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• Text account
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• Reference and further resources

Site description (2001 baseline)
Senkele Sanctuary is in East Shoa Zone, 53 km south of Shashemene, and c.300 km south of Addis Ababa. The vegetation in the sanctuary is best described as montane savanna, and comprises various different habitat associations such as savanna woodland, natural grassland (with fewer trees and shrubs) and, in the valleys, rich shrubland. In the surrounding area, livestock and crop production are the major sources of income. The Sanctuary is the only available grazing land in the Zone, and over 10,000 cattle depend on the area during the rainy season. The resultant reduction in space and the poor quality of grazing land have forced the livestock and native mammals to compete. It has also compromised the integrity of feeding and breeding habitats for many bird species. Since the early 1990s, a large portion of the Sanctuary has been cultivated under maize Zea mays and beans Phaseolus vulgaris, which has severely reduced the amount of land available to wildlife.

Key biodiversity
See Box for key species. Among the 191 bird species recorded from the sanctuary are nine Afrotropical Highlands biome species, four Somali–Masai biome species, and two globally threatened species, of which one is Aquila clanga. Birds of particular note include Mycteria ibis, Bostrychia carunculata, Gyps africanus, Circaetus gallicus, Terathopius ecaudatus, Melierax metabates, Buteo rufinus, Aquila pomarina, Accipiter castanilius (representing probably the first Ethiopian record), Numida meleagris, Ardeotis kori and Eupodotis melanogaster (common).

Non-bird biodiversity: None known. However, the Senkele Sanctuary was established to conserve the threatened endemic subspecies Alcephalus buselaphus swaynei (EN), which is present along with populations of at least 37 other mammal species.

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Senkele Sanctuary (Ethiopia). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/senkele-sanctuary-iba-ethiopia on 26/12/2024.