Sunda Clouded Leopard Neofelis Diardi Densities and Human Activities in the Humid Evergreen Rainforests of Sumatra
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Sunda clouded leopard Neofelis diardi densities and human activities in the humid evergreen rainforests of Sumatra I DING H AIDIR,DAVID W. MACDONALD and M ATTHEW L INKIE Abstract Most species of wild felids are threatened, but for Introduction many little is known about their status in the wild. For the cryptic and elusive Vulnerable Sunda clouded leopard cross the tropics of Latin America, Africa and Asia, in- Neofelis diardi, key metrics such as abundance and occu- Aformation on wild felids tends to be based on indirect pancy have been challenging to obtain. We conducted an signs because dense vegetation typically precludes direct intensive survey for this species on the Indonesian island observations and because these species tend to be rare as a of Sumatra. We deployed camera traps across four study result of their trophic status (Carter et al., ; Rayan & ę areas that varied in elevation and threats, for a total of Linkie, ;J drzejewski et al., ). Remote detection de- , trap nights, resulting in independent clouded vices, primarily camera traps, facilitate surveying felids that leopard photographs, in which we identified individuals. are otherwise difficult to detect, enabling researchers to Using a Bayesian spatially explicit capture–recapture anal- investigate felid ecology and population status, and gain a ysis, we estimated clouded leopard density to be .–. better understanding of the threats to these species (Linkie individuals/ km . The highest predicted occurrence of et al., ; Kawanishi et al., ; Henschel et al., ; people was at lower altitudes and closer to the forest edge, Rich et al., ). There are felid species in South-east where we categorized more than two-thirds of people re- Asia, occurring in open savannahs, deciduous forests and corded by camera traps as bird poachers, .% each as un- humid evergreen forests along the equator (Sunquist & gulate/tiger poachers and non-timber collectors, and , % Sunquist, ). Little is known about most of these spe- as fishers. Our findings provide important insights into the cies, particularly the smaller-bodied ones. However, recent status of this little known species in Sumatra. We recom- camera-trap surveys have provided new information on mend that the large volume of camera-trap data from the relative abundance, occupancy and/or habitat prefer- other Sumatran landscapes be used for an island-wide as- ence of the Sunda clouded leopard Neofelis diardi, Asiatic sessment of the clouded leopard population, to provide golden cat Catopuma temminckii, Bornean bay cat Catopu- up-to-date and reliable information for guiding future ma badia, marbled cat Pardofelis marmorata, leopard cat conservation planning. Prionailurus bengalensis and flat-headed cat Prionailurus planiceps (Haidir et al., ; Wearn et al., ; McCarthy Keywords Camera trap, clouded leopard, felid, Kerinci et al., ; Hearn et al., a; Rustam et al., ). Seblat National Park, Neofelis diardi, poaching, spatially To date, wildlife research in Sumatra has mainly focused explicit capture–recapture on the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry’s Supplementary material for this article is available at priority species, the Sumatran tiger Panthera tigris suma- doi.org/./S trae, Sumatran elephant Elephas maximus sumatranus, Sumatran rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, Sumatran orangutan Pongo abelii and, most recently, the newly dis- covered Tapanuli orangutan Pongo tapanuliensis (Hedges et al., ; Wibisono & Pusparini, ; Pusparini et al., ; Sunarto et al., ; Nowak et al., ). This attention is justified because these flagship species or subspecies are endemic, categorized as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and able to attract international attention and conservation funds that provide wider benefits to the IDING HAIDIR* (Corresponding author, orcid.org/0000-0003-2994-2942) Kerinci Seblat National Park Authority, Indonesian Ministry of Environment wildlife, rainforest habitats and protected areas within and Forestry, Jambi, Indonesia. E-mail [email protected] their range. However, the Sunda clouded leopard can also DAVID W. MACDONALD Department of Zoology, Wildlife Conservation Research play a role as a wildlife conservation ambassador, as shown Unit, University of Oxford, The Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Tubney, UK elsewhere in Asia, through its ability to generate political MATTHEW LINKIE Wildlife Conservation Society, Bogor, Indonesia support for both the species itself and the protected areas *Also at: Department of Zoology, Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, University of Oxford, The Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Tubney, UK it inhabits (Macdonald et al., ). Received March . Revision requested June . Here we investigate demographic parameters of Sunda Accepted August . First published online June . clouded leopards in four rainforest areas in one of This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, Downloadeddistribution, from https://www.cambridge.org/core and reproduction in any medium,. IP address: provided 170.106.33.14 the original work, onis 25 properly Sep 2021 cited. at 18:40:30, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/termsOryx, 2021, 55(2), 189–196 ©. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605319001005The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605319001005 190 I. Haidir et al. South-east Asia’s largest protected areas, Kerinci Seblat National Park in west-central Sumatra. The study areas are characterized by different forest types, elevation gradients and human disturbance levels. Our study builds on earlier work that was based on bycatch data from a tiger survey in four study areas in the Park, with estimated Sunda clouded leopard densities of .–. individuals/ km (Sollmann et al., ). We conducted surveys that specifically focused on small to medium-sized felids and applied analyses that explore additional research questions. For example, we examined how detection probability, move- ment distribution and density of Sunda clouded leopards vary amongst different forest types along an altitudinal gradient. Study area Kerinci Seblat National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the island of Sumatra. The , km Kerinci Seblat forest landscape stretches along c. km of the Bukit Barisan mountain range and covers the provinces of Jambi, Bengkulu, South Sumatra and West Sumatra. The altitude is –, m, with lowland forest , m – FIG. 1 Study areas in Kerinci Seblat National Park (KSNP), ( . % of the landscape), hill forest at m( . %), west-central Sumatra. submontane forest at –, m(.%), midmontane forest at ,–, m(.%) and upper montane and sub- – alpine forest . , m(.%). Our four study areas were trail, with a spacing of . km between camera stations Ipuh (lowland forest), Bungo and Sipurak (hill forest), and (Supplementary Table ). We used heat-motion sensor Renah Kayu Embun (submontane and midmontane forest; camera traps Cuddeback Ambush IR (Cuddeback, De Pere, Fig. , Table , Supplementary Table ). USA) and Panthera IV (Panthera, New York, USA), without any bait or lure to attract felids. We set camera traps to op- erate continuously for months and visited stations every Methods weeks for maintenance and data retrieval. We compiled all clouded leopard photographs, and at least three experienced Data collection project members then manually identified individual ani- mals based on their unique pelage pattern. We used these – We conducted camera-trap surveys during June data to develop daily detection matrices. December in Kerinci Seblat National Park and adjacent forest areas. We designed the surveys to target the Sunda clouded leopard, golden cat, marbled cat and leopard cat, Clouded leopard density by placing cameras on ridge trails and animal paths, with the majority (%) of camera traps placed where the forest Heterogeneity in the probability of detecting clouded leo- canopy was disrupted and the semi-arboreal felids could be pards can be influenced by a variety of factors, including expected to descend. All camera stations in Bungo, Sipurak sex and camera trap site-specific covariates, although with and Ipuh, and % of stations in Renah Kayu Embun, con- limited data it is not possible to derive sex-based density sisted of camera traps set up in pairs, to capture both flanks estimates (Efford & Fewster, ). We estimated popula- of passing animals. The camera traps within each study area tion abundance using a spatially explicit capture–recapture covered grid cells of km . Prior to setting the cameras, method, which assumes that each individual animal has a we conducted reconnaissance surveys to determine the loca- unique activity centre and that its probability of detection tions in a grid cell that were most likely to record clouded decreases with increasing distance from this centre. We con- leopards and other small and medium-sized felids. We set structed daily detection matrices, which included the spatial up cameras within m of the planned deployment points attributes of each individual, for each camera station. We at a height of – cm off the ground. The paired traps analysed camera-trap data and developed detection matrices were positioned at a distance of – m from the target using the package camtrapR in R .. (Niedballa et al., ). Oryx, 2021, 55(2), 189–196 © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University