International Journal of Innovative Research and Development

Abstract

The planning for core area for wildlife conservation of the Gambella National Park was initiated to fulfill the knowledge gap for the lack of planning on core wildlife conservation in the previous management plan. The objectives of this research were to determine the abundance, distribution and diversity of key wild animal species of the Park, investigate the migration corridors of White eared kob and the African elephant and develop plan for core wildlife conservation of the Park. The methods used for planning were diversity, abundance, distribution and sensitive habitat types used by key wild animal species and migration routes for migratory species. The GIS version 10.1 was used for analyzing and planning the core conservation areas.Therefore, the Park areas were divided into five zones such as core wildlife conservation area, visitors use zone, low use zone, migration corridors and buffer zone. The results had indicated that, the core wildlife conservation has the highest diversity of wild animal species in the Park. The management objective of this zone is proposed to be aimed at protection and conservation of habitat, so that the resources in the Park remain undisturbed for survival of wild animal in general and endangered species in particular. The visitors use zone serve as dry season refugee areas for large number of White eared kob and also represented more abundance and distribution of key wild animal species next to the core wildlife conservation areas in the Park. The low use zone is part of the Park, where some human impact is expected. The recreation and administrative objective is proposed to be exceeding the protection of nature. The migration corridor is proposed to be managed by transboundary agreement and joint management cooperation which is also supposed to be agreed by the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority and South Sudan Wildlife Services. The buffer zone is proposed to be managed by the Gambella National Park office based on agreement between the surrounding community and the Park office.

The planning for core area for wildlife conservation of the Gambella National Park was initiated to fulfill the knowledge gap for the lack of planning on core wildlife conservation in the previous management plan. The objectives of this research were to determine the abundance, distribution and diversity of key wild animal species of the Park, investigate the migration corridors of White eared kob and the African elephant and develop plan for core wildlife conservation of the Park. The methods used for planning were diversity, abundance, distribution and sensitive habitat types used by key wild animal species and migration routes for migratory species. The GIS version 10.1 was used for analyzing and planning the core conservation areas.Therefore, the Park areas were divided into five zones such as core wildlife conservation area, visitors use zone, low use zone, migration corridors and buffer zone. The results had indicated that, the core wildlife conservation has the highest diversity of wild animal species in the Park. The management objective of this zone is proposed to be aimed at protection and conservation of habitat, so that the resources in the Park remain undisturbed for survival of wild animal in general and endangered species in particular. The visitors use zone serve as dry season refugee areas for large number of White eared kob and also represented more abundance and distribution of key wild animal species next to the core wildlife conservation areas in the Park. The low use zone is part of the Park, where some human impact is expected. The recreation and administrative objective is proposed to be exceeding the protection of nature. The migration corridor is proposed to be managed by transboundary agreement and joint management cooperation which is also supposed to be agreed by the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority and South Sudan Wildlife Services. The buffer zone is proposed to be managed by the Gambella National Park office based on agreement between the surrounding community and the Park office.

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Abstract

Lack of information on habitat map of Gambella National Park had resulted in problems of identification for abundance and distribution of studied wild animal species per their habitats use in the park. Therefore, the information gathered for habitat map of key studied wild animal species of the Park, was used to fill the knowledge gap on their most preference habitat types of the Park. The specific objectives of this research were to determine the abundance and distribution of studied wild animal species in each classified habitat, to determine the density of studied wild animal species of the Park. The data were collected by lines transect method, which were conducted in both dry and wet seasons. Accordingly, six men in a queue were involved in the surveys. The front man was using a compass to lead the team in a straight line along the transects and measure the bearing of track of animals, two men were positioned in the middle and one was observed on the right side of transects while the other observed on the left side of transects and rear man was used GPS receiver and keep recording of information on observed wild animal species. The data were analyzed by GPS in which relevant attribute information of key wild animal species for both dry and wet seasons were added in attribute tables and ArcGIS desktop as shape files. The shape files for recorded wild animals were overlaid on the habitat maps. The abundance and distributions of each recorded wild animal species were analyzed and presented on habitat map. The density was analyzed by kernel density and presented the number of each species per area in square kilometres on the map. Microsoft office excel was also used to analyze the abundance of studied wild animal species per their preference habitat types. The results had shown that, the abundance and distribution of studied wild animal species to be the higher in the dry season than wet season. Among the studied wild animal species, the abundance and distribution of White eared kob in dry season was 5,442 and 150-260 individuals respectively, higher than its abundance of wet season 1,851 and distributions 101-200 individuals. The abundance and distribution of White eared kob were observed in all habitat types of the Park. However, the abundance and distributions of Nile lechwe, Buffalo, Shoe bill stork, some Tiang and elephant were observed in the wetland of the Park. The density of studied wild animal species was higher in wet season than dry season.

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