Conserving tigers Panthera tigris in selectively logged Sumatran forests

Linkie, Matthew; Haidir, Iding A.; Nugroho, Agung; Dinata, Yoan

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2008.07.002

Cited by 61 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In much of Sumatra, however, lowland forests have either completely disappeared or remain in such a condition due to massive deforestation (Forest Watch Indonesia & Global Forest Watch, ; Holmes, ; Kinnaird et al ., ; Uryu et al ., ). The remaining forests, even degraded ones, still have high conservation value for wildlife (Linkie et al ., ; Rayan & Mohamad, ) and even the critically endangered Sumatran tiger can achieve high abundance in such forests (Sunarto et al ., ), likely because prey are still supported in these areas. Therefore, despite the widespread perception that rainforest animals need intact forest, we suggest that in addition to intact forested areas, protection of secondary, even degraded forests, is highly beneficial to maintaining the increasingly threatened wild cats in Sumatra.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cat coexistence in central Sumatra: ecological characteristics, spatial and temporal overlap, and implications for management

et al. 2015

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At least six species of wild cats live in Sumatra. Many are globally threatened and yet their ecology is poorly understood. We investigated ecological characteristics and spatial and temporal overlap among cats in central Sumatra using data from systematic and opportunistic camera trapping in five major forest blocks. We developed occupancy models assessing probability of site use by each cat based on (1) photo-trap rates of other species at the same locations and (2) landscape-level factors extracted from geographic information systems. We also used two-species co-occurrence models to assess spatial overlap and used kernel density estimates on circular data to assess temporal overlap between species pairs. We photographed five cat species: Sumatran tigers, Sunda clouded leopards, Asiatic golden cats, marbled cats and leopard cats. Four cats were present in all sampling blocks and one sampling block had all five cats. Spatially, cat distributions varied among forest types, within the sampling blocks and across elevation. We placed camera traps at elevations ranging from 6 to 460 m above sea level. The five cats used statistically different elevations, with golden cats found at highest elevation. Site use by tigers and leopard cats negatively covaried with distance to protected areas. Clouded leopard presence covaried positively with altitude. Leopard cat presence covaried with the photo-trap rate of tigers, whereas the presence of tigers covaried with the photo-trap rate of non-cat carnivores. We found little evidence of spatial avoidance among cats at camera sites. Temporally, species more similar in size, or with similar-sized prey, had lower overlap, suggesting temporal avoidance. We identified six mechanisms promoting coexistence of central Sumatra cats. Knowledge of interspecific interactions may improve the effectiveness of management aimed at conserving the increasingly threatened wild cat community.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cat coexistence in central Sumatra: ecological characteristics, spatial and temporal overlap, and implications for management

et al. 2015

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“…(Servheen, 1999;Wong et al, 2002Wong et al, , 2004Steinmetz et al, 2011), where food productivity is higher Steinmetz et al, 2011). It is likely that some of the factors, for example, accessibility, that are driving forest loss across west-central Sumatra also influence sun bear habitat use in a similar way (Linkie et al, 2008). Thus, the fine-scale model may have been indirectly testing for forest loss, by incorporating factors that are related to accessibility, within the habitat use model.…”

Section: Modelling Sun Bear Habitat Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Managing sun bears in a changing tropical landscape

Wong

Linkie

2012

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim Across the tropics, large-bodied mammal species are threatened by rapid and widespread forest habitat conversion by either commercial logging or agricultural expansion. How such species use these habitats is an important area of research for guiding their future management. The tropical forest-dwelling sun bear, Helarctos malayanus, is the least known of the eight bear species. Consequently, the IUCN/SSC Bear Specialist Group ranks research on this species as a top priority. This study aims to investigate landscape variables that influence sun bear habitat use in forests under varying levels of degradation and protection.Location A 20,998 km 2 Sumatra forest landscape covering Kerinci Seblat National Park (KSNP), Batang Hari Protection Forest (BHPF) and neighbouring logging and agricultural concessions.Methods An occupancy-based sampling technique using detection/nondetection data with 10 landscape covariates was applied in six study areas that operated a total of 125 camera traps. The potential differences between habitat use (w) of sun bears were first modelled with broad-scale covariates of study area, land-use types and forest type. Sun bear habitat use was then investigated with the finer-scale landscape features associated within these areas.Results From 10,935 trap nights, sun bears were recorded at altitudes ranging from 365 to 1791 m. At a broad-scale, habitat use increased with protection status, being highest in KSNP (0.688 ± 0.092, ± SE) and BHPF (0.621 ± 0.110) compared to production (0.418 ± 0.121) and convertible (0.286 ± 0.122) forests. Within these areas, sun bears showed a preference for forest that was further from public roads and villages and at a lower elevation.Main conclusions The habitat suitability model identified several high-quality habitat patches outside of the priority conservation areas for immediate protection. Consequently, conservation management strategies should emphasize the importance of high conservation value forests and prohibit further conversion of threatened lowland forests.

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“…In this study, we examined the relationships between different land management regimes and habitat of the tiger (Panthera tigris), a globally endangered and widely valued species (Carter et al 2012a). We chose tigers because their large space requirements necessitates landscape-scale approaches to habitat protection that encompass strictly protected and multiple-use areas, where nearly 80% of the tiger's remaining range occurs (Linkie et al 2008, Forrest et al 2011, Wikramanayake et al 2011. Our two objectives were to: (1) evaluate changes in tiger habitat suitability from 1989 to 2009 on a section of Chitwan National Park and a nearby multiple-use area outside the park; and (2) assess the potential influence of resource management policies and practices inside and outside the park on observed changes in tiger habitat suitability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing spatiotemporal changes in tiger habitat across different land management regimes

et al. 2013

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Human-induced habitat loss and degradation are increasing the extinction probability of many wildlife species worldwide, thus protecting habitat is crucial. The habitat of thousands of imperiled wildlife species occurs in a variety of land management regimes (e.g., protected areas, multiple-use areas), each exerting differing effects. We used the globally endangered tiger (Panthera tigris) to examine the relationships between habitat change and land management in Nepal's Chitwan district, a global biodiversity hotspot. We evaluated the effects of environmental and human factors on tiger habitat based on data acquired by motion-detecting cameras and space-borne imaging sensors. Spatiotemporal habitat dynamics in Chitwan National Park and a multiple-use area outside the park were then evaluated in three time periods (1989, 1999, and 2009). Our results indicate that tigers preferred areas with more grasslands and higher landscape connectivity. The area of highly suitable habitat decreased inside the park over the entire 20 year interval, while outside the park habitat suitability increased, especially from 1999 to 2009. The loss of highly suitable habitat inside the park may be associated with an increasing trend of unauthorized resource extraction by a rapidly growing human population, coupled with natural processes such as flooding and forest succession. In contrast, community-based management of natural resources and the prohibition of livestock grazing since the late 1990s likely improved tiger habitat suitability outside the park. Results of this study are useful for evaluating habitat change and guiding conservation actions across the tiger range, which spans 13 countries. Moreover, quantitatively assessing habitat change across different land management regimes in human-dominated areas provides insights for conserving habitat of other imperiled wildlife species around the world.

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Conserving tigers Panthera tigris in selectively logged Sumatran forests

Cited by 61 publications

References 22 publications

Cat coexistence in central Sumatra: ecological characteristics, spatial and temporal overlap, and implications for management

Cat coexistence in central Sumatra: ecological characteristics, spatial and temporal overlap, and implications for management

Managing sun bears in a changing tropical landscape

Assessing spatiotemporal changes in tiger habitat across different land management regimes

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