Habitat, distribution and conservation January 2002 Mette Munkhaus Olsen University of Copenhagen "Collaboration on Biodiversity between UMS and Danish Universities" Sponsoredby DANCED (Danish Cooperation for Environment and Development) TABLE OF CONTENTS FOSTUDYAim REW of OUnINE0stud RD 2 Stud y 4 Methodsy sites "".""""""""""""""".""""""."'" """"'."" 54 Results 6 Discussion 6 GENERAL BIOLOGY OF THE BANTENG 8 Systematics 8 Morphology 8 Physiology 9 Population structure 10 Behaviour 10 DISTRIBUnON 12 HABITAT USE AND PREFERENCES 14 Diet 14 Water 16 Minerals : "...""""""". 16 Forest Cover 17 Trails " 17 HABITAT MANAGEMENT 19 POPULA nON SIZE AND VlABJLITY 22 Size , , , "",." ,..",. 22 Inbreeding """"""""""'..'."'.""""'.""""""' 23 Life span ."...".'..'..."...'.."."."""""'."""""""""""""'.""'.."'.""""'..""""""'."."."""'... 23 Fertility '..."'.'..'.""""'."".""""""""""""" , : 23 Effective population size ' , 24 Sex ratio ",." ".",."."..."., "",.""., 24 MAJN THREATS 25 Habitat loss 25 Fragmentation """""'.."""""""""""""""""""'" 25 Corridors 25 Border areas , 26 Poaching , 26 THE BANTENG IN SABAH 28 RECOMMEND A nONS 32 Unawareness " 32 FURTHER STUDIES 34 A CKN 0 WLEDG EMENTS 34 REFERENCES 35 APPENDIX I 37 FOREWORD continues to grow, natural resources are increasingly at risk of overexploitation, and natural fully understood. is possible through large expense, simply becauseno effort is being done, at the time when saving a sustainable population is still possible (Balmford et al., 1995). report is about one such species, namely the Banteng, also known as tembadau (Bos javanicus ). being paid muchattention from the public. We canall relateto the well-known domestic cattle, but only few people are aware that populations of wild cattle are in fact still to be found in the forests of South East Asia. However, if the banteng is to have any chance of surviving, it is of utmost importance, that people become more aware of it. It is the aim of this report to cast a light over the most important facts, making it easier for people to get a general idea of this unique species. have just completed nine months of fieldwork in Sabah,Malaysia, in which I have been focusing on the habitat uses ofbanteng. It is my experience, that even the local people are unaware of the status or even existence of this species. In Sabahthere is a long history of conservationists working on e.g. orang-utans, rhinos, or elephants,whereas my choice of focus, the banteng, is considered quite odd and often requires an explanation. As a student in Conservation Biology, I must say that considering the now threatenedstatus of the banteng, 2 'his combined with the lack of previous studies and references, I not only consider it an obvious choice, but a most neededone too. The report is based on a literature review as well as on personal observations during my field studies. Unfortunately some referencesare poorly documented or hard to obtain and thus have not been included in this review. Although few in number, these missing references form a substantialpart of the total literature on banteng, as this is already limited. The information provided in this report should therefore not be seenas a comprehensive compilation of data, but as a review of the currently available data. Of the few previous studies on the ecology of the banteng, none have been focusing on the borneansubspecies; hence no references exist for this area. In this report I have therefore tried to outline the main aspectsof the banteng, in a way that makes them locally relevant and useful, regarding Borneo and especially Sabah. Apart from outlining the general biology of the banteng, I have included a discussion on habitat use, population sizes and main threats, as these are important considerations in terms of conservation. Finally, I have summarisedthe current situation of the banteng in Sabahand provided recommendations for future managementand conservation. My fieldwork was sponsoredby WWF Verdensnaturfonden/Novo Nordisk ("Biodiversitetslegatet"), DANCED ("Collaboration on Biodiversity betweenUniversiti Malaysia Sabahand Danish Universities") and the University of Copenhagen("Nord/Syd Rejsepulje for Specialestuderende"). 3 STUD Y OUTLINE Masters thesis. I am a student of Biology at the University of Copenhagen and have chosen to do a masters in conservation of larger mammals. For this reason I have spent nine months in Sabah, in which I have had experiences in the field as well as with local societies, organisations, tourists and authorities. This have provided an insight, as to where the banteng are living (climate, habitat, etc.), and difficulties encountered during field studies, but also how the banteng are being perceived and valued among local people and authorities. In the following I will give a short outline of my study. Aim of study The aim of my study has been to identify important habitat needs for the banteng. As the main part of this I have soughtto identify important food plants through a diet analysis, as well as to determine the distribution (frequency and location) of these plants in the habitat. Finally it has been my aim to collect data on local group sizes and structures, in order to evaluate current status and numbers. Study sites My fieldwork was done in two of the main localities for banteng in Sabah, namely Tabin Wildlife Reserve and Maliau Basin ConservationArea. Tabin WR is situated in the easternlowlands in the Lahad Datu District. It is a 120.521 ha reserve managed by the SabahWildlife Department and it is thought to hold the largest population ofbanteng in Sabah. It is surrounded by plantations and hence isolated as a fragment as well as exposedto poaching, illegal logging and other edge effects. However it holds most speciesofSabah wildlife including rare specieslike elephant (Elephas maximus), rhino (Dicerorhinos sumatrensis), sun bear (He/arctos ma/ayanus), clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa)and many spectacularand/or rare speciesof birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects and plants. It is thus considered an important site for conservation in Sabah. 4 Maliau Basin Conservation Area, also known as "Sabah's Lost World", is a 58.840 ha area located in the South Central Sabah in the Keningau District. The conservation area fIrst of all comprises the spectacularMaliau Basin, a unique and pristine forest area surrounded (and protected) by high cliffs giving the impression of a crater. The basin holds many endangered speciesof e.g. birds and plants. However it is the secondary forest outside the basin that plays an important part for the larger mammals, such as elephant and banteng (Marsh, 1989). The Maliau BCA is on the edge of a larger forest area that probably holds a main proportion ofSabah's remaining banteng population. As the MBCA is protected and the roadsides provide plenty of edible grass, it is not uncommon to get direct sightings ofbanteng in this area. However the conservationarea itself supports only a smaller subpopulation and as an isolated fragment this area is unlikely to support populations of larger mammals in the future. Methods For identifying habitat needs I have established straight transectsof 500 m inside secondary forest. In these transects I have obtained the following habitat variables for every 50 m: Variable Method Canopycover Percentcover estimated by looking up throughcardboard cylinder Bush coverlsightability Min and max sightabilityin metersestimated Ground cover Estimatedin 1 m2and given rank 0-5 Ecologicalplant types Presence/absenceof plant type in eachquadrant in 2 m radius (herbs,grasses, ferns,climbers, rattans, smaller trees, larger trees (0 >25 cm» Diameterof largertrees Estimatedfor treeswithin 5 m ladius Slope Detemrinedon 10m distanceby planimeter Position Detemrinedby GPS Soil/groundcharacter Texture/moistureas well as litter coverdescribed Along the transects I recorded presence/absenceof larger mammals (banteng (Basjavanicus), wild pig (Sus barbatus), sambar deer (Cervus unicalar), elephant (Elephas maximus) and barking deer (Muntiacus muntjac)). This was mainly based on recognising footprints and 5 - occurred on few occasions. encountered. Results The data is currently being processedand the results are yet to be presented. Discussion My method is based on contents of dung, i.e. undigested fragments of the ingested plants. This method is more reliable than direct observation and biting marks, in that the contents of dung are an exact picture of what the animal has been eating. It is not subject to bias like ~ different sightability in different habitats (in caseof direct observations), or biting marks '~ produced by other species. Bias such as differences in digestibility among the plants has been found to be of minor importance. The technique, referred to as microhistology, is based on indigestible microscopic parts of the plants, namely epidermal characters.The identification process uses references made from plant specimenscollected by the researcheron the same locality. The setback of the technique is that the reference plants must be collected in advance, 6 thus the researchermust know which plants to look for, and any plants that are not regarded as potential food plants may be left out of the reference collection. In case of unidentifiable plant fragments in the samplesthe researcherwill have to leave these plants as unknown or go back to the locality and try to trace down the plants. In my case I have based my reference collection on different selection criteria. First of all I have given priority to the plants that I have