Habitat corridors usage by wildlife in wooded patches of an agricultural landscape in New Bussa, Nigeria

This study assesses the dispersal and use of corridors by wildlife in wooded patches of an ‎agricultural landscape in New Bussa. The study was undertaken to derive information on the ‎species of wildlife associated with different habitat corridors in both wet and dry seasons in the ‎area, as well as to determine their relative abundance and diversity in the area. The direct/indirect ‎method of census was used. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics ‎‎(tables), and Analysis of Variance [ANOVA] was used to test if species distribution differed ‎between habitats. The results gathered revealed that the wet season has the highest number of ‎mammal species than the dry Season. Hedgerows and fencerows have the highest number of ‎mammal’s species in both wet and dry seasons. Agama agama, Rattus rattus of Muridae and ‎Rousettus acguptiacus of Pteropodidae family, Sciurus spermophilus, Sciurus carolinensis and ‎Epomophorus ganbianus were found to be highly abundant in all the habitat types during the ‎two seasons. For the birds’ species, the family Estrildidae has the highest relative abundance, ‎followed by the Ardedae family. Mammal species diversity between habitats was significantly ‎low (P>0.05) in both the wet and dry seasons, while the bird species diversity in the three ‎habitat types in the wet and dry season indicate high species diversity in all the habitats. Hence all ‎the habitat corridors having representative samples of wildlife are of wildlife conservation value ‎in the agricultural landscape in New Bussa. It is therefore recommended that deforestation and ‎uncontrolled bush burning in the area should be discouraged.