Population dynamics of cuscus in tourist island of Ahe, District of Nabire, Papua

Abstract

Sinery AS, Boer C, Farida WR.2013. Population dynamics of cuscus in tourist island of Ahe, District of Nabire,. Cuscus is a pouched herbivorous mammal of the family Phalangeridae which is arboreal and nocturnal.. The animals are protected by law because, in addition to having a low reproduction and limited distribution area, they face a very high level of hunting. Hunting in the wild by people is done not only in production forest areas but also in forest conservation areas such as recreational forest of Table Mountain, Arfak Mountains Nature Reserve, and other places. Directly or indirectly, the hunting affects the quality of the ecosystem in these areas, especially the cuscus population. Better management efforts are required in these areas to ensure the survival of many organisms in it, especially the cuscus. This study aimed to determine the cuscus population in Ahe Island, and the method applied was descriptive method using direct observation. The study was conducted in one month. The results demonstrate that cuscus in Ahe Island consisted of common spotted cuscus (Spilocuscus maculatus) and eastern cuscus (Phalanger orientalis). The number of individuals of S. maculatus was 24, consisting of 14 females and 10 males, whereas P. orientalis consisted of 2 individuals and both were males. The number of adult cuscus individuals was 16, while adolescents and children, were respectively 8 and 2. At least 10 plant species were identified as a source of feed for cuscus in Ahe Island recreation area. Plant parts consumed by cuscus were fruit and young leaves, but based on level of need, most of the cuscus consumed fresh fruit because of its sweet taste and high water content that helps the digestive process.

The Estimation of Cuscus Population and Distribution in Teluk Wondama District, West Papua Province, Indonesia

“…Cuscus are marsupials mammal endemic to Papua, Maluku and a small part of Sulawesi [1]. They are nocturnal [2], and generally live arboreal in various types of habitats [3]. Based on the Minister of Environment and Forestry Regulation Number P.106 of 2018, there are fourteen types of protected cuscus in Indonesia.…”

Short Communication: Effect of different feed combination on the growth development of spotted cuscus (Spilocuscus maculatus) in captivity

“…Spotted cuscus (Spilocuscus maculatus) are more commonly in the Biak Nature Reserve (Dahrudin et al 2005;Pattiselanno and Koibur 2008), in the North Coast Area of Manokwari (Fatem and Sawen 2007;Nakoh et al 2010) and also areas around the Cenderawasih Bay (Pattiselanno 2007;Saragih et al 2010). Their existence in the nature reserve areas is strongly supported by the availability and biodiversity of flora, such as fruits and leaves that can be used as sources of food (Saragih et al 2010;Sinery et al 2013Sinery et al , 2014. However, the conversion of forest area is presently increasing along with the development of infrastructure and other facilities.…”