Ethiopia boasts
a high concentration of endemic wildlife species but their future is hanging in
the balance. With conservation in its infancy, their best hope for survival
rests with tourism. Philip Briggs explains.
Not so long ago,
just about the only news you’d hear from Ethiopia related to the cycle of
drought and civil war that gripped parts of the country through the
1980’s. And while the popular perception remains that Ethiopia is nothing
but a desert, the country’s recent popularity amongst travel writers has
meant that regular readers of travel magazines can hardly fail to be aware that
Ethiopia offers some of Africa’s most dramatic landscapes and historical
sightseeing.
Rather less well-known is that Ethiopia also supports one
of Africa’s most diverse faunas, one which like most things Ethiopian has
been moulded by the country’s geography — a fertile highland plateau
the size of Britain and isolated from similar habitats by the fringing
desert.
The Ethiopian highlands are noted for their high level of
endemism (an endemic being a species that is unique to one particular area).
They also support fauna and flora transitional to the Afro-tropical and
Palaearctic zones.
Four large mammal species are endemic to the
Ethiopian highlands, all of them severely depleted during the twentieth
century. The most immediately threatened endemic is the Walia ibex, regarded by
some authorities as a race of the Palaearctic ibex and by others as a full
species. Like most members of the goat family, the Walia ibex inhabits rocky
mountain slopes inaccessible to most other mammals. It is now practically
restricted to the Simien Mountains, where the population has declined from at
least 1,000 individuals in the 1940’s to no more than 200 today — a
result of extensive hunting during the Italian occupation and recent civil
war.
Another highland endemic with close affinities to the Palaearctic
region is the Simien wolf, which DNA tests show to be more closely related to
the European wolf and American coyote than to any African canid. Slightly
larger than a jackal, the Simien wolf has a striking russet coat with white
throat patches and a black-tipped tail. It is regarded as the world’s
rarest canine, and is now very uncommon in the Simien Mountains, probably as a
result of rabies outbreaks. Fortunately, the wolf is still quite densely
concentrated in the alpine moorland of the Bale Mountains, which are thought to
support more than half the global population of roughly 500 animals.
Bale is also the last major stronghold of the handsome Mountain nyala. This is
somewhat misleadingly named since it bears less resemblance to the nyala of
southern African than to the greater kudu, though with a shaggier, browner
coat, less distinct stripes and single-spiral horns. First described in 1908,
the mountain nyala was the last of Africa’s large antelope to be
discovered by western scientists, and although very localised it is not
classified as endangered. Bale alone supports between 1,000 and 2,000 animals,
and the total population may be as high as 5,000, spread across a few remote
forests in the southeastern and possibly southwestern highlands.
The
most abundant of Ethiopia’s endemic large mammals is the Gelada baboon,
which occurs in the rocky highlands of the north. Perhaps half of the total
Gelada population of around 500,000 animals live in the Simien Mountains, but
they are also common in a number of unprotected areas. They are seldom hunted
by locals since they don’t pose a threat to livestock and are not regarded
as potential food.
The Gelada is a singular creature, the most
terrestrial of all primates, placed in a monospecific genus, and quite
unmistakeable even where it shares territory with other types of baboon. The
male is particularly striking, with two naked red patches on its chest and a
flowing golden mane giving it a somewhat leonine appearance.
Large
mammals tend to draw the attention of most tourists, but Ethiopia boasts an
impressive list of less celebrated endemics. In all, more than 20 mammal
species are restricted to Ethiopia, as are at least six reptiles and 33
amphibians. Almost 30 of the 845 bird species recorded in Ethiopia are endemic,
the largest total for any country in Africa, and new species are discovered
with a regularity reflecting how poorly much of the country is known in
scientific terms. The extensive rainforests of the southern and western
highlands in particular are thought to harbour a number of undescribed bird
species, and more accessible parts of the country have thrown up a couple of
surprises in recent decades. In 1992, a previously undescribed species of
nightjar was discovered in the relatively open plains of Nechisar National
Park, while the Ankober serin, restricted to a small area of cliffs near Debre
Birhan, was first described as recently as 1976.
The bad news for
tourists who stick to Ethiopia’s “historical circuit” is that
they are unlikely to see many endemics. There are exceptions. The
white-collared pigeon is easily observed on the streets of most highland towns,
while the northern Wattled ibis and Thick-billed raven are common and
conspicuous throughout. And there are places where you can mix historical
sightseeing with endemic hunting. On the scenic six kilometre walk between
Lalibela and Nakuta La’ab Monastery you’re likely to see two endemic
chat species as well as the White-billed starling.
To see large
mammals, you need to visit one of Ethiopia’s national parks, where most of
the endemics are surprisingly easy to observe in the right place. The Simien
Mountain National Park, gazetted in 1969 to protect the country’s highest
mountain range, is visited by many hikers as an extension of the
“historical circuit”. Sadly, the mountains are now of greater
interest for plants and scenery than for their somewhat impoverished fauna.
Most hikers will encounter troops of Gelada baboons, but only the lucky few
will catch a glimpse of a Simien wolf or Walia ibex. Birding, too, is
relatively poor in the Simiens, though the mountains do support one of the
world’s densest populations of the elsewhere endangered Lammergeier.
Bale National Park is less often visited but it offers better game
viewing. Mountain nyalas are abundant in the juniper-hagenia forest at the park
headquarters at Dinsho. You’re likely to see five or six herds in the
space of an afternoon walk, and can normally approach them within photographic
range. Also common here is Menelik’s bushbuck, a distinctive jet-black
race restricted to the highland forests of Ethiopia, as well as several endemic
birds, most visibly the White-backed black tit and the Black-winged lovebird.
Dinsho is also one of the best places to seek out the attractive Abyssinian
catbird, a fine singer which has attracted much taxanomical debate and is now
thought to be most closely related to the Bush blackcap of Southern Africa.
The alpine moorland of Bale’s 4,000m-high Sanetti Plateau is the home
to the Simien wolf, far less elusive than its status as Africa’s rarest
predator might lead you to expect. On a recent two hour drive across the
plateau we encountered the wolf three times. One bold individual, interrupted
as it was about to cross the road, actually approached my wife to within two
metres and then stared curiously into her lens — a moment that ranks with
our all-time most memorable game-viewing experiences. And as if the wolf were
not enough, most visitors to the Sanetti will tick the endemic Blue-winged
goose, Rouget’s rail, Spot-breasted plover and Black-headed siskin.
Ethiopia also supports a few practical endemics, species you are only
likely to see elsewhere in war-torn Somalia. Several birds fall into this
category, most obviously the Brown-rumped serin, which occupies an urban niche
similar to that of the house sparrows in Europe. Of the large mammals, Ethiopia
is thought to support about 90% of the global population of the Hamadryas
baboon, a handsome, silver-grey creature whose natural range extends across
much of Arabia and the Horn of Africa.
Noteworthy, too, is the
dibatag, a critically endangered Somalian gazelle, similar in appearance to the
long-necked gerenuk of East Africa. It was feared to be extinct until it was
rediscovered in eastern Ethiopia in September 1997. Two other antelope species
restricted to the Horn of Africa, and most likely to be in Ethiopia, are the
handsome Soemmering’s gazelle and the localised Speke’s gazelle.
Eastern Ethiopia also boasts what might be termed an artificial endemic in
the form of the African wild ass. This was widespread in North Africa at the
turn of the century when its population in Somalia alone was estimated to
exceed 10,000, but now is all but restricted to Ethiopia’s Afar Desert.
The exact status of the wild ass in Ethiopia is difficult to ascertain due to
the inhospitability of its natural habitat, not to say the difficulty of
separating wild asses from feral donkeys except at close quarters. But as with
the Walia ibex and Simien wolf, the population probably stands in the low
hundreds.
Many of the animals mentioned above are dry country species,
found in areas remote from the main tourist circuit. The most accessible dry
country reserve in Ethiopia is Awash National Park, where visitors can be
reasonably confident of encountering Soemmering’s gazelle and Hamadryas
baboon alongside more widespread East African species such as Beisa oryx,
Salt’s dik-dik and Greater and Lesser kudu. Recently introduced to Awash
is Swayne’s hartebeest, which came close to extinction after the
rinderpest epidemic of the early twentieth century. Today, the future of this
endemic race of hartebeest seems more secure than that of, say, the Walia ibex,
since viable breeding herds are protected in three national parks in the Rift
Valley.
Conservation in Ethiopia is still in its fledgling stage, and
attempts to preserve its endemic species initiated during the reign of Haile
Selassie were severely disrupted by the internal strife that characterised the
Mengistu regime of 1974-92. Funding and understaffing remain major problems
facing Ethiopia’s conservation authorities (many of the country’s
most important reserves have only one vehicle at their disposal), while several
so-called national parks have suffered a degree of environmental degradation
that renders their status close to obselete — visitors to the heavily
cultivated Abiata-Shala National Park, for instance, are certain to see more
livestock than wild animals.
On the bright side, the conservation
ethic has evidently taken grip amongst the villagers living around many of the
country’s national parks. The boldness displayed by the Simien wolves and
Mountain nyalas in Bale National Park is a sure indication that these animals
have had little reason to fear humans in recent years. A greater concern than
poaching, perhaps, is how concentrated the remaining populations of several of
Ethiopia’s endemic mammals have become. It would, for instance, take just
one outbreak of rabies to decimate the country’s last viable breeding
population of Simien wolves.
In the last five years, Ethiopia has been
highly successful in attracting tourism to its wonderful “historical
circuit”. And it is tourism as much as anything that could bring financial
benefits to the national parks and surrounding communities. Ethiopia’s
remarkable fauna deserves to be better publicised. More than that, perhaps, the
plight of the Simien wolf and its like simply have to be made known if these
creatures are to survive indefinitely.
Philip Briggs is a seasoned
travel writer and the author of nine African travel guide books, including
Bradt Publications’ Guide to
