Walia Special Edition on the Bale Mountains (2011) - Zoologische ...

The Cost of <strong>Special</strong>isation: A Conservation Challenge
The apparently sterile Afroalpine steppes of Ethiopia support a rodent biomass which is spatially
and temporally predictable, and comparable to other rodent-rich habitats elsewhere in Africa, which
may explain why the Ethiopian wolf is the only canid to specialize so completely on rodents (Sillero-
Zubiri et al. 1995a). The rodents’ distribution and diurnal activity also concur with Ethiopian wolves’
diurnal and solitary foraging habits, and their confinement to Afroalpine habitats over 3,000 m a.s.l..
Global warming during the last 10,000 years progressively confined the Afroalpine ecosystem to
the highest mountains, and today 60% of all Ethiopian land above 3,000 m has been converted to
farmland (Marino 2003a).
Ethiopian wolves face threats that arise from their isolation, small size, and the increasing
contact with humans and disease transmission from domestic dogs (Sillero-Zubiri and Marino
2004). Transmission of rabies is the main threat for wolves in Bale population and can have serious
consequences for small populations (Haydon et al. 2002, 2006; Randall et al. 2004, 2006). Elsewhere
habitat loss is ever increasing the risk of population extinctions. Two small populations became
extinct when suitable wolf range shrunk below 20 km² in recent years (Marino 2003a), but seven
still survive in Afroalpine ranges across the country, with Bale the largest (Marino 2002a; Randall
et al. this edition). Aspects of the demography of wolves in Bale, particularly their high adult
survivorship, also stress the resilience and stability of wolf populations (Marino 2003b; Marino
et al 2006; Haydon et al. 2002). Although their small, fragmented populations are a poor omen for
Ethiopian wolves, their concentration in a few clearly defined sites, their charisma and, we hope, a
fair understanding of their biology, lend hope that with unwavering commitment from all concerned
and adherence to a well-founded management plan (Sillero-Zubiri and Macdonald 1997; Sillero-
Zubiri et al. 2004) they will survive. Protective measures require the consolidation of the General
Management Plan for the Bale Mountains National Park (OARDB 2007) and other protected areas,
and active efforts to monitor and protect all remaining populations.
Acknowledgements
We thank the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority and the Bale Mountains National Park
for permission to undertake this research, and all the staff of the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation
Programme (EWCP) who assisted collecting data in the last 20 years. EWCP is a partnership
between the Oxford University’s WildCRU and the Ethiopian authorities under the auspices of the
IUCN/SSC Canid <strong>Special</strong>ist Group. We thank Born Free Foundation, Frankfurt Zoological Society,
Wildlife Conservation Network, Wildlife Conservation Society, Peoples’ Trust for Endangered
Species and many others for their financial support.
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