Diversity and composition of volant and non-volant small mammals in northern Selangor State Park and adjacent forest of Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

Volant and non-volant small mammals from three forest reserves, located inside and outside Selangor State Park, Malaysia, were trapped and documented. A total of five-line transects, each 200 m long and a total of 100 collapsible cage traps, three harp traps and ten mist nets were deployed at each study site to capture rodents and bats species. The presence of 47 species of volant and non-volant mammals was documented with the highest abundant species being Leopoldamys sabanus (n = 61). The Family Vespertilionidae was the most diverse, while Muridae was the most abundant species. Diversity indices have shown forest reserves - Gading Forest Reserve (FR) and Bukit Kutu FR – located in the State Park, have a higher species composition than the impaired adjacent forest reserve, Bukit Tarek FR extension. The taxonomic diversity and taxonomic distinctness of the three forest reserves ranged between 2.433 and 2.610, while the taxonomic distinctness values ranged between 2.638 and 2.748. Even though Gading FR recorded the highest number of species diversity, the Chao 1 diversity estimator and the rarefaction accumulation curve indicated that Bukit Kutu comprised more species. Comparisons between other state parks and national parks in Peninsular Malaysia indicated that Selangor State Park indeed harbours relatively more species of small mammals. Northern Selangor State Park and adjacent forest should be recognised as a conservation priority area, although there are comparatively more species harboured in other regions of the State Park. With the current information on fauna diversity, proper management should be formulated to preserve the existing ecosystems in order to ensure the continuity of fauna diversity in Malaysia.

The use of taxonomic relationships among species in applied ecological research: Baseline, steps forward and future challenges

“…Whether on land, in rivers, in lakes, in seas or in oceans, the use of taxonomic distinctness indices has focused predominantly on invertebrate assemblages (e.g. Tweedley et al 2012;Heino et al 2015), followed by vertebrates, including mammals (Munian et al 2020), birds (Guerrero et al 2011), amphibians and reptiles (Leyte-Manrique et al 2019) in terrestrial systems, and mostly fish in aquatic systems (Tolimieri & Anderson 2010;Anderson et al 2013;Smith et al 2014;Fig. 1).…”

The first complete mitochondrial genome data of Geoffroy's rousette, Rousettus amplexicaudatus originating from Malaysia

“…Muscle tissue was obtained from Gading Forest Reserve, Selangor, Malaysia (Latitude: 3° 21′ 0″ N Longitude: 101° 15′ 0″ E) (Munian et al. 2020 ). The specimen voucher number MZF1072 was deposited in the Zoological Collection of Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM).…”

Characterization of the mitogenomes of long-tailed giant rat, Leopoldamys sabanus and a comparative analysis with other Leopoldamys species

“…This species is present throughout the Sunda region of Southeast Asia (Lim 1970) and has high mobility ranging between various forest matrices such as logged and unlogged forests (Wells et al 2008). Recently, L. sabanus is reported to be widely distributed compared to the other non-volant mammals in northern forests of Peninsular Malaysia (Munian et al 2020). In this study, we determined additional complete mitogenomes of L. sabanus from Malaysia that could be an important resource for addressing taxonomic issues and studying landscape genetics.…”

“…Recently, L. sabanus is reported to be widely distributed compared to the other non-volant mammals in northern forests of Peninsular Malaysia (Munian et al. 2020 ). In this study, we determined additional complete mitogenomes of L. sabanus from Malaysia that could be an important resource for addressing taxonomic issues and studying landscape genetics.…”