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Afromontane mosaic vegetation acts as a barrier between small mammals from two savannah biomes in northern Ethiopia

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Abstract

Despite its biogeographical uniqueness, where two vast savanna regions are separated by the Afromontane mosaic vegetation, there is a significant lack of small mammal sampling in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Leveraging all our available data on rodents and shrews in the region, we tested the hypothesis that the Afromontane mosaic vegetation in the highlands acts as a barrier to gene flow between taxa found in the Somali-Masai and Sudanian savanna in the southeast and western lowland parts of the region, respectively. Morphological and DNA sequence analysis confirmed the presence of 23 species of small rodents and shrews in the region. We recorded 18 of these species in the Afromontane mosaic vegetation, seven species in the Sudanian savanna, and four species in the Somali-Masai savanna. Notably, the fauna of the Sudanian savanna was strikingly different from that of the Somali-Masai savanna at both intraspecific and interspecific levels, suggesting the northern Ethiopian highlands as a very strong biogeographic barrier for taxa adapted to arid lowlands. However, the reported species diversity remains provisional, and additional sampling from unexplored areas is needed. Furthermore, some of the reported taxa, in this study, such as Mus cf. tenellus, Crocidura cf. fuscomurina, Dendromus sp. indet. 2, and Otomys cf. cheesmani, require detailed taxonomic investigation and may represent new species. A robust understanding of the taxonomic diversity and distribution of the small mammals in the region is crucial for effective conservation planning as well as for addressing practical questions related to rodents, such as in public health and pest management.

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Acknowledgements

This is part of a PhD study funded by the Africa Centre of Excellence for Innovative Rodent Pest Management and Biosensor Technology Development, at the Sokoine University of Agriculture Tanzania. Genotyping of collected materials was performed at the Institute of Vertebrate Biology at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Studenec within the wider context of studying rodent diversity in the Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Hotspot, financially supported by the Czech Science Foundation (project no. 23.06116S). Logistical support for the fieldwork was provided by the Department of Biology and the Rodent Research Unit at Mekelle University in Ethiopia. B. Gebru, T. Hadush, Y. Kidane, G. Tekelehaimanot, A. Berhe, and H. Hailu provided invaluable field support. We are indebted to the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA) for the research permit (permission no. EWCA Ref. No. 31/248/2010). We thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Wildlife Management, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania

    Kiros Welegerima & Nsajigwa E. Mbije

  2. The African Centre of Excellence for Innovative Rodent Pest Management and Biosensor Technology Development, Morogoro, Tanzania

    Kiros Welegerima, Apia W. Massawe & Rhodes H. Makundi

  3. Department of Biology, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Ethiopia

    Kiros Welegerima, Yonas Meheretu, Welday Hayelom & Ferej Kedir

  4. Institute of Mountain Research and Development, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Ethiopia

    Yonas Meheretu

  5. Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden

    Yonas Meheretu

  6. Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic

    Josef Bryja & Getachew Mulualem

  7. Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

    Josef Bryja & Getachew Mulualem

  8. Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute, Mekelle Biodiversity Center, Mekelle, Ethiopia

    Getachew Mulualem

  9. Institute of Pest Management, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania

    Apia W. Massawe

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  1. Kiros Welegerima
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Contributions

KW, YM, JB, RHM conceptualized the study; KW, YM, GM, FK, WH collected the samples; KW analysed the data; JB, GM analysed genetic data and produced the maps; KW wrote the first version of the manuscript; YM, JB reviewed it. All authors read, revised, and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kiros Welegerima.

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Permissions to conduct the research was granted by the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (permission no. EWCA Ref. No. 31/248/2010), and Mekelle University.

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Communicated by David Hawksworth.

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Welegerima, K., Meheretu, Y., Bryja, J. et al. Afromontane mosaic vegetation acts as a barrier between small mammals from two savannah biomes in northern Ethiopia. Biodivers Conserv 33, 1459–1478 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-024-02811-2

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