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.