4.2. Effects of vegetation cover characteristics on the
occurrence of rodents and shrews
Vegetation cover is a major driver in the occurrence and distribution of
various rodent and shrew species Flores-Peredo and Vázquez-Domínguez
(2016), various vegetation assemblages such as forest, fallow, garden,
and plantations as exploited in this study provide varying degrees of
food resources and cover. As such most species have co-evolved to occupy
various vegetation assemblages given the resources available (Avenant
2011). Even the more adaptive such as Mastomys erythroleucus can
only occur in a select group of habitats (section 3.2) but not
everywhere. The observed association between species and type of site,
suggests that different species have different habitat requirements.
Therefore, the more diverse an ecosystem is in terms of habitat
characteristics, consequently making it have a high microhabitat
diversity and an equally high species diversity Bantihun & Bekele
(2015). As noted by Johnson & Horn (2008), the distribution of species
is dependent on habitat type, vegetation cover, and microhabitat
characteristics. For example, Scutisorex somereni was
significantly associated with forested environs of closed canopy and
leaf litter. This is in line with findings of Kasozi (2017), who stated
that it was associated with primary forest with leaf litter. Such
findings also help emphasize the importance of some habitats and their
attributes as key to species conservation Lucie & Séverine (2016). With
the facts above its important to protect the forest with all its
microhabitat diversity by regulating illegal and high resource
extraction.