Journal of Wildlife and Parks, 32: In press (2017)

TEMPORAL ACTIVITY PATTERNS OF LEOPARDS (Panthera pardus) IN TAMAN NEGARA NATIONAL PARK, PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

*Jambari Asrulsani, Khairul Amirin Mohamed, Ihsan Syahid Mohd Azmi, Hazril Rafhan Abdul Halim, Muhd Hakim Saharudin, Mohd Fauzi Seman & Sohaimi Samsuddin

Department of Wildlife & National Parks (DWNP) Peninsular Malaysia, KM10 Jalan Cheras, 56100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

*Corresponding author’s email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

In Southeast Asia, the population range of the Leopard (Panthera pardus) is rapidly shrinking. In Peninsular Malaysia, temporal activity patterns of leopards are poorly known in its largest protected area – Taman Negara National Park. Our study obtained 1,263 photos of leopards from 235 camera trap stations over 31,333 trap nights covering the Kelantan, Pahang, and Terengganu portions of Taman Negara National Park. Our results show that leopard activity peaks around 0600-0659 hours (dawn) and 1700-1759 hours (dusk). This study represents a fresh attempt to document the crepuscular nature of leopards in Taman Negara National Park.

Keywords: Felidae, Panthera, temporal activity, camera traps, Malaysia

Received (19-June-2016); Accepted (20-July-2017); Available online (11-August-17)

Citation: Asrulsani, J., Mohamed, K.A., Azmi, I.S.M., Halim, H.R.A., Saharudin, M.H., Seman, M.F., & Samsuddin S. (2017). Temporal activity pattern of leopards (Panthera pardus) in Taman Negara National Park, Peninsular Malaysia. Journal of Wildlife and National Parks, 32: In press.

INTRODUCTION

Leopards population are in decline across large parts of their habitat range (Ripple et al., 2014), particularly in Southeast Asia (Rostro-García et al., 2016). They are secretive and shy, and thus are poorly studied (Ridout & Linkie, 2008), especially in forest habitats. As the second largest carnivore in the Family Felidae, leopards play an important ecological role in regulating populations of wild ungulates (Dorresteijn et al., 2015).

Understanding the temporal activity patterns of threatened species can provide insights into how different animal species exploit different habitat niches (Pianka, 1973; Roll et al., 2006). Animal activity patterns often have an evolutionary basis, with most species exhibiting peak activity during certain times of the day to reduce resource competition (Roll et al., 2006).

While there is some information available on the population biology (Hedges et al., 2015) and ecology (Mark Rayan & Linkie, 2016) of leopards in Peninsular Malaysia, temporal activity patterns of this species have yet to be adequately quantified. In this study, we investigated the temporal activity patterns of leopards in the largest protected area in The Taman Negara National Park (TNNP). Asrulsani, J., Mohamed, K.A., Azmi, I.S.M., Halim, H.R.A., Saharudin, M.H., Seman, M.F., & Samsuddin S.

METHODOLOGY

Study area

Our study was carried out in TNNP, which encompasses parts of Kelantan (4°45'57.6"N 102°26'36.2"E), Pahang (4°23'08.0"N 102°24'08.0"E), and Terengganu (5°00'36.7"N 102°42'07.5"E) states in Peninsular Malaysia. TNNP covers approximately 4,373km² (Figure 1) and consists of various forest types ranging from lowland to montane forests. Majority 57% (2,484km²) of the protected area lies in lowland dipterocarp forests below 362m a.s.l, while the remainder 43% (1,889km²) lies in highland forests more than 363m a.s.l.

Figure 1: Figure showing camera trap locations distributed across three different states in TNNP.

Methods

Leopards were detected using two models of infrared digital camera traps that are triggered automatically by heat and movement (O’Connell et al., 2011): 1) Reconyx HC500 and; 2) Panthera V4. They were mounted to trees using cable locks. Cameras were placed in pairs 7- 10m apart (Cheyne & Macdonald, 2011) in each plot at approximately 50cm height from the ground, mostly along animal trails to maximize probability of detecting leopards (Mugerwa et al., 2012). The camera traps were placed between April and December, 2013 (Kelantan [Reconyx], Pahang [Reconyx], Terengganu [Reconyx]), between March and November, 2014 (Kelantan [Reconyx], Terengganu [Panthera V4]), and between March and November, 2015 Leopard Temporal Activity Patterns In Taman Negara

(Pahang [Reconyx]). A total of 592 cameras were deployed in 296 sampling plots (i.e. camera trap station). Camera traps were setup at 198 stations in the lowland forests, while another 98 were deployed in highland forests. Each camera trap station was marked using a GPS receiver with a built-in barometric altimeter (Garmin GPS Map 62cs, Garmin International Inc., Kansas City, USA), and plotted on map using geographic information system - GIS (ArcMap 10.2.2, Esri, Redlands, USA). At the end of the program, all the camera images of Leapord and the time of images captured were recorded and analysed for their temporal activity pattern.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Based on usable data from 235 camera trap stations running for 31,333 trap nights, 1,263 images of leopards were obtained from total of 34,298 images. Most leopard photo-captures were recorded during 0600-0659 hours (128 images), followed by 1700-1759 hours (126 images) (Figure 2), suggesting a crepuscular activity pattern.

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0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 Time

Figure 2 Temporal activity patterns of the Leopard (Panthera pardus) in TNNP based on hourly time intervals.

This activity pattern among leopards may be also explained probability by an avoidance from more dominant species such as tigers (Sunquist & Sunquist, 2002; Stephen, 2004; Miquelle et al., 2005; Mark Rayan & Linkie, 2016). When tigers hunt in certain areas, leopards tend to avoid hunting in the same place (Wang & Macdonald, 2009; Athreya et al., 2013). In the savannah habitats of South Africa, Hunter et al., (2003) found that leopards also exhibited crepuscular activity to avoid larger predators. In the human-dominated landscapes of India, leopards also become much more active at dusk and dawn when human activities are at their lowest level (Athreya et al., 2013). Asrulsani, J., Mohamed, K.A., Azmi, I.S.M., Halim, H.R.A., Saharudin, M.H., Seman, M.F., & Samsuddin S.

CONCLUSION

Our study represents a fresh attempt to document the crepuscular behavior of leopards in TNNP Peninsular Malaysia. It was found that leopard concentration activity mostly occurred at dawn (0600-0659 hours) and dusk (1700-1759 hours). In the future, we would like to quantify local landscape covariates (e.g. vegetation cover, human disturbance, abundance of prey and larger predators) to assess their impact on leopard occupancy in the same area.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank our colleagues from DWNP Headquarters, DWNP Kuala Koh (Kelantan), DWNP Tanjung Mentong (Terengganu) and DWNP Pahang (Merapoh) for their support and contribution to the data collection. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for critical reading that greatly improved the manuscript.

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