Abstract: There is need to understand the nature parks and the interaction between the avian richness and the patterns in order to be able to plan and manage the conservation of birds in sympathy with the natural environment. This study focused on the assessment of the avian richness and pattern of Okwangwo range of Cross River National Park, Nigeria; rich in different families of animals. The study portioned the landscape into low, mid and high altitudes while site characteristics and bird data are collected at different altitudes. Time-Species count method was used to collect data on bird richness. Two hundred and nine bird species were recorded, representing 74.2 per cent of species previously recorded by World Wildlife Foundation. Result show that the diversity indices varied among bird species along different altitudes: low, 0.006 – 0.059; mid, 0.012 – 0.089 and high, 0.02 – 0.110. Further result show that 42.58 per cent of bird species accounted for exclusiveness at different elevation: 36.36 per cent at low altitude, 5.26 at mid altitude and 0.96 at high altitude. This indicates that there is higher diversity at the equatorial climate of the low altitude than the temperate climate of the high altitude. Furthermore, the rich habitat heterogeneity at the foothill accounted also important for the bird richness in the study area. Trochocercus nigromitratus has the highest diversity value of 0.237, meaning that the study area is richer in this bird species. An understanding of the spatial patterns of avian community of Okwangwo Range is very important as this enhances proper documentation for future research and conservation planning and management.
Keywords: Avian, Richness, Pattern, Nature park, Okwangwo range.
Title: Avian of Nature Park: Richness and Pattern
Author: Dr. Oka, Peter Onen, Eyam, Prisca Nicholas
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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