Abeje Kassie TEME, Mengistu WALE, Birhanu BEYENE, Abraham ASSEFA, Weldemariam TESFAHUNEGNY

Assessment of the wildlife and ecosystem status of Choke Mountain, North Western Ethiopia

The natural vegetation of Ethiopian Highlands has been altered and destroyed by intensive human use over millennia and now only fragments are left. Choke Mountain is one of the areas among the different topographic and climatically varied areas of Ethiopia and harbors many endemic wildlife. But nowadays, the forest/vegetation is changing into farm lands and wild animals become threatened. Thus, assessment of the status and distribution of wildlife in Choke Mountain was carried out in October 2016. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS software version 20. In the current study, 24 Mammalia species, 52 bird species, three amphibian species and one chameleon species were recorded in the mountain. Choke, like other afro alpine mountains of Ethiopia, was the home of Ethiopian wolf which is endemic to Ethiopia. But, now a day due to habitat fragmentation and other factors, it is extinct from the area. From the descriptive statistics analysis, 12 % of the respondents reported that there is an illegal wild animal hunting which threatens wild animals in the area. However, there is significant difference among Kebeles on illegal wildlife hunting Pearson chi-square value=25.727a, df=14, and p-value=0.02 . Habitat destruction due to agricultural expansion and firewood collection is the most frequently reported threats followed by overgrazing. Interventions so far carried out to conserve and sustainably utilize the ecosystem is not so effective. Therefore, awareness creation, promoting community involvement, linking conservation activity with livelihood improvement through ecotourism are important actions to be taken to control agricultural expansion and illegal hunting for conservation and sustainable utilization of the ecosystem and its wild animals

Keywords:

Choke Mountain, ecosystem status, diversity, wild animal,

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