Abundance and ecological indices of mammals at east Hammar Marsh, Basrah , Southern Iraq

Abstract EN

Abundance and ecological indices were evaluated for the terrestrial mammals at East Hammar marsh.

Sixteen species were recognized and 236 individuals were recorded during the period from May 2012 to May 2013.

The most abundant species were Canis aureus followed by Herpestes javanicus.

C.

aureus consider as the only resident species and scored the highest dominance value (23 %).The highest Species diversity by Shannon and Wiener and Simpson indices were in October (1.72 and 0.79), the lowest value were in September,( 0.93 and 0.55 ) respectively.

The highest richness values by Margalef and Menhinick indices were in August( 2.17 and 1.89), the lowest values were in September (0.66 and 0.67 ) respectively.

The highest values of similarity by Jaccard and Sørensen indices were between March-April (85.71 % and 83.3 %), the lowest values were between June-July and July-August 20% and 33.3% respectively.

Four monthly groups appeared to match with cold ,spring ,warm and hot season.

Strong correlation existed between H.

javanicus,C.

aureus and Hemichinus auritus with moderate temperature at spring season.