Threats to Gelada Baboon (Theropithecus Gelada) Around Debre Libanos, Northwest Shewa Zone, Ethiopia
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Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Biodiversity Volume 2016, Article ID 3405717, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/3405717 Research Article Threats to Gelada Baboon (Theropithecus gelada) around Debre Libanos, Northwest Shewa Zone, Ethiopia Kassahun Abie1 and Afework Bekele2 1 Department of Wildlife and Ecotourism Management, College of Agriculture and Natural Resource, Wolkite University, P.O. Box 07, Wolkite, Ethiopia 2Department of Zoological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Correspondence should be addressed to Kassahun Abie; [email protected] Received 24 June 2016; Accepted 14 August 2016 Academic Editor: Alexandre Sebbenn Copyright © 2016 K. Abie and A. Bekele. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This study was aimed at determining threats to gelada baboon around Debre Libanos, Northwest Shewa Zone, Ethiopia. Thiswas investigated based on questionnaire, informant interview, focus group discussion, and direct observation methods from August 2012 to March 2013. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and responses were compared using chi-square test. Habitat destruction (95%), livestock grazing (91.67%), expansion of agricultural land (88.33%), expansion of invasive species (58.33%) in the area that reduces the availability and quality of gelada baboon’s food, inappropriate investment activity (75%), and depredation (66.67%) were the major threats to gelada baboons in the study area. All these challenges could cause a short and long-term effect on gelada baboon population size and growth rate. 1. Introduction overused for fuel wood, construction, timber production, and other purposes. Increasing livestock and human population The major threats to the biodiversity and wildlife in Ethiopia pressure coupled with misappropriate land use has led to are unsustainable utilization of natural resources, deforesta- massive destruction of wildlife habitat as well as a drastic tion, forest fires, land degradation, habitat fragmentation, reduction in numbers. Hence, wildlife resources of the expansion of invasive species, predation, and overexploita- country are now largely restricted to a few protected areas tion of species. Among the threats posed to biodiversity and and inaccessible areas [4]. Therefore, wildlife management wildlife in Ethiopia, population growth drives the most direct is crucial for conservation of biodiversity including wildlife. influence and exacerbates the effects of others. Population Wildlife management focuses on increasing net benefit for growth translates into greater pressure on the land and society through purposeful intervention. The interventions resources to provide for immediate human needs, thereby can be educational communication to influence beliefs and threatening the ultimate sustainability of the resources [1]. attitudes, information, training, incentives, and regulations to As human population increases, encroachment into natural affect human behavior and wildlife population control [1]. habitat also increases, resulting in a different form of human- Eventhoughthegeladababoonpopulationisrecordedin wildlife conflicts [2]. the Northwest Shewa zone of Oromia Regional State, little is Human-wildlife conflict is not restricted to a particular known about the threats to gelada baboon in the area. The geographical location; rather, it is common to all areas where intensionofthisresearchwastofillthisgapandgiverelevant wildlife and human population share limited resources [3]. information about the challenges to gelada baboon conser- The large areas of Ethiopian lowland and highlands are vation for local and regional administration and other con- changed into agricultural and pastoral lands. The vegetation is servation organizations. 2 International Journal of Biodiversity 480000 482500 485000 1077500 1077500 N To Bahir Dar 1 : 30,000 3 0 1.5 2.25 0.75 1075000 1075000 0.375 (km) Debre Libanos To Addis Ababa 1072500 1072500 480000 482500 485000 Town Counting blocks Road Aba Dinkona Amanuel Chagel Set Debre Shinkurt Mikael Tekle Haymanot Wusha Gedel Figure 1: Map of the study area. 2. Material and Methods demographic, socioeconomic and environmental condition has been overviewed. Quantitative and qualitative data were 2.1. Study Area. The present investigation was conducted at Debre Libanos area, which is located in the central highlands collected on the impact of the local people on the gelada ∘ of Ethiopia. Its geographical coordinates are 9 43 0 North, baboon around Debre Libanos area. ∘ 38 52 0 East. Debre Libanos is found in the Oromia Data about threats to gelada baboons was collected using Regional State, within the Northwest Shewa zonal adminis- informant interviews, questionnaire survey, field observa- tration (Figure 1). It is located 104km away from the capital tion,andfocusedgroupdiscussion.Datawasstrengthened city, Addis Ababa, in the northwest direction, and 16 km away through the triangulation of both quantitative and qualitative from the zone capital (Fiche). The area has extremely steep data. The quantitative data was obtained by means of the escarpments leading up to a strip of plateau. It is found in the questionnaire survey whereas qualitative data was obtained altitude ranges between 2150 and 2650 m asl. by means of the informant interviews, field observation, It has bimodal rainfall pattern ranging from 800 mm to and focus group discussion. Field observation was made to 1200 mm with five months of rain (May–September). The collect evidences related to threats to gelada baboons in the dry season is from December to March. The annual average study area. Semistructured interview was carried out with maximum and minimum temperature of the study area is key informants. Semistructured interviews are preferred to ∘ ∘ 23 Cand15C, respectively. standardize, control, and easily compare the responses to a question [5, 6]. One to one interview was employed to 2.2. Data Collection and Sampling Procedure. The present get important details about challenges gelada baboons faced. study was conducted from August 2012 to March 2013. Questionnairesurveywascarriedouttogaincomparabledata A preliminary survey was conducted in the study area toallowforquantification.Forthismatter,semistructured in the first week of August 2012. During this period, the questionnaire was prepared for the target respondents. It was International Journal of Biodiversity 3 developed to collect demographic and socioeconomic infor- Table 1: Description of demographic and socioeconomic character- mation and threats to gelada baboons in the study area. istics of the respondents. The sample size was determined by using a method that Variables Category Frequency Percentage estimates minimum sample size based on a number of accu- Male 34 56.67 racy factors [7]. Hence, the following equation was used to Sex determine the sample size: Female 26 43.33 Literate 49 81.67 2 2 Education (( (1−)) /( / + ( (1−)) /)) Illiterate 11 18.33 = , (1) Married 46 76.67 Marital status Single 9 15.00 where =samplesizerequired, =numberofpeopleinthe Divorced 5 8.33 population (which in this case is 4, with 800 households), = Farmers 41 68.33 estimatedvarianceinpopulationasdecimal:0.3for30%, = Government workers 10 16.67 precision desired as decimal: 0.95 for 95%, = at confidence Occupation level: 1.96 for 95% confidence level, = estimated response Traders 6 10.00 rate: 0.8 for 80%. Students 3 5.00 Accordingly, from the total households (4, 800), a total of 60 respondents were selected and the questionnaire was administered. The respondents were selected purposefully the respondents’ ages ranged from 31 to 60 years, while 10% based on their ability, awareness, and knowledge to contribute and 6.7% of the respondents were less than 30 and older to the overall research objectives. The snowball sampling than 60 years, respectively. Out of the total respondents, technique was used as an identification tool. The question- 76.7%weremarried,15%weresingle,and8.3weredivorced. naire was pretested by a small number of interviews before Most of the respondents were farmers (68.33%), followed by conducting the actual one among some groups of the popula- government workers (16.67%), traders (10%), and students (5%). There is significant difference among occupations of the tion, which is not included in the main sample group to make 2 it more practical. Focus group discussion tool is preferred as, respondents ( =61.733,df=3, < 0.05). firstly, it helps the discussant to be free to move the conversa- Focus group discussion and interview with local com- tion in any direction of interest to explore a topic broadly and, munities, local governmental, and nongovernmental organi- secondly, it helps the researcher explore a situation in a short zation officials of Debre Libanos area provided information period of time and reinforce questionnaire data [8]. Two FGD about the attitude towards conservation and on wildlife were held for the whole study. The group size in each discus- and impacts on gelada baboons of the area. Among the sion ranged within 9–12 people. The first group was made up interviewed individuals, 89% had negative attitude, 6.2% had of 2 experts of natural resource management from Agricul- positive attitude, and 4.8% had neutral attitude towards the tural and Rural