Diversity and Relative Abundance of Birds of Alatish National Park, North Gondar, Ethiopia

Garima Mengesha, Afework Bekele

Abstract


The diversity and relative abundance of birds were investigated in Alatish during the wet and dry seasons. Basedon topographic map, satellite image and preliminary survey, four habitat types were identified comprising 37 blocksin 100 km2. Eleven blocks were randomly selected based on the type of vegetation. Transects of 10 km length andwidth of 0.2 km or less were randomly selected to cover 20% of the area. One hundred forty three species of birdsincluding endangered, rare and vulnerable species were recorded. Sixty five species of birds were residents duringboth seasons. A total of 122 species of birds was recorded during the wet season and 86 during the dry season. Therelative abundance of birds was determined using encounter rates that give ordinal scale. This resulted in 97 speciesof birds as rare, 20 uncommon, 19 frequent, four common and three abundant. The wet season survey showedhighest species diversity in the wooded grassland habitat owing to the presence of resources. The dry season surveyshowed the highest avian species diversity, evenness and richness in the riverine woodland habitat due to theavailability of water. Most species of birds in Alatish were locally rare as a result of habitat degradation. Thishindered the establishment of species distribution pattern especially during the dry season. Availability of food,water and cover were the major factors determining the diversity and abundance of birds. Habitat destruction bythe nomadic Falata community with their livestock, poaching and forest fire contributed to the deterioration in thediversity and number of birds. Urgent conservation measures are needed to conserve the biological diversity ofAlatish.

Keywords


Alatish National Park, Bird diversity, Habitat destruction, Relative abundance

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