Re‐establishing extirpated wildlife—or “rewilding”—is touted as a way to restore biodiversity and ecosystem processes, but we lack real‐world examples of this process, particularly in Southeast Asia. Here, we use a decade of aggregated camera trap data, N‐mixture occupancy models, and input from local wildlife experts to describe the unassisted recolonization of two native large herbivores in Singapore. Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor) escaped from captivity (in private or public zoos) in the 1970s and contemporary camera trap data show they have only colonized nearby forest fragments and their abundance remains low. Wild pigs (Sus scrofa), in contrast, naturally recolonized by swimming from Malaysia in the 1990s and have rapidly expanded their range and abundance across Singapore. While wild pigs have not recolonized all viable green spaces yet, their trajectory indicates they soon will. We also note that a third ungulate, the muntjac deer (Muntiacus muntjak), was captured in camera trapping in 2014 and 2015 but was never recorded afterward despite increased sampling effort, and thus we do not focus on their presumably unsuccessful recolonization. The divergent rewilding trajectories between sambar deer and wild pigs suggest different conservation outcomes and management requirements. Sambar deer may restore lost plant–animal interactions such as herbivory and seed dispersal without requiring significant management. Wild pigs, in contrast, have reached high numbers rapidly and may require active management to avoid hyperabundance and negative ecological impacts in regions, such as Singapore that lack both hunting and large predators.
Summary The practice of keeping birds is a long-held tradition in South-east Asia, including in Singapore. Beyond market surveys that have documented Singapore’s sizeable bird market, there is a compelling need to understand the underlying drivers of demand for songbirds, and how these are influenced by social factors. We conducted semi-structured surveys of 114 songbird owners in Singapore, so as to determine their behaviour, demography, and preferences for owning songbirds and mapped Singapore’s songbird trade network. Forty-four percent of respondents reported to not prefer either wild-caught or captive-bred birds and another 37% preferred captive-bred birds. Over half (51%) did not think that there were any differences in the singing capabilities of the songbird from either source. Influence from family members and close contacts were cited as the most influential motivational factor for bird-keeping. The majority of respondents were middle-aged (77% aged 40 and above), and two-thirds (67%) were of Chinese ethnicity. Purchasing power and socio-economic status were not deemed to be strong considerations for owning songbirds. Neither was songbird ownership regarded as a status symbol, in contrast to parrot ownership in Singapore. Instead, social factors played influential roles in the songbird community, shaping the way owners gather, interact, and trade at bird shops and bird cage hanging spots. This study offers novel insights into the motivations underlying songbird ownership and its complex community linkages. We advocate for conservation interventions to target specific demographic groups that are embedded and influenced by communities so as to promote sustainable trade in songbirds.
Summary The Straw-headed Bulbul Pycnonotus zeylanicus is one of South-East Asia’s most threatened songbirds due to relentless demand for the regional cage-bird trade. The species was recently uplisted from ‘Endangered’ to ‘Critically Endangered’ only two years after its previous uplisting. Intriguingly, populations in highly urbanised Singapore appear relatively secure. However, the last Singaporean density estimates, derived from traditional census methods, were obtained nearly two decades ago in 2001. A recent population estimate in 2016 was derived from the census work in 2001 coupled with relative abundance indices from population trends. We thus performed systematic field surveys using the distance sampling method, estimating 573 ± 185 individuals nation-wide, with a break-down of 217 ± 81 on the main island of Singapore and 356 ± 104 birds on the satellite of Pulau Ubin. Taken together, the total population estimate reported here comprises 22.9–57.3% of the global wild population, underscoring the importance of Singapore as a stronghold for the species. In spite of its apparently secure status in Singapore, the species remains susceptible to local and foreign trapping pressures. Based on our assessment, we propose a number of local and regional conservation measures to ensure the continued survival of populations in Singapore.
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