The Population and Distribution of Orangutans (Pongo Pygmaeus Pygmaeus) in and Around the Danau Sentarum Wildlife Reserve, West Kalimantan, Indonesia
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Biological Conservation 97 (2001) 21±28 www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon The population and distribution of orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus) in and around the Danau Sentarum Wildlife Reserve, West Kalimantan, Indonesia Anne E. Russon a,*, Andi Erman b, Rona Dennis c aPsychology Department, Glendon College, 2275 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, ON, Canada M4N 3M6 bWetlands International Indonesia, Danau Sentarum Wildlife Reserve, West Kalimantan, Indonesia cODA-MOFEC Indonesia±UK Tropical Forest Management Project, Bogor, Indonesia Received 29 September 1998; received in revised form 9 February 2000; accepted 13 May 2000 Abstract We report estimates of orangutan distribution and population size in and around the Danau Sentarum Wildlife Reserve (DSWR) in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, one of the few areas in Borneo that may still support a large population. We generated estimates in line with each of three proposed de®nitions for the reserve Ð its current boundaries, a moderate extension, and a greater extension. Estimates were based on current nest survey methods, adjusted for habitat type variability. Measures of habitat type coverage derived from a GIS developed for the DSWR region. Our estimates support impressions that the current DSWR harbors few orangutans (Æ200) but the greater extension supports a substantially larger population (>2000). Findings are discussed with respect to distribution (habitat preference), behavior in the DSWR area (migration, local stresses, human tolerance), and habitat protection plans. # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Orangutans; Borneo; Orangutan distribution; Population estimation; Protection plans 1. Introduction agricultural and commercial use. The most notorious of these, which aimed to convert a million hectares of good The IUCN classi®es orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)as orangutan habitat to agriculture (Presidential Decree vulnerable, i.e. at high risk of extinction in the medium RI/82-26, 1995), is estimated to have displaced several future. Reasons for this classi®cation are steep declines thousand orangutans (Rijksen and Meijaard, 1999). in population caused by habitat loss and exploitation, Borneo also lost up to 33% of its orangutan population and the likelihood that steep declines will continue in 1997±1998 because of the droughts and ®res that (Baillie and Groombridge, 1996). The global orangutan plagued the island (Rijksen and Meijaard, 1999). population is divided between geographically isolated As recently as 1995, however, almost no detailed subpopulations, on Borneo and Sumatra, of no more information was available on Bornean orangutan dis- than 16,000 and 12,500, respectively (Rijksen and Mei- tribution to guide habitat protection proposals (Rijksen jaard, 1999). The Bornean population, while larger, may et al., 1995; Soemarna et al., 1995). We therefore sur- be the more vulnerable of the two. It is fragmented veyed orangutans in and around the Danau Sentarum into 61 forest sectors, few of which are securely pro- Wildlife Reserve (DSWR) in the Kapuas Lakes region tected, and Bornean habitat commonly supports oran- of West Kalimantan (W. Indonesian Borneo), an area gutans at only 50±66% of the densities supported by that could support a substantial population (Sugardjito Sumatran habitat (Rijksen and Meijaard, 1999; Schaik and Schaik, 1992; Meijaard et al., 1996). et al., 1995b; Soemarna et al., 1995). Government plans The Kapuas Lakes region consists of a core of seaso- have allocated vast tracts of Bornean rainforest to nal lakes and freshwater swamps, surrounded by peat swamp forest and hills. The area is ¯ooded annually by * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-416-736-2100, ext. 88363. the upper Kapuas River. It is attractive to orangutans E-mail address: [email protected] (A.E. Russon). because of its peat swamp forest, lowland alluvial forest, 0006-3207/00/$ - see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0006-3207(00)00087-2 22 A.E. Russon et al. / Biological Conservation 97 (2001) 21±28 Fig. 1. DSWR area protection boundaries and nest-count survey transect sites. and primary freshwater swamp forest. This habitat oers 1993: see Giesen, 1987; Meijaard et al., 1996). Both agri- high yields of soft-pulp fruit, orangutans' dietary mainstay culture and logging degrade areas of prime orangutan (Schaik et al., 1995b). Other types of habitat oer less than habitat (Sugardjito and Schaik, 1992; Payne and Andau, half the carrying capacity (Sugardjito and Schaik, 1992; 1994). Giesen (1987) concluded that any orangutans Payne and Andau, 1994; Schaik et al., 1995b). The core remaining around DSWR ranged more or less perma- lakes area was gazetted as the 80,000 ha DSWR in 1982 to nently on relatively undisturbed high ground beyond the protect the area's wetland habitat. DSWR was declared a reserve's boundary. Recent surveys based on reports of Ramsar site in 1994, a wetland of international importance incidental sightings rearm low orangutan presence (Jeanes, 1996). Since then, two proposals have been made within DSWR but higher presence in the extensive to extend the reserve (Fig. 1). A moderate extension swamp forests adjacent to DSWR to the north, west, and (DSWR-M) would append about 50,000 ha of the hill east (Erman, unpub.; Meijaard et al., 1996). These recent areas to the south-east plus the immediate catchment of surveys provide only qualitative estimates of orangutan peat swamp and low hills (Giesen et al., 1994). A greater presence. We therefore undertook to estimate the extension (DSWR-G) would append an additional 60,000 region's orangutan population quantitatively, based on a ha to cover much of the unprotected swamp forest beyond systematic survey of orangutan nests. the reserve (Jeanes, 1996). Initial surveys indicated very few orangutans in the DSWR region by the mid 1980s, probably because of 2. Methods human disturbance (Giesen, 1987). The human popula- tion within DSWR-G comprises about 6900 permanent 2.1. Estimating orangutan distribution inhabitants, and about 9000 in the dry season, who reside in 47 permanent and 10 seasonal villages (Aglionby, Surveying orangutan nests is the established method 1995). Most are Melayu, who mostly ®sh the lakes, but for estimating orangutan distribution (e.g., Schaik et al., some are Iban Dayak, who hunt and practice slash-and- 1995b; Blouch, 1997; Page et al., 1997). The number of burn agriculture. Commercial logging in the 1970s and nests identi®ed along line transects allows estimating 2 1980s seriously degraded the swamp forest just beyond nest density per km , dnest, using the equation DSWR and much of that forest is designated Production Forest (Ministry of Forestry, National Forest Inventory, dnest N= L  2w 1 A.E. Russon et al. / Biological Conservation 97 (2001) 21±28 23 where N is the total nest count, L is the total length of vegetation features at each location surveyed then clas- the transects surveyed (km), and w estimates the width si®ed them into four types that group Giesen's (1987) of the strip, on either side of the transect, within which vegetation classes according to their capacity to support nests are sighted reliably (km). Adjusting dnest for three orangutans: swamp/peat forest (tall swamp, tall swamp nest-related parameters gives an estimate of orangutan with some peat, stunted swamp, stunted swamp/ripar- density, d, using the equation ian, dwarf swamp), lowland hill forest (lowland hill, heath), farmland/clearing/secondary forest (same); unu- d dnest= p  r  t 2 sable (regeneration after ®re, recently burnt, settlement, water). We also recorded all habitat disturbances where p estimates the proportion of nest-builders in the observed at each location surveyed, primarily logging population (some individuals do not build nests, like and local farming, then coded an overall disturbance infants), r estimates the daily rate at which nest-builders level for that location (low, medium, high) based on the build nests (normally one night nest plus, sometimes, degree of damage observed. We validated coding for one day nest), and t estimates the rate of nest decay (the both variables against a 1990 Landsat Land Cover Map number of days nests remain visible). of the Kapuas Lakes region. Coverage of each habitat We handled three problems associated with estimat- type within each of the three proposed protected areas ing parameters as follows. derived from a Geographic Information System (GIS) 1. Validated estimates for the proportion of nest- developed for the Kapuas Lakes region (Dennis, 1997). builders, p, and rate of nest- building, r, exist for This is one of the few areas in Borneo for which GIS is only a few Sumatran populations because they available. require long-term, direct study of resident orangu- tans (Rijksen, 1978; Schaik et al., 1995b). Values 2.2. Sampling are unlikely to vary substantially between popula- tions (Schaik et al., 1995b) so we used the pub- We surveyed nests along line transects in the three lished estimates for the DSWR region. proposed protected areas Ð DSWR, DSWR-M, and 2. Estimates of nest decay rate, t, and eective strip DSWR-G. This was the ®rst orangutan survey in the width, w, probably vary substantially with local region so we sampled seven areas where residents conditions (Schaik et al., 1995b) so we generated reported recent orangutan presence (Meijaard et al., estimates for the DSWR region from data col- 1996). For each area, we sampled Æ3 km of transect lected during the nest survey. Nest decay rate, t, (per Schaik and Azwar, 1991). Transect length increases can be estimated from a sample of short-term within-transect habitat variability (Schaik et al., 1995b) changes in decay state when nest decay is modeled and the time involved in traveling to transect sites in the as a Markov process with one absorbing state lakes region limited the distance that we could survey (Kemeny et al., 1956). Markov estimates of t have daily. Samples took the form of three 1 km or two 1.5 been validated on known populations in Sumatra km transects.