2│ MATERIALS AND METHODS
2.1│ Description of the
study Area
FCF is found in Mirab Abaya Wereda, Gamo Zone, SNNPR Regional State and
lies between 06°10ʹ12ʺ to 06°15ʹ00ʺ N latitude and 37°42’36” to
37°47ʹ24ʺ E longitude (Figure 1) with an elevation ranging from 1184 -
1795 m.a.s.l. and about 475 km away from Addis Ababa, the capital city
of Ethiopia. It is located at 18 km south of Birbir town, the capital
city Mirab Abaya Wereda, and 30 km North of Arba Minch town, the capital
city of Gamo Zone (Figure 1). The total area of the natural forest is
around 8880 hectares. The FCF is bounded by Fura Kebele to the south,
Faragosa Kebele to the north, Done Kebele to the east, Ankober Kebele to
the northeast and Lake Abaya to the west and southwest. There is one
main asphalted road from Addis Ababa to Arba Minch crosses the FCF makes
it easily accessible.
Rainfall and temperature data were obtained from Mirab Abaya
meteorological station. Ten years summarized the mean monthly maximum
and minimum temperature of the area showed that the mean monthly maximum
temperature was 26.75 °C while the mean monthly minimum temperature was
14.75 °C (ENMSA, 2018). According to the ten years rainfall summarized
data, the area has a bimodal rainfall distribution, characterized by a
prolonged wet season from June to September (long rain), locally known
as “Balgo” and a short wet season between March and April locally
known as “Asura”. The mean monthly rainfall of the area varies between
41.8mm (January, dry season) and 161.4mm (may, wet season) (Figure 2).
2.2│ Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance observations were made before data collection to provide
information on accessibility, climate, vegetation cover, topography,
infrastructure, fauna, and distribution of mammals and their threats and
to launching sampling plans. Sampling designs and the number of sampling
units were established based on these initial observations (Krebs,
2006).
2.3│Sampling
design
Line transect sampling technique
was used to estimate population abundance for a variety of mammalian
species in the forests following Krebs (2006) and Laurindo et al.(2019). The systematic sampling design was employed to ensure the
representativeness of the study population by sampling the total area of
the forest. To do so, out of twenty potential transect lines of unequal
size that run from North to South, the first transect was randomly
selected and thereafter every fourth transect number (3, 7, 11, 15, 19)
were systematically selected. The length of transects varied from 2.5 to
7.5 km. The length of the total transect line was 92.24 km. For selected
and surveyed transect lines, the total length was 25.6 km. Consecutive
transects were at a distance of 0.7 km to avoid double counting.
Transect lines were delineated by GPS and/or natural signs.
The study was divided into dry and wet seasons to check variations on
diversity and abundance between seasons (Laurindo et al., 2019). August
and September for the wet season, and October and November for the dry
season, a total of four months were assigned to collect data.