ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of ecotourism on wild animals’ distribution and abundance in Abijata-Shalla Lakes National Park. The study was conducted from September 2017 to February 2018. Three sites were selected: tourism destination site, tourism inaccessible site and local livelihood site. The distribution and abundance, were determined using line transect for mammals and point count for birds. Five selected mammals and six shore birds were taken as sample study animals. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the mean difference of wild animal’s abundance among sampling sites and Chi-square test was used to analyze their distribution. The population distribution of Greater kudu, Warthog and Bohor reedbuck was high in nature intact area (χ2 = 18.48 df =2, P<0.001, χ2 = 16.60 df = 2, P < 0.01 and χ2 = 7.00, df = 2, P= 0.03) respectively. There were significant differences in mean number of population of Warthog (F (2, 15) =37.50, P=0.028), Greater kudu (F (2, 15) =18.00, P<0.001) and Bohor reedbuck (F (2, 15) =7.17, P=0.024). The population distribution of Greater white pelican, Lesser-flamingos, Greater flamingos, Cormorant and Black heron in nature intact area were significantly higher than the other sites (χ2= 41.51, df = 2, P< 0.001, χ2 = 14.53, df = 2, P= 0.001, χ2= 32.30, df=2 P<0.001, χ2 = 57.28, df= 2, P< 0.00, χ2 = 4.74, df = 2, P= 0.093 and χ2 =53.22, df =2, P< 0.001) respectively. The population abundance of Great white pelicans (F(2,57) =550.86, P=0.017), Lesser flamingos (F(2,57) =507.95, P=0.018), Greater flamingos (F(2,57) =1087.82, P=0.001), Great cormorant (F(2,57) =329.55, P < 0.001) and Black heron (F(2,57) =372.95, P=0.004) had significant difference among sites. However, there were no significant differences in distribution of Grant’s gazelles, Black baked jackal and African darter among sites. These results indicated that, ecotourism and local livelihood had significant effect on distribution and abundance of Warthog, Greater kudu and Bohor reedbuck from mammals; Lesser-flamingos, Greater flamingos, Cormorants and Black heron from birds. However, there were no significant effect of ecotourism and local livelihood on distribution and abundance of Grant’s gazelles, Black baked jackal from animals; and African darter from birds. Thus, to minimize the negative effect of ecotourism activities and local livelihood on species, sound management should be developed and implemented. Keywords: Avifauna, Ecotourism, Mammals, Species-abundance, Species-distribution