SEASONAL HOME RANGE OF SWAYNE'S HARTEBEEST (ALCELAPHUS BUSELAPHUS SWAYNEI) IN SENKELE SWAYNE'S HARTEBEEST SANCTUARY

Abstract

The home range of the endangered Ethiopian endemic hartebeest, Swayne's hartebeest, Alcelaphus buselaphus swaynei, was studied in Senkele Swayne's Hartebeest Sanctuary (SSHS). The size of the sanctuary has been diminishing since 1974, resulting in the shrinking of the area available for the hartebeests. Even in the current available habitat, the animals still preserved their behaviour of ranging in wider area during the wet season and smaller area during the dry season. However, when the human settlers migrate from the sanctuary and the bordering area during the dry season, the hartebeests occupy a range which is larger than their wet season range in the sanctuary. As their dry season home range increased in absence of the settlers, their movement was observed to have increased becoming equivalent to that of the wet season