Journal of Agriculture and Biological Sciences Vol. 2(6) pp.166 - 175, September 2011 Available online Available online http://www.globalresearchjournals.org/journal/?a=journal&id=jabs Copyright ©2011 Global Research Journals. Full Length Research. SPECIES RICHNESS, ABUNDANCE AND HABITAT PREFERENCE OF RODENTS FROM KOMTO PROTECTED FOREST, WESTERN ETHIOPIA Mosissa Geleta 1 , Yosef Mamo 2 and Afework Bekele 3* 1 Department of Biology, Wollega University, PO Box 395, Nekemte, Ethiopia, email:mosisagal1968@yahoo.com 2 Hawassa University, PO Box 5, Hawassa, Ethiopia, e-mail: yosefmam@yahoo.com 3 Department of Biology, Addis Ababa University, PO Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia * Corresponding author:afeworkbekele@hotmail.com Accepted 16 th July 2011. A study on the species richness, abundance and habitat preference of rodents of Komto Protected Forest was carried out from July, 2009 to Feburary, 2010 encompassing both wet and dry seasons. The study investigates rodent species richness and their habitat preference in the study area. Furthermore, the role of different soil types associated with rodent habitat preference and abundance was also investigated. The study was carried out using Sherman live and snap traps in maize farm, grassland, bushland and forest habitats. A total of 312 individual rodents (live traps) and 66 (snap traps) were captured over 2352 and 1200 trap nights, respectively. The species composition and relative abundance were: Stenocephalemys albipes (48.4%), Lophuromys flavopunctatus (27.6%), Lemniscus. striatus (10.3%), Pelomys harringtoni (7.7%), Rattus rattus (5.1%) and Mus mahomet (0.9%). In addition, a shrew Crocidura flavescens was also captured. Mastomys natalensis and Arvicanthis species were absent which was unexpected as these species were most common in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the rodent species preferred grassland and maize farm to bushland and forest. Bushland and forest habitats provided more number of individual rodents with few species. This is because environmental variables, for example, plant species composition might not favor all animals equally. Males comprised 52.9% and females 47.1% of the total capture. Among the total rodents captured, adults, subadults and juveniles comprised 60.6 %, 28.8% and 10.6%, respectively. Loamy soil formed the grassland and forest habitats, whereas the maize farm had sandy clay soil. Active or new burrows were not recorded in all habitats during the wet season. This might be a mechanism of avoiding the effect of flooding, and due to the presence of suffcient ground cover in wet season. However, during both seasons, new burrows or/and abandoned burrows were not recorded from grassland and forest habitats because of sufficient ground cover. Therefore, the effect of soil should be considered in ecological based rodent management in agricutural system. Keywords: Diversity, Ethiopia, habitat preference, Komto Protected Forest, rodents INTRODUCTION Mammals are evolutionarily the most successful groups of animals with the possible exception of arthropods (Stanbury, 1972). Among mammals, the order Rodentia represents the most diverse group (Kingdon, 1997; Vaughan et al., 2000). Approximately, 44% of all mammals are rodents with 30 extant families (Casanovas-Villar, 2007), 468 genera and about 2,052 species (Nowak, 1999). Rodents of Africa are the most ubiquitous and numerous among mammals (Delany, 1986). There are about 14 families, 89 genera and 381 species of rodents in Africa (Singleton et al., 2007). Ethiopia has varieties of different species of animals and plants. The country is known in having diverse faunal community. The diverse topographic features of Ethiopia produce a range of climate which affects the distribution of both plants and animals (Yalden and Largen, 1992). In Ethiopia, there are 84 species of rodents that account for 30% of all mammalian species (Afework and Leirs, 1997). Rodents are cosmopolitan in distribution and show great diversity in morphology, ecology and behavior (Delany and Happold, 1979). Rodents breed rapidly and make quick response to environmental changes. Their small body size, fast life history and behavioral plasticity enables them respond quickly to habitat qualities such as climate, food, vegetation cover and rainfall. Their response to climatic changes depended on their dispersal ability and acclimatization (Auffray et al., 2009). Rodents are good subjects for study because of their great ecological values such as pruning vegetation, aerating soil, spreading pollens, seeds and fungal spores allowing colonization of new habitats and habitat modification (Kingdon, 1997; Pearson et al., 2001). They also have an economical and medical value. Their study is very easier as they have short lifespan (Delany, 1986; Kingdon,