Survival and population viability of Fogera cattle (Bos indicus, Zenga Type) in North West Amhara, Ethiopia

Abstract

Kefyalew Alemayehu, Damitie Kebede, Endalkachew Girma

The Fogera cattle are among the 27 recognized indigenous cattle in Ethiopia found around lake Tana and its population size decreased from 800,000 in 1980s to 15,000 heads in 2000.Therefore, the objective of the study was to conduct the population viability of the Fogera cattle populations in Denbia, Libo kemkem and Fogera districts as well as Andassa livestock research center. Census and different population viability models were used as methodology. The estimated average population growth rate, λ was 0.9908 with a 95% confidence of 0.9048 to 1.0849. The continuous rate of increase or the rate of growth or decline per year of pure-Fogera cattle population (-0.009) was less than zero (0) and indicated short-term population growth. The probability of the population reaching a lower extinction threshold was extremely very high with long year’s mean time extinction. This means that the mean time required for the counts to decline from 9016 to 300 individual pure-Fogera cattle population or to reach to the extinction threshold was extremely high. The mean time to extinction was 162.7 years for 300 individual thresholds. Therefore, appropriate in-situ conservation measures are important for sustainable utilization.