Effects of land use on abundance, distribution and domestication of helmeted guineafowl in Western and Eastern Serengeti ecosystem

A Dissertation 2019

The aim of the study was to investigate effects of land use on abundance, distribution and domestication of Helmeted Guinea fowl in western and eastern Serengeti ecosystem. This study addressed three objectives: (1) to determine abundance, density and spatial distribution of the Helmeted Guinea fowl in various vegetation/habitat and land use types; (2) to determine the species site occupancy probability in various habitats and land use types; (3) to assess stocks of Helmeted Guinea fowl under domestication in western and eastern Serengeti ecosystems. Birds were surveyed between November, 2017 and April, 2018 in the land use types of conservation areas, agro-pastoral and pastoralism zones using distance sampling technique. Household surveys were conducted to assess stock size and the socio-economics of the domesticated population of the Helmeted-Guinea fowl in residential areas. Abundance was found to be higher in areas of sparse vegetation in wooded grassland (147 birds) and in conservation areas (central Serengeti) (163 birds) while the densities were higher in bushed grassland (2.058 individuals/km 2 ) as well as in conservation areas (6.042 individuals/km 2 ). The study found a significance difference in abundance between various habitat types (Kruskal Wallis: α = 0.05, p = 0.0495) and among land use types (p = 0.043). Site occupancy probability among land uses suggests that pastoral activity (grazing) has low effect on natural habitats and supported higher bird occupancy probability, ψ 0.3238 ± 0.1408 than agro-pastoral (cultivated) zone, which demonstrated least site occupancy probability, ψ 0.3055 ± 0.1125. On the other hand, Helmeted Guinea fowl occupancy probability was most influenced by bushed grassland in areas used by wildlife and livestock in pastoral and Game controlled areas in eastern Serengeti, ψ 0.2874 ± 0.1374 compared to the bushed grassland bordering conservation areas and village lands in western Serengeti, ψ 0.2845 ± 0.1364. The extent of farming was found to be dominated by free ranging and caging system that hold the potential to support household economy for the keepers through selling farmed birds. This survey discovered that keepers capture birds and collect eggs on cultivated areas, grazing land, and in the protected areas, which increases threat to the species. The effect of land use is more intense in western than eastern Serengeti, therefore, this study recommends an urgent implementation of land use plan as well as directing other conservation and monitoring efforts to the villages surrounding Serengeti ecosystem.