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Human Impacts on Two Endemic Cassowary Species in Indonesian New Guinea

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Human Impacts on Two Endemic Cassowary Species in Indonesian New Guinea Human impacts on two endemic cassowary species in Indonesian New Guinea J EDEDIAH F. BRODIE and M ARGARETHA P ANGAU-ADAM Abstract Cassowaries are important seed dispersers in reproductive traits in some plant taxa (Pannell, ; tropical rainforests of New Guinea, but little is known Hall & Walter, ), and cassowaries were estimated to about their population ecology or their responses to be the most important vertebrate disperser of plant human disturbance. We used camera traps to measure the seeds at a floristically diverse site in New Guinea (Mack occurrence, local abundance, and activity patterns of nor- &Wright,). thern cassowaries Casuarius unappendiculatus in lowland Of the three cassowary species the southern cassowary C. forests near Nimbokrang, Papua, and dwarf cassowaries casuarius (height .–. m) is native to New Guinea and Casuarius bennetti in the Arfak Mountains, West Papua. Australia, and the northern C. unappendiculatus (.–. m) Our goals were to assess human impacts on cassowaries at and dwarf cassowaries C. bennetti (.–. m) are endemic multiple spatial scales and to measure their activity patterns to New Guinea (heights from Pratt & Beehler, ). over an elevational divide. At fine spatial scales local abun- Australian populations of the southern cassowary have dance of cassowaries was strongly reduced in areas fre- been studied using sign surveys (Westcott, ), transects quented by humans. At larger spatial scales the distance to (Moore, ), radio telemetry (Westcott et al., ) and the nearest village or drivable road did not affect local abun- global positioning system telemetry (Campbell et al., dance but altered the stage structure of the individuals de- ). However, other than a preliminary study on the im- tected, with a higher proportion of juveniles relative to pacts of logging on northern cassowaries (Pangau-Adam adults. Local abundance of cassowaries was unrelated to et al., ) almost nothing is known about the population site usage by introduced pigs. Both populations studied ecology of the species in New Guinea. were strongly diurnal and their activity patterns were not The northern and southern species are categorized as significantly different. Efforts to control hunting remain Vulnerable, and the dwarf as Near Threatened on the critical to sustaining cassowaries and the seed dispersal ser- IUCN Red List (BirdLife International, a,b, ), and vices they provide. all three are thought to have declining populations (IUCN, ). This threat is largely attributable to their sus- Keywords Activity patterns, bird conservation, climate ceptibility to over-hunting (Johnson et al., ; Sales, ) change, exploitation, hunting, introduced species, Papua, and, in some areas, habitat loss (Crome & Moore, ; ratite Campbell et al., ; Pangau-Adam et al., ). We studied a population of C. unappendiculatus in low- land forests and a population of C. bennetti in submontane forests of Indonesian New Guinea using motion-triggered Introduction camera traps. Substantial habitat remains available in assowaries Casuarius spp. are the largest avian frugi- both areas (Miettinen et al., ; Fig. ) but hunting pres- Cvores and the largest-bodied seed dispersing animals sure was thought to be high, based on proximity to in the tropical forests of New Guinea and Australia. human settlements and conversations with local hunters Dispersal of seeds by cassowaries is known to be important (Pangau-Adam & Noske, ). We sought to assess how for many plant species (Mack, ; Westcott et al., ; both species responded to potential hunting pressure, Bradford & Westcott, , ; Pangau-Adam & using accessibility (e.g. the distance to the nearest village Muehlenberg, ) and even for the evolution of or road) as a proxy. We also tried to ascertain whether ac- cessibility influenced cassowary population structure. In heavily hunted populations it can become increasingly dif- JEDEDIAH F. BRODIE* (Corresponding author) Departments of Zoology and ficult for juveniles to reach adulthood or for adults to sur- Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada E-mail [email protected] vive, and thus the age structure can shift to a higher proportion of juveniles (Mills, ; Brodie et al., ). MARGARETHA PANGAU-ADAM† Biology Department, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Cenderawasih University, Papua, Indonesia Other than hunting, mammal introductions in New *Also at: Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Guinea are of conservation concern because the region Vancouver, Canada lacks most placental mammal lineages. Exotic primates †Also at: Department of Conservation Biology, University of Göttingen, Germany near Jayapura, Papua, for example, could have significant effects on native birds not adapted to these nest predators Received June . Revision requested July . Accepted July . First published online November . (Corlett & Primack, ). There were no ungulates in Oryx, 2017, 51(2), 354–360 © 2015 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605315001039 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.40, on 26 Sep 2021 at 10:51:20, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605315001039 Human impacts on endemic cassowaries 355 Methods Study system and field sampling In June we deployed Reconyx HC camera-trap units (Reconyx, Inc., Holmen, USA) at two humid tropical forest sites: in the lowlands near Nimbokrang, Papua Province, and in the Arfak Mountains, West Papua Province (Fig. ). The cameras were retrieved – months later. The Nimbokrang area has flat, alluvial forest, much of which was flooded to a depth of a few centimetres at the time of camera deployment; the area we worked in was at – m elevation. The forests have not been com- mercially logged, although illegal selective logging of mer- bau Intsia bijuga (Fabaceae) is widespread. The northern cassowary is the only cassowary in this area. In the Arfak Mountains we worked near the village of Syoubri, at eleva- tions of ,–, m in lower montane forests (Flannery, FIG. 1 The study sites in the Arfak Mountains and Nimbokrang, ). The topography is steep; for example, one camera in Indonesian New Guinea. transect spanned vertical metres over , linear metres (a mean slope of %). The forests have a lower canopy than New Guinea prior to the introduction of pigs (Sus scrofa × S. in Nimbokrang, and denser understorey vegetation. There celebensis) by humans sometime in the last few thousand has been no commercial logging, and forest clearance for years (Flannery, ). Pigs breed quickly and are omnivor- small-scale subsistence agriculture is limited to areas near ous, suggesting that they could possibly compete with casso- villages. The dwarf cassowary is the only cassowary there. waries for fruit. We conducted a preliminary assessment of Subsistence hunting is common in both areas, and casso- possible interference competition between these species by waries are preferred prey species (MP-A & JB, pers. obs.). examining at fine spatial scales whether cassowaries avoided The cameras were arranged along transects radiating areas frequented by pigs. from two villages and the nearby Korea Road in the Climate change is another potential threat. Many tropical Nimbokrang area, and two villages in the Arfak animals are thought to be near their thermal maxima Mountains. Cameras were set c. km apart along each tran- (Tewksbury et al., ), implying that any near-future sect, usually on small game trails, stream beds, ridge tops, or rises in temperature could force them to migrate to higher in other areas that animals might use for movement or for- elevations, possibly leading to biodiversity loss in the low- aging. The distance from the cameras to human habitation – lands (Colwell et al., ). For many tropical bird species, or roads was . km, with various distance categories ap- ambient temperatures are already thought to exceed the proximately equally represented. Cameras were attached to upper critical temperature beyond which they must expend the bases of trees, housed within protective metal cases. energy to stay cool (Khaliq et al., ). We conducted They operated hours per day, recording colour images a preliminary assessment of whether C. unappendiculatus during the day and black-and-white at night. Although cas- in the lowlands were near their thermal maximum by sowaries may be active at any time, foraging is thought to be examining whether they constrained their daily activity to strictly diurnal (Moore, ). Upon being triggered by mo- mornings and evenings (i.e. avoiding the heat of the day) tion in front of the receptor, a camera recorded a sequence relative to the activity patterns of C. bennetti at higher of three images and then did not record again for at least s. elevations. Specifically, we predicted that ( ) local abundance of Data analysis cassowaries would be higher at sites further from human access and at sites with low usage by humans (predators) To test prediction () we used N-mixture models (Royle, and pigs (introduced potential competitors), ()theage ) to estimate whether the local abundance of cassowar- structure of cassowary populations would be related to po- ies at specific sites (i.e. camera trap stations) was related to tential hunting pressure, with a lower proportion of mature the distance from the site to the nearest drivable road or vil- adults at sites closer to human access, and () northern lage (a metric of potential hunting pressure), and the
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