long axis of the study site treks, and all individuals and species of mammals observed was recorded. The count was made for a period of 10 to 15 minutes within the counting station. Survey was conducted every two weeks twice a day (in the early morning 07:00-10:00hr and 4:00-6:00hr in the late afternoon)) (Aynalem & Bekele, 2008), when activities of mammals more prominent. Focal samples were observed at random, and the observed activities were recorded during the interval periods. When mammals were sighted, the number and GPS location were recorded at each transect line and species identification of large mammals. Direct and indirect observations of mammalian fauna were conducted along randomly selected transects. Direct observation was made with the aid of binoculars and naked eyes. The identification was also further confirmed through standard mammalian field guides (Yirga, 2008). Fecal dropping/scats, tracks, burrows, scratches were used as indirect evidences. Indirect evidences are very useful when surveying animals that are naturally rare, elusive, found at low densities and difficult to capture repeatedly (Dirzo et al ., 2009).
Data analysis
All statistics related to the types of data was carried out on statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) 20.0 software. The number of individual mammals recorded from transect laid in similar habitat types were pulled together for analysis purpose. Shannon-Wiever diversity index (H´), and Simpson’s diversity Index (1-D) was used to determine the diversity of species in each habitat in the study areas. Species evenness was determined using Shannon−Weiner evenness index formulas: E = H´ /Hmax, Where, H´ = Shannon-Weiner diversity index, Hmax =lnS, is natural logarithm of total number of species in each habitat. Simpson’s similarity Index (SI= 2C/ I +II Where, C= number of common species to the habitats, I= the number of species in habitat one and II= the number of species in habitat two) was used to look the similarity between study habitats with reference to composition of species. The relative abundance index (RAI) of species was calculated by dividing the number of records of each species by the total number of records of all species.