Ethiopia is home to one of the richest and most unique assemblages of fauna and flora on the African continent. Contained within its borders are two major centers of endemism, the mesic Roof of ...Africa (also known as the Ethiopian Highlands) and the arid Horn of Africa, resulting from the country's varied topography and consequent geographic isolation. These centers of endemism are crucial to global conservation as evidenced by their classification within the Eastern Afromontane and Horn of Africa biodiversity hotspots, respectively. Ethiopia's diverse ecosystems and the biodiversity they contain are increasingly threatened by climate change and the growing impacts of Africa's second largest human and largest livestock populations. In this paper, we focus on several key areas of recent and ongoing research on Ethiopian biodiversity that have broadened our understanding of nature and its conservation in Africa. Topics explored include the behavioral ecology of Ethiopia's large social mammals, the ecology and conservation of its unique coffee forests, and Ethiopian approaches to community conservation, fortress conservation, and nature-based solutions. We also highlight the increasing prominence of Ethiopian scientists in studies of the country's biodiversity in recent decades. We suggest promising avenues for future research in evolutionary biology, ecology, systematics, and conservation in Ethiopia and discuss how recent and ongoing work in Ethiopia is helping us better understand and conserve nature in the human-dominated landscapes of Africa and other tropical regions today.
Understanding the basic natural history of threatened primate taxa is crucial to developing and implementing successful conservation strategies for them. Data on feeding ecology and activity patterns ...are particularly important for identifying the strategies through which primates invest time and foraging effort towards survival and reproduction at a given locale. Here, we report the results of the first study of the diet and activity budget of Arsi geladas, a population of < 1000 individuals endemic to a heavily disturbed region of the southern Ethiopian Highlands and believed to represent a new taxon of geladas. We conducted our research on a band of 34 individuals belonging to five, one-male units at Indetu, eastern Arsi, Ethiopia, from August 2010 to May 2011 (excluding March 2011). Feeding accounted for 41.7% of total scans, followed by moving (20.3%), resting (19.0%), and social behavior (19.0%). Feeding and moving increased and resting and socializing decreased during the dry season when food availability was probably lower than during the wet season. Geladas ate mostly graminoid leaves (51.7% of feeding scans) though they also consumed graminoid rhizomes (24.4%), forb tubers (7.1%), forb leaves (7.1%), cactus, shrub, and tree fruits (3.6%), graminoid corms (1.7%), forb roots (1.6%), and unidentified items (3.0%). Underground foods (corms, rhizomes, roots, and tubers) accounted for 22–47% (mean = 35%) of the monthly (
n
= 9) diet and were eaten slightly more during the wet season than during the dry season. Contributions of human crops to the gelada diet could not be quantified without creating conflict between farmers and researchers, though we did note that geladas visited farms on 5–10% of study days. Threats from farmers, children, and dogs limited the geladas’ access to crops once they entered the farms. Further research involving questionnaire surveys of farmers, direct observation of crop damage by geladas, and DNA metabarcoding of gelada feces are crucial to the development of strategies to mitigate human-gelada conflict in the densely populated Arsi Zone of Ethiopia.
Research is a highly competitive profession where evaluation plays a central role; journals are ranked and individuals are evaluated based on their publication number, the number of times they are ...cited and their
-index. Yet such evaluations are often done in inappropriate ways that are damaging to individual careers, particularly for young scholars, and to the profession. Furthermore, as with all indices, people can play games to better their scores. This has resulted in the incentive structure of science increasingly mimicking economic principles, but rather than a monetary gain, the incentive is a higher score. To ensure a diversity of cultural perspectives and individual experiences, we gathered a team of academics in the fields of ecology and evolution from around the world and at different career stages. We first examine how authorship,
-index of individuals and journal impact factors are being used and abused. Second, we speculate on the consequences of the continued use of these metrics with the hope of sparking discussions that will help our fields move in a positive direction. We would like to see changes in the incentive systems, rewarding quality research and guaranteeing transparency. Senior faculty should establish the ethical standards, mentoring practices and institutional evaluation criteria to create the needed changes.
The large-bodied, terrestrial primates in the tribe Papionini are among the most intensely studied animals in the world, yet for some members of this tribe we know comparatively little about their ...evolutionary history and phylogeography. Geladas (Theropithecus gelada Rüppell, 1835), endemic primates of the Ethiopian highlands, are largely unstudied both in genetic diversity and intrageneric phylogeny. Currently, a northern and central subspecies and one isolated southern population are recognized, of which the central is classified as Least Concern, the northern as Vulnerable, and the southern is not yet assessed. The distribution and taxonomy of the subspecies remain poorly defined. Here, we estimate the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diversity and phylogenetic relationships among gelada mtDNA lineages based on samples across the entire species range. We analysed 1.7 kb-long sequences of the mtDNA genome, spanning the cytochrome b gene and the hypervariable region I of the D-loop, derived from 162 faecal samples. We detected five major haplogroups or clades (south, central-1, central-2, north-1, north-2) which diverged between 0.67 and 0.43 million years ago, thus suggesting a rapid radiation, resulting in largely unresolved intrageneric phylogenetic relationships. Both, the northern and central demes contain two similarly valid haplogroups, each with little or no geographic segregation among respective haplogroups. Effective population sizes of the northern and central demes decreased during and after the last glacial maximum but remained stable for the southern deme, although on a very low level. The distribution of haplogroups within the geographic ranges of the putative gelada subspecies indicates that mtDNA sequence information does not allow reliable taxonomic inferences and thus is not sufficient for solving the taxonomic rank of the three demic populations, with the possible exception of the southern population. Nevertheless, due to the genetic differences all three populations deserve conservation efforts, in particular the smallest southern population.
Reliable data on the distribution and threats facing primate species are crucial to identifying priority sites for conservation and designing effective management plans. Boutourlini’s blue monkey (
...Cercopithecus mitis boutourlinii
) is a little-known arboreal primate endemic to the forests of western Ethiopia. This subspecies is categorized as Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and the distribution of extant populations is largely unknown. To increase our knowledge of the spatial distribution and conservation status of Boutourlini’s blue monkey, we carried out intensive reconnaissance surveys from January 2010 to May 2011 across approximately 40% of its potential range and conducted interviews with local people at each of the survey locations. We carried out geospatial analyses and mapped the distribution of Boutourlini’s blue monkey localities with respect to elevation, protected area status, and changes in forest cover over time using ArcGIS 10.4.0. Through our surveys, we discovered 30 previously unknown Boutourlini’s blue monkey populations in three administrative regions of western Ethiopia (Amhara, Oromia, and Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Regions). A total of 34 different groups were sighted and counted at the survey sites, averaging 14.7 members (range 8–23) per group. There are now 32 Boutourlini’s blue monkey populations of recently confirmed occurrence at altitudes ranging from 1039 to 2780 m asl, seven in forests of greater than 50 km
2
. Crop feeding by Boutourlini’s blue monkeys was reported by people at seven sites and confirmed through direct observation at three of these sites. None of the known extant populations of Boutourlini’s blue monkeys occur within a strictly protected area (e.g., national park) where exploitative human activities are outlawed. A complete reassessment of the distribution and conservation status of Boutourlini’s blue monkey will require further surveys across the remaining approximately 60% of its potential range.
Studying the diet and feeding behavior of primates is essential to understanding their ecology and designing effective conservation plans. Despite decades of study on the hamadryas baboon (
Papio ...hamadryas
) in lowland habitats, little is known about the feeding ecology of this species in highland ecosystems. To address this empirical gap, we tracked temporal changes in vegetation abundance and their relation to the dietary choices of hamadryas baboons in highland habitat at Borena-Sayint National Park (BSNP) in northern Ethiopia. We performed behavioral scan sampling on a focal study band of 21–37 hamadryas baboons over a 12-month period. We found that mature and young leaves were the most abundant plant parts throughout the year, while fruits and flowers were the least abundant, with significant seasonal variation that followed the bimodal pattern of rainfall characteristic of the Ethiopian highlands ecosystem. The annual diet of hamadryas baboons at BSNP consisted mostly of fruits (32.0%) and graminoid blades (21.2%), and included 52 food species across 22 families of plants and three families of animals. Food raided from nearby farms accounted for 8.8% of their diet. The availability of fruits and flowers was positively correlated with their consumption, suggesting that these are preferred foods, whereas graminoid blades, and other leaves, appeared to be less preferred foods. The feeding ecology of hamadryas baboons at BSNP differs considerably from that of lowland populations. The well-studied lowland hamadryas baboons in Awash National Park obtain much of their diet from
Acacia
species and palm fruit, whereas those at BSNP, where
Acacia
trees are rare and palms are absent, relied on
Olinia rochetiana
and
Rosa abyssinica
for a combined 27% of their annual diet. The reliance of hamadryas baboons at BSNP on cultivated crops for nearly one-tenth of their diet leads to conflict with humans and warrants more detailed study so that this issue can be addressed in conservation plans for the area.
Neopterin, a product of activated white blood cells, is a marker of nonspecific inflammation that can capture variation in immune investment or disease-related immune activity and can be collected ...noninvasively in urine. Mounting studies in wildlife point to lifetime patterns in neopterin related to immune development, aging, and certain diseases, but rarely are studies able to assess whether neopterin can capture multiple concurrent dimensions of health and disease in a single system. We assessed the relationship between urinary neopterin stored on filter paper and multiple metrics of health and disease in wild geladas (Theropithecus gelada), primates endemic to the Ethiopian highlands. We tested whether neopterin captures age-related variation in inflammation arising from developing immunity in infancy and chronic inflammation in old age, inflammation related to intramuscular tapeworm infection, helminth-induced anti-inflammatory immunomodulation, and perturbations in the gastrointestinal microbiome. We found that neopterin had a U-shaped relationship with age, no association with larval tapeworm infection, a negative relationship with metrics related to gastrointestinal helminth infection, and a negative relationship with microbial diversity. Together with growing research on neopterin and specific diseases, our results demonstrate that urinary neopterin can be a powerful tool for assessing multiple dimensions of health and disease in wildlife.
Home range and activity patterns of animals are important elements for wildlife management and conservation practices. We examined seasonal home range and daily activity patterns of the endangered ...Swayne's hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus swaynei) in Maze National Park, Ethiopia. We tracked two groups of Swayne's hartebeests in open grassland for 1 year. Each group's daily activities (0700–1900 h) and GPS locations were recorded at 15-min intervals on 5 days every month. Activities were grouped into five behavioral categories: feeding, resting, traveling, vigilance, and other. In addition, we carried out nocturnal monitoring during full moon periods to further document movements patterns. We produced 95% and 50% kernel density estimates (KDE) of home range sizes for each group. Home range estimates did not vary across seasons. Feeding and traveling peaked during the early morning and late afternoon, whereas resting occurred most frequently during the midday hours in both seasons. The proportion of time spent feeding was higher during the dry season, whereas a greater proportion of time was spent resting during the wet season. Vigilance behavior occurred consistently throughout the day during both seasons. Time spent feeding and traveling did not vary significantly between seasons. Activity patterns of Swayne's hartebeests are strongly influenced both by time of day and season, while home range size is less influenced by seasonality and may instead reflect temporal variation in food availability. Our findings will help to inform management strategies and conserve one of the last two extant populations of Swayne's hartebeests.
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