THE PROGRAMME► Research ► Livestock Grazing

Ethiopian wolves: impact of livestock grazing on their Afroalpine habitat

Ethiopia's Afroalpine uplands and surrounding areas support an exceptionally high diversity of rare and endemic species, establishing the region as one of 34 biodiversity hotspots in the world. The Bale Mountains National Park (BMNP) encompasses the continent's most extensive pocket of Afroalpine heath and grassland, which is essential habitat for the rare canid species, the Ethiopian wolf. This endemic canid feeds almost exclusively on rodents. However, over the last 20 years, BMNP has been used to graze increasingly high numbers of livestock that are suspected to have reduced rodent diversity and abundance. This reduction constitutes a threat to the persistence of the Ethiopian wolf population. Overgrazing also poses another ecological threat to the park: BMNP is the water source for five major rivers on which an estimated 12 million people depend, and it is feared that ground-trampling and vegetation removal by cattle has a detrimental effect on this hydrological system. Investigating the effects of livestock grazing on the functioning of this ecosystem has been identified as the leading research priority in the recently ratified BMNP management plan.

As part of her doctorate, Flavie Vial will establish critical links between vegetation condition, livestock grazing pressures and rodent assemblages through field investigations and through the construction of fenced-off areas - exclosures - in which grazing pressure can be finely and reliably manipulated. These exclosures will enable research that will unequivocally determine the extent to which livestock grazing impacts vegetation diversity/biomass and rodent abundance in the BMNP. Flavie's long-term, controlled experimental manipulation of grazing pressure will provide the scientific evidence that will inform what are likely to be difficult and sensitive future management decisions for the park. Elsewhere, research has shown that both plant and rodent populations can respond rapidly to the removal of grazing pressure, although responses may not stabilise for several years following grazing exclusion. Thus, establishing exclosures is an investment that will exceed the duration of Flavie's research, and will provide the park with important infrastructure to develop the scientific basis for future management of natural resources strategies.

Flavie is well qualified and experienced to undertake this research. After gaining a BSc in Zoology from the University of Glasgow, she undertook a Masters degree, acquiring research experience in population modelling and epidemiology. She has since been awarded a prestigious University fellowship to undertake her doctoral studies. Flavie's research is part of a new collaboration that will combine the conservation expertise available within the WildCRU, with the ecological modelling capabilities available within the Theoretical Ecology Group at the University of Glasgow. Flavie is jointly supervised by Dan Haydon (Glasgow), David Macdonals and Claudio Sillero (WildCRU) and working closely with the EWCP team in Bale.