1│INTRODUCTION
Mammals are an extraordinary group, showing an amazing diversity of
species, forms, ecologies, and behaviors (Wilson and Reeder, 2005; IUCN,
2019). Class Mammalia is composed of 5487 species and more than 1150
species of mammals are found in Africa (Borges et al., 2014). East
Africa is rich in mammalian fauna (Girma et al., 2012a).
Mammalian species are one of the greatest resources found on the Earth
(Qufa and Bekele, 2019). Mammals act as umbrella species of terrestrial
ecosystems because of their large area home range requirements and
contribute to the conservation of other species (Bene et al., 2013;
Bogonia et al., 2017). Large-sized mammals (weigh more than 7kg) and
medium-sized mammals (weigh between 2 and 7kg), in particular, have
important ecosystem functions (Geleta and Bekele, 2016). Mammals play
key roles throughout many of the world’s ecosystems including grazing,
predation and seed dispersal (Scholes et al., 2006). They also provide
important human benefits such as food, recreation, and income (MEA,
2005).
Worldwide, medium and large-sized mammalian species face numerous
threats (Kasso and Bekele, 2014; Wale et al., 2017). Habitat loss and
degradation and harvesting (hunting/gathering for food, medicine, fuel
and materials) are by far the main threats to mammals (Ripple et al.,
2016). Among land species, habitat loss is prevalent across the tropics,
driven particularly by deforestation in Central and South America, West,
East and Central Africa, Madagascar, and in South and Southeast Asia
(Tabor et al., 2018).
The rate of species discovery among mammals is high in regions of high
levels of endemism and threat (Reeder et al., 2007). Nonetheless, our
understanding of conservation implications of mammals is surprisingly
patchy. There is, therefore, an urgent need to secure and maintain sites
containing assemblages of mammals (Negeri et al., 2015). For any
comprehensible conservation and effective management action to be
adopted for mammals, accurate knowledge of population composition,
diversity, distribution, management and their threats have to be known
and constantly monitored (Kasso and Bekele, 2014) in order to avoid
extermination and to secure the richness of mammalian biodiversity
(Laurindo et al., 2019).
Ethiopia is one of the world’s rich biodiversity countries and it
deserves attention regionally and globally (Yalden and Largen, 1992).
Ethiopia’s high faunal biodiversity reflects the existence of a large
number of species of mammals and other higher vertebrates. Ethiopia is
among the world leaders in terms of richness and endemism of mammalian
species (Lavrenchenko and Bekele, 2017; Tefera, 2011). More than 60% of
the mammal species in Ethiopia are medium and large-sized (Negeri et
al., 2015). Topographic diversity and climate are the most significant
predictors of mammalian species diversity in Ethiopia (Tefera, 2011).
Among identified 320 mammalian
species of Ethiopia, 36 are endemic to the country (Gonfa et al., 2015).
However, the wildlife population in Ethiopia has diminished over the
past century both in amount and distribution through the loss of
habitat, hunting, and land clearance for farming; land degradation due
to overgrazing (Wale et al., 2017).
In Ethiopia, most of the studies on mammals were restricted to protected
areas (Wale et al., 2017; Fetene et al., 2019; Takele and Solomon, 2011;
Chane and Yirga, 2014) but the diversity and conservation status of
mammalian species outside protected areas such as communal forest areas
are poorly known. However, the study of mammals in communal areas is
equally important (Tsegaye et al., 2009) even more because of the huge
anthropogenic pressures (Legese et al., 2019; Kasso and Bekele, 2017;
Girma et al., 2012b).
In Ethiopia, limited community-managed areas were surveyed for the
diversity of mammals (Yalden and Largen, 1992). There are some
documented information on mammals of community-managed areas in the
northern, southwestern, southeastern and central parts of Ethiopia
(Lavrenchenko and Bekele, 2017; Legesse et al., 2019; Qufa and Bekele,
2019) and a few in Southern Ethiopia (Girma et al., 2012b). There are
several intact forests in the Southern parts of Ethiopia. However, these
fauna are still not well documented.
FCF is one of these forests located in the Gamo zone, Southern region of
Ethiopia. This forest seems a place where green economy strategy has
come to be implemented. This ecosystem is hypothesized to contain some
medium and large-sized mammal species in its forest, but the composition
of mammalian species and their abundance, diversity, structure and
threats in the area are not yet researched. Therefore, the present study
was the first of its kind in the area and the main objective of the
present study was to determine the species composition, diversity and
relative abundance of medium and large-sized mammals and their threats
from Faragosa Communal Forest, Southern Ethiopia.