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.