Effects of Anthropogenic Activities on the Diversity and Distribution of Bird Species in Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria

Ogunyemi O.O.

Department of Forest Resources and Wildlife Management, Ekiti State University, P. M. B. 5363, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.

Author’s Email Address ✉: olumideogunyemi80@yahoo.com

Accepted August 02, 2020

An attempt was made to study the effects of anthropogenic activities on the diversity and distribution of bird species in three locations of Ekiti State University from May to July 2018. The study area was stratified based on levels of disturbance in the area and point counts techniques were employed for data collection. The study recorded 144 individual birds, belonging to 13 orders, 23 families and 43 species. A total of 20, 20 and 21 bird species were identified and their abundance was observed to be 47, 40 and 57 at locations L1, L2 and L3 respectively. The order Passeriformes constituted the dominant group with 28 families and 12 species. Analysis of bird species in the studied locations indicated that the birds in the sampled area were not homogenous in their distribution. The relative abundance of birds observed shows that 7, 4 and 7 species were found to be rare, 6, 7 and 8 species were uncommon, 7, 9 and 6 were frequent and none of the bird species were in abundant category. The result of Shannon- Weiner diversity index (H') considered revealed that L1 with index value 2.87 had the least species diversity, followed by L2 with value 2.89 while L3 had the highest diversity value of 2.93. The species richness revealed the highest value of 5.12 in the location of farming activities (L2) while the least species richness value of 4.47 was obtained in the pristine location of the university. The findings from the study provide evidence that anthropogenic activities area to an extent can serve as a refuge for birds provided the biological factors are within a safe threshold. Therefore, conservation efforts should as well be directed towards making communities view human occupied areas as a habitat for birds and not as a lost habitat.

Key words: Anthropogenic, Conservation, Distribution and Diversity.

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