Hans Bauer

Adaptability of large carnivores to changing anthropogenic food sources: diet change of spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) during Christian fasting period in northern Ethiopia

Adaptability of large carnivores to changing anthropogenic food sources: diet change of spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) during Christian fasting period in northern Ethiopia Gidey Yirga*, HansH. De Iongh, Herwig Leirs, KindeyaGebrihiwot, Jozef Deckers andHansBauer Department of Biology, Mekelle University, P.O. Box 3072, Mekelle, Ethiopia; Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9518, Leiden, TheNetherlands; Evolutionary EcologyGroup, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerpen, Belgium; Department of Agro-Ecology, Aarhus University, Forsogsvej 1, 4200 Slagelse, Denmark; Department of LandResourceManagement and Environmental Protection, Mekelle University, P.O. Box 231,Mekelle, Ethiopia; and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Catholic University of Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, B-3001Heverlee, Belgium

Peri-urban spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) in Northern Ethiopia: diet, economic impact, and abundance

Global declines of carnivores are related to difficult integration with human land use, in particular conflicts caused by livestock depredation. Spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) live in remarkably close proximity to humans in the degraded and prey-depleted Enderta district, northern Ethiopia. Their diet and interaction with people were investigated in sub-districts close to the regional capital, Mekelle. We interviewed 1,686 randomly selected households from three sub-districts, Debri, Aynalem, and Felege Selam, about livestock management and incidence of depredation from 2005 to 2009. Livestock loss amounted to 492 heads over 5xa0years; an annual mean of 0.6% worth US

Preliminary investigation on rodent-ectoparasite associations in the highlands of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia: implications for potential zoonoses.

7,042. We also performed a survey giving a minimum population estimate of 60 hyenas in the three sub-districts; all but four were found in church forests where they are traditionally tolerated and protected. A total of 1,200 hyena scats were analyzed to determine prey species; the diet contained only domestic species, with sheep being by far the most common prey species. About 5.5% of fecal analysis contained human hairs. We conclude that hyenas depended entirely on domestic prey species, partly through depredation but more importantly through scavenging on (peri-) urban waste. Under the particular local circumstances, continued coexistence appears possible, provided that damage remains tolerable.

Rural Households’ Demand for Frankincense Forest Conservation in Tigray: A Continent Valuation Analysis

We studied associations between rodents and their arthropod ectoparasites in crop fields and household compounds in the highlands of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. Ectoparasite infestation indices, such as percent infestation, mean abundance, prevalence and host preferences, were calculated for each taxon. In total, 172 rodents from crop fields and 97 from household compounds were trapped. Rodent species and numbers trapped from the crop fields and household compounds were Mastomys awashensis (Lavrenchenko, Likhnova & Baskevich, 1998) (88 and 44), Arvicanthis dembeensis (Ruppel, 1842) (63 and 37) and Acomys sp. (21 and 16), respectively. A total of 558 insects and acarids (belonging to 11 taxa) were recovered from the rodents trapped in the crop fields, and 296 insects and acarid (belonging to 6 taxa) from the rodents trapped in the household compounds. Approximately 66% of the rodents trapped from the crop fields and 47% of those trapped from the household compounds were infested with ectoparasites. Laelaps sp. (64.9%) and Xenopsylla sp. (20.6%) comprised the highest proportion of the ectoparasites recovered in the crop fields, and the same ectoparasites, but in reverse order, comprised the highest proportions in the household compounds (Xenopsylla [50.3%] and Laelaps sp. [29%]). Our study revealed that crop fields and household compounds in the highlands share similar rodents and several ectoparasites. Furthermore, at least 1 of the rodent species and some of the ectoparasites identified in this study were reported to have posed medical and veterinary threats in other parts of Ethiopia and neighboring countries.