Abundance of larger mammals in Dinder National Park, Sudan

<p>Wildlife is in decline across Africa, particularly in the Sudan-Sahel savanna. An important but little-studied area on the eastern reaches of this biome is Dinder National Park in Sudan. In March 2021, we conducted a distance sampling survey in its&thinsp;~&thinsp;3000 km<sup>...

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Autori principali: Mohammed, AA, Bauer, H, Coals, P, Sillero-Zubiri, C
Natura: Journal article
Lingua:English
Pubblicazione: Springer 2023
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author Mohammed, AA
Bauer, H
Coals, P
Sillero-Zubiri, C
author_facet Mohammed, AA
Bauer, H
Coals, P
Sillero-Zubiri, C
author_sort Mohammed, AA
collection OXFORD
description <p>Wildlife is in decline across Africa, particularly in the Sudan-Sahel savanna. An important but little-studied area on the eastern reaches of this biome is Dinder National Park in Sudan. In March 2021, we conducted a distance sampling survey in its&thinsp;~&thinsp;3000 km<sup>2</sup>&nbsp;core area around the main Gelego camp, walking a total of 56 line transects over a cumulative distance of 273&nbsp;km. We calculated the densities of those species with over 20 independent detections using the best-performing model. The most abundant wild species recorded were the olive baboon (25.0 ind/km<sup>2</sup>) and common warthog (7.3 ind/km<sup>2</sup>), while the bohor reedbuck (2.1 ind/km<sup>2</sup>) and oribi (1.9 ind/km<sup>2</sup>) were the most abundant ungulates. Our survey confirmed the illegal presence of large cattle herds inside Dinder (10.7 ind/km<sup>2</sup>). The substantial ungulate densities in the core area support regionally important populations of large carnivores, making this one of the best functioning ecosystems in the region. When compared to historical unpublished data from the waterhole and road counts, we detected a declining trend in wildlife numbers over the past 5 decades. We call for improved wildlife monitoring and conservation actions to protect this important ecosystem and for increased efforts to extend effective protection beyond the core area of Dinder.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:4e5af863-f6bc-43d2-9d08-1b3e9fbe17d62024-04-15T10:24:46ZAbundance of larger mammals in Dinder National Park, SudanJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:4e5af863-f6bc-43d2-9d08-1b3e9fbe17d6EnglishSymplectic ElementsSpringer2023Mohammed, AABauer, HCoals, PSillero-Zubiri, C<p>Wildlife is in decline across Africa, particularly in the Sudan-Sahel savanna. An important but little-studied area on the eastern reaches of this biome is Dinder National Park in Sudan. In March 2021, we conducted a distance sampling survey in its&thinsp;~&thinsp;3000 km<sup>2</sup>&nbsp;core area around the main Gelego camp, walking a total of 56 line transects over a cumulative distance of 273&nbsp;km. We calculated the densities of those species with over 20 independent detections using the best-performing model. The most abundant wild species recorded were the olive baboon (25.0 ind/km<sup>2</sup>) and common warthog (7.3 ind/km<sup>2</sup>), while the bohor reedbuck (2.1 ind/km<sup>2</sup>) and oribi (1.9 ind/km<sup>2</sup>) were the most abundant ungulates. Our survey confirmed the illegal presence of large cattle herds inside Dinder (10.7 ind/km<sup>2</sup>). The substantial ungulate densities in the core area support regionally important populations of large carnivores, making this one of the best functioning ecosystems in the region. When compared to historical unpublished data from the waterhole and road counts, we detected a declining trend in wildlife numbers over the past 5 decades. We call for improved wildlife monitoring and conservation actions to protect this important ecosystem and for increased efforts to extend effective protection beyond the core area of Dinder.</p>
spellingShingle Mohammed, AA
Bauer, H
Coals, P
Sillero-Zubiri, C
Abundance of larger mammals in Dinder National Park, Sudan
title Abundance of larger mammals in Dinder National Park, Sudan
title_full Abundance of larger mammals in Dinder National Park, Sudan
title_fullStr Abundance of larger mammals in Dinder National Park, Sudan
title_full_unstemmed Abundance of larger mammals in Dinder National Park, Sudan
title_short Abundance of larger mammals in Dinder National Park, Sudan
title_sort abundance of larger mammals in dinder national park sudan
work_keys_str_mv AT mohammedaa abundanceoflargermammalsindindernationalparksudan
AT bauerh abundanceoflargermammalsindindernationalparksudan
AT coalsp abundanceoflargermammalsindindernationalparksudan
AT sillerozubiric abundanceoflargermammalsindindernationalparksudan