The effect of ecotourism on the distribution of wild animals and their abundance in Abijatta Shala Lakes National Park

Master's Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Tourism - Miscellaneous, Bahir Dar University (Bahir dar university), course: wild life conservation and ecotourism management, language: English, abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of ecotourism on wild animals' distribution and abundance in Abijata Shala Lakes National Park. The study was conducted in Abijata Shala Lakes national park from September 2017 to February 2018. Three sites were selected: tourism destination site, tourism inaccessible site and local livelihood site.Wild animals distribution and abundance, were determined using line transect for mammals and point count for birds. Five selected mammals and six shore birds that frequently visited by tourist were selected. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the mean difference of wild animal's abundance between sampling site. The abundance and distribution of species in site were variable. The population mean was high in nature intact area for mammals: there were high in mean number of population of mammals.