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PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication Male residency of Sunda Clouded Leopard Neofelis diardi (Cuvier, 1823) (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in a peat swamp forest, Indonesian Borneo Lynn Pallemaerts, Adul, Ici P. Kulu, Karen Anne Jefers, David W. Macdonald & Susan Mary Cheyne SMALL WILD CATS 14 December 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 16 | Pages: 17222–17228 SPECIAL ISSUE DOI: 10.11609/jot.6487.12.16.17222-17228 For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 14 December 2020 | 12(16): 17222–17228 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.6487.12.16.17222-17228 #6487 | Received 29 July 2020 | Final received 17 October 2020 | Finally accepted 29 October 2020 C o m m Male residency of Sunda Clouded Leopard Neofelis diardi (Cuvier, 1823) u n i (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in a peat swamp forest, Indonesian Borneo c a 1 2 3 4 5 t Lynn Pallemaerts , Adul , Ici P. Kulu , Karen Anne Jefers , David W. Macdonald & i Susan Mary Cheyne 6 o n 1 Department of Biology, Lund University, Sölvegaten 37, 22362 Lund, Sweden. 2, 4, 6 Borneo Nature Foundaton, Jalan Bukit Raya 82, Bukit Raya, Palangka Raya 73112, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. 3 Deceased, UPT LLG-CIMTROP, Jl. Yos Sudarso, Kampus UNPAR Tunjung Nyahu, Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. 5 WildCRU, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, The Recanat-Kaplan Centre, Tubney House, Tubney, OX13 5QL UK. 6 Gibbs Building G2.23, Department of Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Headington, Oxford, OX3 0BP, United Kingdom. 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected], 4 [email protected]., 5 [email protected], 6 [email protected] Abstract: The Sunda Clouded Leopard Neofelis diardi is the apex predator on the island of Borneo, yet litle is known of its ecology. We document the length of residency of male Sunda Clouded Leopards in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. Over 10 years, camera trap data have been obtained in the Sebangau peat swamp forest in a study area of ~ 105km2. We identfed 11 individuals (eight males, one female, and two with unknown sex), from 152 notonally independent photographs. On average, males remained in the study area for 39.3 months (SE 8.3), or 3.3 years (SE 0.7), ranging from less than a month of residency up to 71 months. Females were infrequently recorded, possibly as a result of human disturbance and/or high male densites. Our results reveal that even a 10-year dataset is inadequate to answer some basic ecological questons, emphasising the importance of long-term monitoring of this species. Keywords: Camera trap, Kalimantan, male sex-bias, social organisaton. Editor: Angie Appel, Wild Cat Network, Bad Marienberg, Germany. Date of publicaton: 14 December 2020 (online & print) Citaton: Pallemaerts, L., Adul, I.P. Kulu, K.A. Jefers, D.W. Macdonald & S.M. Cheyne (2020). Male residency of Sunda Clouded Leopard Neofelis diardi (Cuvier, 1823) (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in a peat swamp forest, Indonesian Borneo. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(16): 17222–17228. htps://doi.org/10.11609/ jot.6487.12.16.17222-17228 Copyright: © Pallemaerts et al 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: The Robertson Foundaton, Panthera, Borneo Nature Foundaton, The Clouded Leopard Project/Point Defance Zoo and Aquarium and Fresno Chafee Zoo. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Author contributon: Study design: LP, SMC. Fieldwork: A, KAJ, SMC. Data analysis: LP. Writng: LP. Feedback: SMC, DWM. Acknowledgements: The authors’ sincerest thanks go to the Centre for Internatonal Cooperaton in Sustainable Management of Tropical Peatland (CIMTROP) and to the University of Palangka Raya (UPR), as well as RISTEKDIKTI for supportng the research of KAJ (Surat Izin Penelitan 360/SIP/DIT.KI/IX/2015, 47/EXT/SIP/FRP/ E5/Dit.KI/2016 and 55/EXT/SIP/FRP/E5/Dit.KI/IX/2017), who provided data for this paper. LP wishes to thank the Borneo Nature Foundaton (BNF), and Ola Olsson and Yann Clough at the Department of Biology at Lund University. The Robertson Foundaton provided funding for the majority of the survey work presented here. Additonal funding for diferent stages of this work was kindly provided by Panthera, Borneo Nature Foundaton, The Clouded Leopard Project/Point Defance Zoo and Aquarium and Fresno Chafee Zoo. These data were collected by the Borneo Nature Foundaton in collaboraton with CIMTROP. SMC oversaw the work with RISTEK permit number 203/E5/E5.4/SIP/2019. 17222 J TT Male residency of Sunda Clouded Leopard Pallemaerts et al. INTRODUCTION STUDY AREA The rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo harbour one We conducted this study in a porton of the of the least known cat species (Allen et al. 2016): the 550km2 Natural Laboratory for Peat Swamp Forest Sunda Clouded Leopard Neofelis diardi (Wiltng et al. (NLPSF), nested within the tropical peat swamp forest 2006). This medium-sized cat weighs 11–25 kg and is of Sebangau in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia (Fig. thought to be adept to climbing because of its broad 1). This area of approx. 5,600km2 is the largest area of paws and long tail (Wiltng et al. 2006). On Borneo, it contguous forest remaining in Kalimantan (Cheyne et al. occupies the role of the apex predator, being the largest 2013). The NLPSF is seasonally fooded from October of fve cat species on the island (Cheyne & Macdonald to June, and is one of the deepest peat swamp forests 2011). in the world with a peat depth of 3–26 m (Page et al. The Sunda Clouded Leopard inhabits primary and 1999). The forest has a history of logging concessions, selectvely logged dipterocarp forest, peat swamp forest, illegal logging, drainage and wildfre (Cheyne 2010; and mangroves (Hearn et al. 2016). Borneo’s forests Cheyne & Macdonald 2011), but has been protected as have been heavily afected by logging, conversion to a natonal park since 2004 (Cheyne 2010). Due to past plantatons and fre since the early 1970s (Gaveau et exploitaton and disturbance, it is a patchwork of pristne al. 2014). This habitat loss coupled with illegal huntng and recovering forest (Page et al. 1999). of wild prey is considered a serious threat to the Sunda Clouded Leopard (Wiltng et al. 2006), resultng in a decreasing populaton (Hearn et al. 2015). Since 2015, MATERIAL AND METHODS the Sunda Clouded Leopard is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List (Hearn et al. 2015), and rapid and efcient In May 2008, an extensive and contnuous camera conservaton measures are necessary. trap survey was started within the NLPSF. It is stll Research efort has already increased, but studying running and is, therefore, the longest-running camera the Sunda Clouded Leopard remains a challenge (Hearn trap survey on Borneo. Over the years, we used six et al. 2013). It is rare, elusive, and predominantly camera trap models including Cuddeback Expert, nocturnal (Adul et al. 2015). The increase in camera Cuddeback IR, Cuddeback Ambush IR, Maginon WK 3 trapping for ecological studies, however, has somewhat HD, Crenova RD100, and Bushnell NatureView HD. alleviated this problem. For this study, only data between May 2008 and The Sunda Clouded Leopard is solitary, and assumed February 2018 were used. At the start of the survey, to be territorial (Allen et al. 2016), however, this we planned to place camera traps in a systematc grid assumpton is based on litle empirical evidence, and in the study area, and this was achieved in the forest results of recent research indicate that home ranges of immediately surrounding the base camp (Fig. 1). Due to males overlap (Allen et al. 2016; Pallemaerts et al. 2019). the difcult terrain, however, such a grid was not practcal A similar social organisaton was identfed in some in the areas further away from base camp, and so, over other felid species such as Leopard Cat Prionailurus the years, short expeditons were undertaken to set up bengalensis (Grassman et al. 2005), Leopard Panthera several camera trap statons in areas of interest within pardus (Odden & Wegge 2005), Jaguar P. onca (Harmsen the NLPSF, resultng in a clumped trapping grid (Fig. et al. 2009; Guilder et al. 2015), and Tiger P. tgris 1). As a result, we placed camera traps at 94 diferent (Goodrich et al.