Checklist of small mammals of Zika Forest Reserve, Uganda
Citation
Barahukwa A, Mbiro A, Kaweesa S, Lindsell J, Davenport T, Dickinson C, Howard P (2023). Checklist of small mammals of Zika Forest Reserve, Uganda. Version 1.1. A Rocha Uganda. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/chupt3 accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-09-01.Description
The data on checklist of small mammals in Zika Forest reserve was collected by the Forest Department of Uganda under the ‘Natural Forest Management and Conservation Project’ (No. 6100.37.42.015) and the project of ‘Institutional Support for the Protection of East African Biodiversity’ (UNO/RAF/006/GEF). These data were collected from 1993 to1995 and published in a series of reports edited by Howard and Davenport (1996). The purpose of sampling the small mammals, as with the other taxa, was to compile as complete a species list as possible to enable comparison between sites and assist with the identification of conservation needs and priorities in Uganda's forests. Uganda supports an extremely high number of mammal species, second to Zaire in Africa and ranked ninth in the world (McNeely et al; 1990). Over 125 species from the mammalian orders Insectivora, Macroscelidea and Rodentia (excluding families Sciuridae, Anomaluridae and Hystricidae) are recorded from Uganda (Davies and Vanden Berghe, 1994); including three national and twelve Albertine Rift endemic species. The data have been mobilized by the staff of the A Rocha Uganda and A Rocha International under the project "Raising the profile of data for the conservation of four forested African landscapes" funded by GBIF's BID Programme, and coordinated by A Rocha Kenya. The mobilized data was based on records collected between May,1993 and March,1995 using a combination of break back and Sherman traps.Purpose
The purpose of sampling the small mammals, as with the other taxa, was to compile as complete a species list as possible to enable comparison between sites and assist with the identification of conservation needs and priorities in Uganda's forests. The present distribution of Uganda's small mammals has arisen due to fluctuations in the extent of forest cover over the millennia. Forest cover has sometimes been reduced to small refugia (Rodgers et al., 1982; Grubb, 1983; Howell and Kingdon, 1993), and these areas represented important sources for the dispersal of forest-dependent species when climatic conditions subsequently improved, allowing the expansion of forests.Sampling Description
Study Extent
These mobilised data on small mammals was recorded from Zika forest reserve.Sampling
A combination of trap types was used, including Sherman, Longworth, pitfall and break back traps. The latter included locally made rat traps (18 x 8 cm), Museum Specials (14 x 7 cm), and large and small commercially available break back traps from the USA (18 x 8 cm and 10 x 4 cm respectively). Pitfall traps were used with the particular intention of collecting shrews. These traps consisted of a drift fence constructed from metal wire mesh (mesh size 5 mm x 5 mm) approximately 30 cm in height and 20 to 25 metres in length. The fence acted as a barrier to foraging animals, guiding them into sunken 5 litre plastic buckets (20 cm diameter x 25 cm depth) situated every five metres. The pitfall fences were situated in a variety of forest habitats concentrating on undisturbed forest and sites in close proximity to streams. In order to establish a degree of uniformity and enable comparison of data between sites, a standardised trapping regime was adopted at each site. A variety of bait types was used in order to catch the full range of rodent and shrew species, and traps were set in a range of different habitat types and locations, ten metres apart according to the following guidelines: • Fifty percent of traps were set at ground level in a variety of habitats, including disturbed and open areas. Two-thirds of these were baited with peanut butter and oatmeal or termites and one-third with rehydrated fish. • Forty percent of traps were set near streams or close to the water’s edge, where possible. Of these traps, half were baited with rehydrated fish and half with peanut butter and oatmeal, or peanut butter and termites. If there were no streams in the vicinity of the trapping area the traps were set as detailed above, in a variety of different habitat types. • Ten percent of traps were situated 1-6 metres above ground level in trees. Half of these traps were baited with mashed banana and the other half with peanut butter and oatmeal.Quality Control
In order to establish a degree of uniformity and enable comparison of data between sites, a standardised trapping regime was adopted at each site. A variety of bait types was used in order to catch the full range of rodent and shrew species, and traps were set in a range of different habitat types and locations, ten metres apart according to the following guidelines: • Fifty percent of traps were set at ground level in a variety of habitats, including disturbed and open areas. Two-thirds of these were baited with peanut butter and oatmeal or termites and one-third with rehydrated fish. • Forty percent of traps were set near streams or close to the water’s edge, where possible. Of these traps, half were baited with rehydrated fish and half with peanut butter and oatmeal, or peanut butter and termites. If there were no streams in the vicinity of the trapping area the traps were set as detailed above, in a variety of different habitat types. • Ten percent of traps were situated 1-6 metres above ground level in trees. Half of these traps were baited with mashed banana and the other half with peanut butter and oatmeal.Method steps
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The national survey of Uganda forests collected data in 65 forests. The original field survey results including all data were published in a series of reports by the Forest Department of Uganda (Howard et al. 1996).
Compilation of species lists enabled comparison with other forests and provided a basis for highlighting species that are of particular biogeographical or conservation significance.
All the small mammal species currently known from Uganda were classified according to their habitat requirements using Rosevear (1969), Kingdon (1971-74), Delany (1975), Hutterer (1987) and Skinner and Smithers (1990). This form of analysis assists in classifying forests and also in determining the importance of an individual forest to a defined group of species with a known habitat requirement. As this study is concerned mainly with forest habitats, the emphasis was placed particularly on forest habitat-type divisions, whilst non-forest habitats tended to be grouped under one classification as open habitat.
The following ecological type categories are distinguished:
• Forest-dependent species (F-species) are largely confined to closed-canopy forest and would be unlikely to tolerate any form of major large-scale habitat modification, although they may persist in secondary forest and isolated forest fragments.
• Forest non-dependent species (f-species) are not restricted to closed-canopy forest and may occur in forest edge, gallery forest and dense savannah woodland.
• Non-forest (open habitat) species are characteristic of open grasslands and semi-arid environments (O), aquatic or swamp habitats (A) or occur in a wide range of habitats (W). Species are further classified according to whether they occur only in highland areas above 1500 m (H) or lowland areas below 1500 m (L). The lack of knowledge concerning the ecological requirements of many of the small mammal species, particularly the shrews, makes it impossible to classify all species and nine shrews and four rodents remain of unknown ecological type (U). Using the daily trapping records, species accumulation rates were examined in order to estimate the extent to which further trapping would add to the species list, and facilitate comparisons of species richness between forests for any given level of sampling effort. The current dataset comprises records of small mammals recorded from Zika forest reserve during this survey. Electronic copies of the written reports and a separate electronic database of records were made available for this purpose by the original authors of the reports (Peter Howard).We extracted the mammal records from the electronic database and supplemented these with location data provided in the narrative reports. The location data in the original reports were provided in Military Grid Reference System. These were first converted to standard UTM coordinates, noting that the MGRS was using an old datum (MGRS-AL scheme also called "MGRS old"). UTM coordinates were then converted to decimal degrees using an online conversion spreadsheet (https://giscrack.com/download-excel-template-convert-geographic-coordinates-utm/). The converted locations were then checked against Google Maps imagery to confirm that a satisfactory conversion had been made. Species records from each Forest Reserve were checked against the distribution maps in Carswell et al. (2005) and through expert assessment (J. Lindsell) to ensure that no unsubstantiated or extralimital records were included.
Taxonomic Coverages
A total of 16 small mammals were identified to species level.
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Aethomys hindei (Thomas, 1902)common name: Northern Bush Rat rank: species
Geographic Coverages
The data was collected from Zika Forest Reserve
Bibliographic Citations
- Davenport, T., Howard, P., & Dickinson, C. (Eds.). (1996). Mpanga, Zika and Mpigi District Forest Reserve: Biodiversity Report no. 24. Forest Department, Kampala. -
- Davenport, T., Howard, P., & Dickinson, C. (Eds.). (1996). Mpanga, Zika and Mpigi District Forest Reserve: Biodiversity Report no. 24. Forest Department, Kampala. -
- Delany, M.J. (1975). The Rodents of Uganda. British Natural History Museum, London -
- Dollman, G. (1915-16). On the African shrews belonging to the genus Crocidura. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 8: 15-17. -
- Howard, P. C. and Davenport, T. R. B. (1996). Forest Biodiversity Reports, vols. 1–33. Uganda Forest Department, Kampala, Uganda. -
- Grubb, P. (1983). The biogeographic significance of forest mammals in eastern Africa. In: Proceedings of the 3rd international colloquium on the ecology and taxonomy of African small mammals, Antwerp, 20-24 July 1981, Ed. E. van der Straeten, W. N. Verheyen and F. de Vree, pp. 75-85. Annales, Musee Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Sciences Zoologiques. 237 (i-iv), 1-227. -
- Howell, K. and Kingdon, J. (1993). Mammals in the forests of East Africa. In: Lovett, J.C. and S.K. Waser (Eds.). Biogeography and Ecology of the Rain Forests of Eastern Africa. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. -
- Hutterer, R. et al. (1987). A checklist of shrews of Rwanda and biogeographical considerations of African Soricidae. Bonn. Zoo. Beitr. 38 : 155 - 172 -
- Kingdon, J. (1971-74). East African Mammals: An Atlas of Evolution, Vols. I, IIA and IIIB. Academic Press, London. -
- McNeely, J.A., Miller, K.R., Reid, W.V., Mittermeier, R.A. and Werner, T.B. (1990). Conserving the World's Biological Diversity. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. -
- Meetser, A.J. and Setser, A.W. (Eds.), (1971-77). The Mammals of Africa: An Identification Manual. Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, USA. -
- Nicoll, M.E. and Rathbun, G. B. (1990). African Insectivora and Elephant shrews: An Action Plan for their Conservation. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. -
- Rodgers, W.A., Owen, C.F. and Homewood, K.M. (1982). Biogeography of East African forest mammals. J. Biogeography. 9: 41-54. -
- Rosevear, D. (1969). Rodents of West Africa. British Natural History Museum, London. -
- Skinner, J.D. and Smithers, R.N.H. (1990). The Mammals of the Southern African Sub-Region. University of Pretoria, Pretoria, RSA. -
- Wilson, D.E. and Reeder, D.M. (1993). Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. Second Edition. Smithsonian Institution Press, in association with American Society of Mammalogists, Washington and London. -
Contacts
Anke Barahukwaoriginator
position: Research Officer
A Rocha Uganda
Gayaza-Kyetume, Kayunga Road P.O. Box 11569, Kampala, Uganda
Kampala
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email: anke.barahukwa@arocha.org
Alexander Mbiro
originator
position: Research and conservation Officer
A Rocha Uganda
Gayaza-Kyetume, Kayunga Road P.O. Box 11569, Kampala, Uganda
Kampala
UG
Telephone: +256783282622
email: alexander.mbiro@arocha.org
Sara Kaweesa
originator
position: National Director
A Rocha Uganda
Gayaza-Kyetume, Kayunga Road P.O. Box 11569, Kampala, Uganda
Kampala
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Jeremy Lindsell
originator
position: Director of Science and Conservation
A Rocha International
A Rocha International 180 Piccadilly London W1J 9HF UK
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GB
Telephone: +447935874171
email: jeremy.lindsell@arocha.org
Tim Davenport
originator
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Wildlife Conservation Society
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Christopher Dickinson
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Green Climate Fund
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Peter Howard
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Natural World Heritage Sites
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email: peterawayfromhome@hotmail.com
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Anke Barahukwa
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position: Research Officer
A Rocha Uganda
Gayaza-Kyetume, Kayunga Road P.O. Box 11569, Kampala, Uganda
Kampala
Telephone: +256414663875
email: anke.barahukwa@arocha.org
homepage: https://uganda.arocha.org
Alexander Mbiro
metadata author
position: Research and conservation Officer
A Rocha Uganda
Gayaza-Kyetume, Kayunga Road P.O. Box 11569, Kampala, Uganda
Kampala
UG
Telephone: +256783282622
email: alexander.mbiro@arocha.org
Jeremy Lindsell
metadata author
position: Director of Science and Conservation
A Rocha International
A Rocha International 180 Piccadilly London W1J 9HF UK
Piccadilly
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GB
Telephone: +447935874171
email: jeremy.lindsell@arocha.org
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Anke Barahukwa
administrative point of contact
position: Research Officer
A Rocha Uganda
Gayaza-Kyetume, Kayunga Road P.O. Box 11569, Kampala, Uganda
Kampala
P.O. Box 11569
UG
Telephone: +256414663875
email: anke.barahukwa@arocha.org
homepage: http://www.uganda.arocha.org
userId: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=https://www.linkedin.com/in/anke-b-821586176
Alexander Mbiro
administrative point of contact
position: Research and conservation Officer
A Rocha Uganda
Gayaza-Kyetume, Kayunga Road P.O. Box 11569, Kampala, Uganda
Kampala
UG
Telephone: +256783282622
email: alexander.mbiro@arocha.org
Jeremy Lindsell
administrative point of contact
position: Director of Science and Conservation
A Rocha International
A Rocha International 180 Piccadilly London W1J 9HF UK
Piccadilly
180
GB
Telephone: +447935874171
email: jeremy.lindsell@arocha.org
homepage: http://www.arocha.org
Peter Howard
administrative point of contact
position: Researcher
Natural World Heritage Sites
P.O. Box 24994, Karen 00502, Nairobi, Kenya
Nairobi
Karen 00502
KE
email: peterawayfromhome@hotmail.com
Sara Kaweesa
administrative point of contact
position: National Director
A Rocha Uganda
Gayaza-Kyetume, Kayunga Road P.O. Box 11569, Kampala, Uganda
Kampala
UG