Land use changes and habitat deterioration of white throated-mountain babbler (Kupeornis gilberti) in Bakossi National Park, South-west Cameroon

Abstract

The white Throated Mountain Babbler (Kupeornis gilberti), is classified among the endangered avifauna species, is endemic to the species is endemic in West region in Cameroon and East region in Nigeria. Population of this faces habitat degradation due anthropogenic activities in the park. There is therefore a need to assess habitat loss and suggest conservation strategies. Data collected from six sites in BNP from December 2017 to March 2018 and Landsat images collected (2006 – 2018) were used to classify and detect changes in vegetation cover. This study revealed that the White Throated Mountain Babbler (WTMB) was mostly encountered in the dense forest but rarely observed in the secondary forest. The probability of occurrence of white throated-mountain babbler increased significantly with the density of the forest, 75% and 25% in the secondary forest but was null in the savanna and plantations. During the study period, it was noted that there was a loss of dense forest cover from 79.41 to 66.41% due to deforestation, an increase in the cover of secondary forest cover from 17.89 to 31.17% and an increase in human activities from 0.42 to 0.82 %, was recorded. Similarly, there was also loss of savanna from 1.12 to 0.77% and barren soil from 1.16 to 0.83% due to the effect of bush fires. The increase in plantations and deforestation was observed to accelerate the loss of the bird’s habitat. To mitigate the threats that are responsible for habitat loss, it was suggested that the boundaries of the BNP be delimited, patrols should be intensified, and intensive agriculture should be reduced to limit land use.

Keywords: Endangered avifauna species, habitat loss, protected area, satellite image and white throated mountain babbler