What is wildlife?

Wildlife is not defined in the same fashion across the world. It is frequently a debated term, and varies from country to country and institution to institution. It depends on the conservation strategy, policy and law each country follows. In the narrow sense “wildlife” is defined to mean “wild animals” and includes both invertebrate and vertebrate animals. This only refers to all species of wild animals, ranging from insects through reptiles, rodents to large mammals. On the other away, in the broadest sense wildlife is defined as a collective noun, relating to non-domesticated species of plants, animals, and microbes being included. The latter one is the most universally accepted definition by wildlife biologists. Therefore, wildlife comprises all forms of wild living organisms. The term embraces all wild large and small animals - mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates - wild plants, and the habitats that are necessary for their self-sustained existence.

In Ethiopian context, the term wildlife is literally equated to “ye dur ensisat” in Amharic. It is therefore widely understood as mainly referred to all free ranging vertebrates in their naturally associated environment. However, the term is still a controversial matter, and there is an argument to have a proper new equivalent name such as “ye dur hiwot” to best fit to the generally accepted definition of wildlife conservation.