SEASONAL RESPONSES OF TWO FAUNAL TAXA TO FIRE TREATMENTS IN YANKARI GAME RESERVE, NIGERIA

The custom of using fire as a management tool in protected areas needs to be within a frame work of an understanding of the responses of biodiversity. This is to avoid or reduce the negative impacts of ecological disturbances in an ecosystem. More responses of floral than faunal components of biodiversity to fire have been studied and reported.This study was aimed at determining the faunal responses to fire in both wet and dry seasons at the Yankari Game Reserve (YGR)located in lat10° 30’ E and long 9° 45’ N. The birds andinsects were used in the study to bridge the knowledge gap of fire ecology in Nigeria. Point transects treated with late burns during the wet season (April to June) and early burns during the dry season (November) were used to record birds and insects. Data was collected from 37 points in the wet season and from 45 points in the dry season. Results show that fire had a significant effect on insect abundance during the wet season and there was also a significant difference between mean insect diversity in wet and dry seasons and a higher bird and insect abundance and diversities was observed in wet than in dry season. The early burn fire regime is therefore, recommended as a fire treatment regime in the YGR. The need for conservation managers to maintain equilibrium between management practices and population dynamics in ecosystems is further highlighted&nbsp

Composition and Distribution of Mosquito Vectors in a Peri-Urban Community Surrounding an Institution of Learning in Lafia Metropolis, Nasarawa State, Central Nigeria

Vector surveillance is very key in solving mosquito-borne health problems in Nigeria. To this end, the composition and distribution of mosquito vectors in a peri-urban community surrounding an institution of learning in Lafia metropolis, Nasarawa State, Central Nigeria was carried out between December 2016 and June 2017. The Prokopack Aspirator was used to collect indoor resting mosquitoes between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. from 30 randomly selected houses. Mosquitoes collected were knocked down and transferred into a well labelled petri-dish and taken to the laboratory for processing. A total of 664 mosquitoes were collected which spread across Culex quinquefasciatus 572 (86.14%), Anopheles gambiae 88 (13.25%) and Aedes aegypti 4 (0.60%). The abundance of mosquitoes in relation to seasons, species, sex, abdominal conditions as well as transmission indices across seasons significantly varied (P 0.05). The inhabitants of the area should ensure that all drainages flow through so as to reduce mosquito breeding grounds. Also, members of the community should always protect themselves by sleeping under insecticide treated bed nets