Habitat corridors usage by wildlife in wooded patches of an agricultural landscape in New Bussa, Nigeria

• Main Author: Fingesi U.I.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Abundance; Diversity index; Habitat Corridors; Nigeria; Wildlife; Rattus rattus
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/8298249; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8298249

This study assesses the dispersal and use of corridors by wildlife in wooded patches of an ‎agricultural landscape in New Bussa. The study was undertaken to derive information on the ‎species of wildlife associated with different habitat corridors in both wet and dry seasons in the ‎area, as well as to determine their relative abundance and diversity in the area. The direct/indirect ‎method of census was used. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics ‎‎(tables), and Analysis of Variance [ANOVA] was used to test if species distribution differed ‎between habitats. The results gathered revealed that the wet season has the highest number of ‎mammal species than the dry Season. Hedgerows and fencerows have the highest number of ‎mammal’s species in both wet and dry seasons. Agama agama, Rattus rattus of Muridae and ‎Rousettus acguptiacus of Pteropodidae family, Sciurus spermophilus, Sciurus carolinensis and ‎Epomophorus ganbianus were found to be highly abundant in all the habitat types during the ‎two seasons. For the birds’ species, the family Estrildidae has the highest relative abundance, ‎followed by the Ardedae family. Mammal species diversity between habitats was significantly ‎low (P>0.05) in both the wet and dry seasons, while the bird species diversity in the three ‎habitat types in the wet and dry season indicate high species diversity in all the habitats. Hence all ‎the habitat corridors having representative samples of wildlife are of wildlife conservation value ‎in the agricultural landscape in New Bussa. It is therefore recommended that deforestation and ‎uncontrolled bush burning in the area should be discouraged.‎