A SURVEY OF SMALL MAMMALS IN THE KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY BOTANICAL GARDEN AND FACULTY OF RENEWABLE NATURAL RESOURCES FARM

^*1Oduro, W and ²Anti, P

Department of Wildlife and Range Management,

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

E-mail: williamoduro@yahoo.co.uk; priscilla.anti@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

There are no records of small mammal fauna on the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) campus in Kumasi, Ghana since its establishment sixty three years ago. Since then the land cover has been replaced with buildings, roads and farmlands. Nevertheless, small patches of the land before construction are left. It is important to have records of what is left to ensure protection. The study was undertaken in the KNUST Botanical Garden (natural) and Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources Farm (anthropised) within the Moist Semi-deciduous vegetation zone of the Ashanti Region of Ghana, to identify the small mammal (rodent) fauna in these areas and also to compare their species richness, diversity and relative abundance. Sherman live traps were used in the capture of small mammals and identification of captured specimens was carried out by estimating their standard morphometric measurements. Species richness and diversity were determined using standard diversity indices. Overall, 13 individuals representing four species of the Family Muridae were caught in 720 trap-nights namely; Typical spotted grass mouse – Lemniscomys striatus (three); Rusty-bellied rat – Lophuromys sikapusi (six), which was  the commonest species encountered with a total of five captures in the farm and one in the garden; Multimammate rat – Mastomys natalensis (two) and Soft-furred mouse – Praomys tullbergi (two). The Farm possessed a higher Shannon’s diversity index (0.447) than the Botanical garden (0.276). It also recorded the highest captures (10) and larger relative abundance (2.88) with the Botanical garden registering the least-(three) and 0.82 respectively. However, using the Mann Whitney U test, there was no significant difference between the Farm and Botanical Garden in terms of small mammal capture at p>0.05. This survey establishes a preliminary list of some small mammals in KNUST.

Keywords: Small Mammals, Morphometric Measurement, Species Abundance and Diversity