Species diversity, abundance and density of large mammals in Old Oyo National Park, Nigeria

Abstract

Large mammal population status in and around protected areas are important for the conservation of threatened species and effective protection of the ecosystem. Using a combination of camera trapping and line transect methods, this study determined the status of large mammals in the Old Oyo National Park (OONP), Nigeria. Camera trapping occurred over 2,786 trap-nights yielding 512 independent photo captures of 23 wild mammal species belonging to the orders Artiodactyla, Carnivora, Pholidota, Primates, Tubulidentata, Largomorpha and Rodentia. Six of the historical sighted species in the park namely, buffalo (Syncerus cafer), elephant (Loxodonta africana), leopard (Panthera pardus), lion (Panthera leo), orib(Ourebiaourebi), spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) and wild dog (Lycaon pictus) were not recorded. Across the park, the relative index of abundance (RIA) for most species was low (≤0.1) and high (≥0.1) for three species namely: bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus), cane rat (Thryonomys gregorianus) and kob (Kobus kob). Distance sampling line transect survey 2 2 revealed that the density of 15.47/ km and 4.84/ km for two of the three common sighted species (bushbuck and kob) with sufficient detections were lower than the past estimates. Knowledge of species composition and abundance has direct consequences for the conservation of large mammalian taxa. To further achieve the conservation goals, National Park authorities should design evidence-base management strategies that can improve the population status of large mammals in protected areas.