Abstract
Human settlement and agricultural activities restrict increasingly the range of large mammals in many cases contributing to declining numbers of ungulates. Here, we studied home range size and habitat selection of seven adult female mountain nyalas in the northern end of the Bale Mountains National Park (BMNP) equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) collars. Home range size was estimated using fixed kernel density and habitat selection was determined by resource selection functions. We found that female mountain nyalas have much smaller (5.7 km2) home ranges than the 19 km2 home range size predicted for a 170 kg, group-living species living in mixed habitats. Home ranges were 30% larger in the night than in the daytime. We suggest that the night extension beyond the park boundaries was caused by high livestock and other ungulates grazing pressure within the protected area which may cause forage-driven excursions out of the park. On the other hand, mountain nyalas are probably attracted by humans as shields against hyena predation. The resource selection index indicates that bushland and forest habitat are the most preferred habitat types, while agriculture and human settlements are the least preferred habitats. The small size of the northern part of the Bale Mountain National Park (31 km2) with the current high density of mountain nyala (24 individuals/km2) is too small for the predicted home range size of large ungulates. Hence, we suggest that protecting additional area may be needed for the long-term conservation of the endangered mountain nyala.
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Data are available at Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fttdz08pv.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Saint Louis Zoo for financially supporting this project. We are very grateful to Dr. David V. Cooper for his help in immobilizing mountain nyalas and fixing GPS collars. We thank Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority for giving the permit to carry out the project.
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This work was supported by Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Institute provided to Dr. Anagaw Atickem.
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AA and LEL conceived the study; AAU and AA did the fieldwork; LEL and MK did the data analysis; AA, MF, and DZ wrote the manuscript. All authors contributed to improving the draft manuscript.
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This study has received ethical approval and full support from the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority.
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Additional declarations for articles in life science journals report the results of studies involving humans and/or animals. We did collaring of mountain nyala following all the ethical procedures requested by the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority.
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Atickem, A., Klapproth, M., Fischer, M. et al. Home range and habitat selection of female mountain nyalas (Tragelaphus buxtoni) in the human-dominated landscape of the Ethiopian Highlands. Mamm Biol 102, 155–162 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-021-00216-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-021-00216-0