Flock Size Habitat Analysis Diet Composition And Genetic Diversity Of Ankober Serin (serinus Ankoberensis) In Semien Mountains National Park And Guassa Community Conservation Area Ethiopia

Ankober Serin (Serinus ankoberensis) is an endemic bird limited in its distribution to certain highrnaltitude ranges of Ethiopia. The present study was aimed to study the flock size, habitat disturbance, habitatrnanalysis, diet composition and genetic diversity of the species in Simien Mountains National Park (SMNP)rnand Guassa Community Conservation Area (GCCA). Five flocking sites (ranging from 0.25–0.5 km2) werernidentified in each study area. The level of habitat disturbance was categorized as low, medium and high.rnPlant species diversity, composition, vegetation cover and height of Ankober Serin’s habitat were assessedrnfor habitat analysis in two accessible flocking sites per study area. Diet analysis using fecal droppings wasrnused to determine the diet composition of Ankober Serin in the two accessible flocking sites. The intra andrninter-population genetic diversity was determined from five microsatellite markers. Flock size differencernbetween wet and dry seasons for the combined data from both study areas was also significant (t (38) = 3.053,rnα = .004). Similarly, there was significant difference of mean flock size among all the flocking sites (F9, 39rn= 6.882 p=0.000). Level of disturbance was negatively correlated with flock size (r=-.876 at 0.01 level) inrnboth study areas. The flocking site with Festuca spp. and Helichrysum spp. dominated habitat in SMNP hadrnthe highest flock size (96.7±34.7). There was no direct relationship between vegetation diversity and flockrnsize. Also, there was no significant correlation between flock size and proportion of herbs (r= -.019, p=rn.885), bare ground (r= .030, p=.821) and shrubs (r= .006, p=.963). Vegetation heights of 60 cm (r= .577, p= 0.01)rnwithin the same foraging grounds. During the dry seasons, seeds significantly predominated the diet ofrnAnkober Serin (F1, 6= 324 p=0.000) and (F1, 6= 2437.098 p=0.000) at GCCA and SMNP, respectively, whilernleaves were dominant during the wet season (F1, 14= 219.842 p=0.000) and (F1, 6= 580. 246 p=0.000) atrnGCCA and SMNP respectively. Three of the four molecular markers i.e., Cuμ28, Ase43 and Ase42 used inrnthe genetic analysis resulted in significant differences between the populations of SMNP and GCCA (p

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