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Population density and habitat associations are fundamental aspects for conservation and
management of wildlife species such as Callulina shengena. Being a Critically
Endangered warty frog in the Eastern Arc Mountains, such vital information was missing
and therefore demonstrated substandard conservation measures. Documented here are the
information on population density, distribution, habitat traits, associations and threats with
the aim of enhancing proper management of the C. shengena. Active searching was done
in Chome Nature Forest Reserve in 12 plots during wet and dry seasons. Plots were
searched thoroughly and when the species was encountered, the information about that
site were recorded which included GPS location, altitude, percentage canopy cover,
distance from water source, disturbance level, temperature and the amount rainfall. There
was significant difference in population density of C. shengena between wet and dry
seasons. Places that exhibited higher density of C. shengena had largely shady areas close
to slowly moving fresh waters. Also the population density was higher in wet season
suggesting that rainfall and temperature had influence on C. shengena distribution. It was
found that C. shengena was highly distributed in the mid altitudes (1951 - 2050 m.a.s.l),
of the western part of the forest where there was slow moving waters nearby. About 55%
of C. shengena population was close to the forest boundary and this exposes C. shengena
to higher chances of depopulation due to increased human activities in the forest, either
legally or illegally. The Chome Nature Forest Reserve was observed to
experience threats mainly from illegal logging, gold mining and human trails and the
development of tourism activities. The government should put more
emphasis on the societal knowledge about the resources and wildlife found in the reserve
to maximize the conservation efforts to the protected areas. |
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