Assessing the Status of Wild Felids in a Highly-Disturbed Commercial Forest Reserve in Borneo and the Implications for Camera Trap Survey Design

Abstract

The proliferation of camera-trapping studies has led to a spate of extensions in the known distributions of many wild cat species, not least in Borneo. However, we still do not have a clear picture of the spatial patterns of felid abundance in Southeast Asia, particularly with respect to the large areas of highly-disturbed habitat. An important obstacle to increasing the usefulness of camera trap data is the widespread practice of setting cameras at non-random locations. Non-random deployment interacts with non-random space-use by animals, causing biases in our inferences about relative abundance from detection frequencies alone. This may be a particular problem if surveys do not adequately sample the full range of habitat features present in a study region. Using camera-trapping records and incidental sightings from the Kalabakan Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, we aimed to assess the relative abundance of felid species in highly-disturbed forest, as well as investigate felid space-use and the potential for biases resulting from non-random sampling. Although the area has been intensively logged over three decades, it was found to still retain the full complement of Bornean felids, including the bay cat Pardofelis badia, a poorly known Bornean endemic. Camera-trapping using strictly random locations detected four of the five Bornean felid species and revealed inter- and intra-specific differences in space-use. We compare our results with an extensive dataset of >1,200 felid records from previous camera-trapping studies and show that the relative abundance of the bay cat, in particular, may have previously been underestimated due to the use of non-random survey locations. Further surveys for this species using random locations will be crucial in determining its conservation status. We advocate the more wide-spread use of random survey locations in future camera-trapping surveys in order to increase the robustness and generality of inferences that can be made.

Distance sampling with camera traps

“…However, multiple research objectives can be addressed, and useful data for multiple species obtained, if CTs are deployed according to a randomised design (MacKenzie & Royle ; Wearn et al . ; Burton et al . ; Dénes, Silveira & Beissinger ).…”

“…Where estimating the density of a rare but individually identifiable species is the primary research objective, it may be preferable to deploy CTs non‐randomly in order to obtain sufficient detections of individuals to estimate density by SECR (Wearn et al . ; Cusack et al . ; Després‐Einspenner et al .…”

Single-Camera Trap Survey Designs Miss Detections: Impacts on Estimates of Occupancy and Community Metrics

“…Others have implemented non-random camera trap placement to increase detections, but this design can violate key assumptions of random sampling [6]. Further, research indicates even minor adjustments to camera trap placement at a determined sampling location can influence which species are detected during surveys [8, 11–13]. …”

Influence of microhabitat structure and disturbance on detection of native and non-native murids in logged and unlogged forests of northern Borneo

“…2004, Meijaard & Sheil 2007, 2008Wearn et al 2013, Wilcove et al 2013. In contrast, few have assessed these changes in terms of whether or not they favour the spread of invasive species (Yaap et al 2010).…”