Browsing by Author "Mohd-Azlan, Jayasilan"

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    Modelling the Species Distribution of Flat-Headed Cats (Prionailurus planiceps), an Endangered South-East Asian Small Felid
    Wilting, Andreas; Cord, Anna; Hearn, Andrew J.; Hesse, Deike; Mohamed, Azlan; Traeholdt, Carl; Cheyne, Susan M.; Sunarto, Sunarto; Mohd-Azlan, Jayasilan; Ross, Joanna; Shapiro, Aurelie C.; Sebastian, Anthony; Dech, Stefan; Breitenmoser, Christine; Sanderson, Jim; Duckworth, J. W.; Hofer, Heribert (PLOS, 2010-03-17)
    Background The flat-headed cat (Prionailurus planiceps) is one of the world's least known, highly threatened felids with a distribution restricted to tropical lowland rainforests in Peninsular Thailand/Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra. Throughout its geographic range large-scale anthropogenic transformation processes, including the pollution of fresh-water river systems and landscape fragmentation, raise concerns regarding its conservation status. Despite an increasing number of camera-trapping field surveys for carnivores in South-East Asia during the past two decades, few of these studies recorded the flat-headed cat. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, we designed a predictive species distribution model using the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) algorithm to reassess the potential current distribution and conservation status of the flat-headed cat. Eighty-eight independent species occurrence records were gathered from field surveys, literature records, and museum collections. These current and historical records were analysed in relation to bioclimatic variables (WorldClim), altitude (SRTM) and minimum distance to larger water resources (Digital Chart of the World). Distance to water was identified as the key predictor for the occurrence of flat-headed cats (>50% explanation). In addition, we used different land cover maps (GLC2000, GlobCover and SarVision LLC for Borneo), information on protected areas and regional human population density data to extract suitable habitats from the potential distribution predicted by the MaxEnt model. Between 54% and 68% of suitable habitat has already been converted to unsuitable land cover types (e.g. croplands, plantations), and only between 10% and 20% of suitable land cover is categorised as fully protected according to the IUCN criteria. The remaining habitats are highly fragmented and only a few larger forest patches remain. Conclusion/Significance Based on our findings, we recommend that future conservation efforts for the flat-headed cat should focus on the identified remaining key localities and be implemented through a continuous dialogue between local stakeholders, conservationists and scientists to ensure its long-term survival. The flat-headed cat can serve as a flagship species for the protection of several other endangered species associated with the threatened tropical lowland forests and surface fresh-water sources in this region.
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    Pangolins in global camera trap data: Implications for ecological monitoring
    Khwaja, Hannah; Buchan, Claire; Wearn, Oliver R.; Bahaa-el-din, Laila; Bantlin, Drew; Bernard, Henry; Bitariho, Robert; Bohm, Torsten; Borah, Jimmy; Brodie, Jedediah; Chutipong, Wanlop; du Preez, Byron; Ebang-Mbele, Alex; Edwards, Sarah; Fairet, Emilie; Frechette, Jackson L.; Garside, Adrian; Gibson, Luke; Giordano, Anthony; Gopi, Govindan Veeraswami; Granados, Alys; Gubbi, Sanjay; Harich, Franziska; Haurez, Barbara; Havmoller, Rasmus W.; Helmy, Olga; Isbell, Lynne A.; Jenks, Kate; Kalle, Riddhika; Kamjing, Anucha; Khamcha, Daphawan; Kiebou-Opepa, Cisquet; Kinnaird, Margaret; Kruger, Caroline; Laudisoit, Anne; Lynam, Antony; Macdonald, Suzanne E.; Mathai, John; Sienne, Julia Metsio; Meier, Amelia; Mills, David; Mohd-Azlan, Jayasilan; Nakashima, Yoshihiro; Nash, Helen C.; Ngoprasert, Dusit; Nguyen, An; O'Brien, Timothy J.; Olson, David; Orbell, Christopher; Poulsen, John; Ramesh, Tharmalingam; Reeder, DeeAnn; Reyna, Rafael; Rich, Lindsey N.; Rode-Margono, Johanna; Rovero, Francesco; Sheil, Douglas; Shirley, Matthew H.; Stratford, Ken; Sukumal, Niti; Suwanrat, Saranphat; Tantipisanuh, Naruemon; Tilker, Andrew; Van Berkel, Tim; Van der Weyde, Leanne K.; Varney, Matthew; Weise, Florian; Wiesel, Ingrid; Wilting, Andreas; Wong, Seth T.; Waterman, Carly; Challender, Daniel W. S. (2019-10)
    Despite being heavily exploited, pangolins (Pholidota: Manidae) have been subject to limited research, resulting in a lack of reliable population estimates and standardised survey methods for the eight extant species. Camera trapping represents a unique opportunity for broad-scale collaborative species monitoring due to its largely nondiscriminatory nature, which creates considerable volumes of data on a relatively wide range of species. This has the potential to shed light on the ecology of rare, cryptic and understudied taxa, with implications for conservation decision-making. We undertook a global analysis of available pangolin data from camera trapping studies across their range in Africa and Asia. Our aims were (1) to assess the utility of existing camera trapping efforts as a method for monitoring pangolin populations, and (2) to gain insights into the distribution and ecology of pangolins. We analysed data collated from 103 camera trap surveys undertaken across 22 countries that fell within the range of seven of the eight pangolin species, which yielded more than half a million trap nights and 888 pangolin encounters. We ran occupancy analyses on three species (Sunda pangolin Manis javanica, white-bellied pangolin Phataginus tricuspis and giant pangolin Smutsia gigantea). Detection probabilities varied with forest cover and levels of human influence for P. tricuspis, but were low (<0.05) for all species. Occupancy was associated with distance from rivers for M. javanica and S. gigantea, elevation for P. tricuspis and S. gigantea, forest cover for P. tricuspis and protected area status for M. javanica and P. tricuspis. We conclude that camera traps are suitable for the detection of pangolins and large-scale assessment of their distributions. However, the trapping effort required to monitor populations at any given study site using existing methods appears prohibitively high. This may change in the future should anticipated technological and methodological advances in camera trapping facilitate greater sampling efforts and/or higher probabilities of detection. In particular, targeted camera placement for pangolins is likely to make pangolin monitoring more feasible with moderate sampling efforts. (c) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.