Ecology of small mammals

Most of African mammals are small mammals although their ecology is least studied due to their small size, nocturnal in activity, shyness and secretive habit. From mammalian orders, rodents and shrews (excluding bat) have the largest number of species. For instance, rodents account for about 50% of mammalian species in the world; nearly 28% in East Africa; and 30% in Ethiopia and 50% of the Ethiopian endemic mammal fauna. Despite of high species diversity of rodents and shrews in Ethiopia, only few studies were carried out on their population, taxonomy and ecology. Moreover, today they are declining due to habitat loss and fragmentation resulted from anthropogenic activities. This is also true for small mammals of Mount Chilalo and Galama Mountains Range. In view of this, the book presents the ecological investigations of rodents and shrews of Mount Chilalo and Galalma Mountains Range in detail. Particularly issues on species composition, distribution, relative abundance, habitat association and seasonal population dynamics were covered in depth. The book is particularly helpful for who have interest on the ecology of small mammals of Afromontane and Afroalpine habitats.