Safeguarding of Benin wild pigs habitats to increase the resilience of spontaneous and marginal populations

Abstract

The Red river hogs and the Common warthog are privileged game, quite prolific and their habitats are undergoing quite a bit of modification due to human activities. The phyto-ecological characterization of their habitats in South Benin has been carried out in their current range distribution. The Braun-Blanquet sigmatist method was used to carry out inventories in 70 phytosociological surveys taking into account the floristic community strata and anthropo-environmental data were collected following occurrence indices. A total of 184 plant species were enumerated and reduced to a Detrended Correspondence Analysis while a Hierarchical Ascending Classification was carried out to form ecological groups. After the diversity indices, the ecological spectra were produced and a linear model with a proportion test was performed. Low values of Shannon diversity indices (0-0.4 bits), Pielou Equitability (0-0.1) and Simpson index (0-0.01) and an ecological dissimilarity of habitats were observed in their communities. They are more fond of the herbaceous-arbustive groups but the ecological preference of red river hog, contrary to the common warthog, is marshy to semi-aquatic. It is fundamental to propose a master plan for reconversion, restoration of degraded habitats, review land use policies and evaluate these suids Average Daily Gain (ADG). Keywords: Benin, domestication, habitats, Suids, threat

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