Data from: Mammalian community structure varies with distance between protected areas in the Omo valley, southwest Ethiopia

Rapid human population growth in Ethiopia has resulted in the degradation
of vast areas of wildlife habitats due to agricultural expansion,
infrastructure development, and urbanization. The Omo Valley in the
southwestern part of Ethiopia has been particularly affected by land use
changes, but despite its ecological importance, few relevant studies have
been conducted there in the last two decades. Our aim is to provide
updated and scientifically verifiable information for medium and large
terrestrial mammal species richness and community structure in four
Protected Areas in the Omo Valley. We used bycatch camera trap data from a
large carnivore survey and nonparametric incidence-based estimators for
data analysis. A total of 52 mammals from nine orders and eighteen
families were recorded, of which approximately 29.4% are listed as
globally threatened and one as an endemic subspecies. We present the
current species lists and compare them with historical records and
observed the highest species number in Omo National Park, even though nine
species were no longer recorded there. We applied the Morisita-Horn
similarity index to reveal a high degree of overlap in mammalian species
among adjacent Protected Areas, but less overlap between Protected Areas
far from each other, indicating distance decay of similarity. The
distribution of feeding guilds was significantly different across
Protected Areas, and carnivore detection frequency was relatively low in
Tama Community Conservation Area compared to our other study sites. This
study confirmed the conservation importance of the area in terms of
mammalian diversity, albeit with low detection levels, especially of large
carnivores, underscoring the importance of promoting landscape
connectivity to maintain population viability across the Omo Valley. From
our experience, the use of camera trap bycatch data proved to be effective
in surveying large- and medium-sized mammalian species, but less so in
capturing the rarer species in the area.