A baseline camera trapping survey of wildlife utilizing termite mounds in Marguba Range division of Old Oyo National Park (original) (raw)

2022, CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research - Zenodo

Camera traps (CTs) can capture nocturnal and elusive species of wild animals. However, records of the survey of termite mounds (TMs) and their users with CTs are uncommon. This study investigated TMs using the opportunistic encountering technique at Old Oyo National Park. For every encounter, a Garmin GPS 45 and meter rule was used to take the coordinates and dimensions respectively. Users of five randomly selected TMs, showing signs of geophagy, were surveyed with five CTs for 21 days twice. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Our observation identified two types of TMs; conical (CTMs) and cathedrals (KTMs) which were not significantly (p ˃ 0.05) different in numbers and dimensions. Of the 10 mounted CTs, only two recorded 50 animals from among 4 different species in 12 detections with a total of 152.8 trap nights. Cattle was the highest number of species trapped (31) with four detections (33.3 %), followed by 15 tantalus monkeys with 5 detections (41.6 %), three Kobs with two detections (16.6 %), and one African civet cat with detection (8.3 %). Across all the detections, only Kob was captured eating TMs. The activity pattern of Kobs and African civet cats was nocturnal. Meanwhile, those of the tantalus monkeys and cattle were diurnal. Cattle were found to have been utilizing more important areas of the park than wildlife. A more sophisticated strategy may be needed for the effective management of the keystone resources of the park.