WildCRU
Showing posts with label malay weasel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label malay weasel. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Crocker's cloudies rolling in...
Yesterday
was a good day – a very good day. On
Monday Gil, Gul and I packed our bags and headed to the village of Ulu Senagang,
where the trail up onto the Senagang ridge rises, and where the last of our
cameras to be checked awaited us. The
week before produced the first of our clouded leopard photos from Crocker Range, all
of a single male clouded leopard, so we were excited to see whether this same animal, or indeed
any of his friends, had also used the Senagang ridge.
It had originally taken us four days of camping to put the camera traps out along this ridge, so we thought we could shave some time off and do it in three. We did it in two (very painful) days, just managing to leave the forest as night fell. On arrival back at the house we were all exhausted, and so, despite our excitement, we agreed to look through the new photos in the morning. But perhaps just one camera trap before bed…
It had originally taken us four days of camping to put the camera traps out along this ridge, so we thought we could shave some time off and do it in three. We did it in two (very painful) days, just managing to leave the forest as night fell. On arrival back at the house we were all exhausted, and so, despite our excitement, we agreed to look through the new photos in the morning. But perhaps just one camera trap before bed…
And that’s when the fun began! Camera after camera began to reveal more and more cool animals, including some Hose’s civet, a handful of leopard cat, yet another Malay weasel and even some more Linsang, and….. loads of clouded leopards!
By 12:00am this morning we had finally finished going through all the photos; we knew we had some new animals, but final identification of the cloudies would have to wait.
Like I say, we knew we had some new animals, but having carefully cropped and compared all the images I was blown away to find that we now have SIX animals – 1 female and five males!!!!! On one occasion, the female has walked past the camera, followed immediately by a new male, and later by another (perhaps young male).
This is an amazing start, and it bodes well for Crocker Range’s clouded leopard population. If the photos keep coming in at this rate, I think we can do some useful science. Stay tuned.
By 12:00am this morning we had finally finished going through all the photos; we knew we had some new animals, but final identification of the cloudies would have to wait.
Like I say, we knew we had some new animals, but having carefully cropped and compared all the images I was blown away to find that we now have SIX animals – 1 female and five males!!!!! On one occasion, the female has walked past the camera, followed immediately by a new male, and later by another (perhaps young male).
This is an amazing start, and it bodes well for Crocker Range’s clouded leopard population. If the photos keep coming in at this rate, I think we can do some useful science. Stay tuned.
Caption: top to bottom, Male 1, Female 1, Male 2, Male 3, Male 4, Male 5. As you can see, camera trap images are not always pretty... but these are more than adequate to idenitify the animal to an individual. The shots are in black and white as this particulalr camera trap shoots in infrared at night. Although some animals can see this light quite clearly, it doesn't seem to bother most of them.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Amazing first results from Crocker Range
With the last camera trap finally in place, the fun phase has begun…
time to check the cameras. And what a start; in addition to the usual crowd of
pigs, muntjac, mousedeer, malay civet and the like, we’ve been getting a number
of amazing results, including some species that we rarely ever encounter, and
even a first for the project….
This is a wild cat
project after all, so I'll start with the stars of the show. After more
than six months of cam trapping in Sepilok and the surrounding oil palm
plantation, without even a hint of a clouded leopard, you can imagine how
excited we all were last week when we returned to the house after a camping trip
to check the cameras and a perfectly composed (see right) clouded leopard photo appeared
on our screen. Since then we’ve picked up several more, and we now have 5
photo events from 4 camera sites. Careful scrutiny of the photos shows that
they all belong to a single male, spread over 23km2!! It’s still early days, but the reasonable
encounter rate and the lack of any other individuals, hints at a low population
density, which is not altogether surprising. It’s hard to say at this stage
whether we’ll have enough data to conduct a density analysis – so fingers
crossed the photos keep rolling in. We’ve also got confirmation of marbled cat
(only 1 photo to date), and leopard cat (from 3 sites), but alas no Bay cat so
far. Come on bay cat, where are you? 
Our extensive surveying of six forest
sites in Sabah, over four years, resulted in a measly 3 banded linsang Prionodon linsang photographs. Although little known, it’s generally thought
that this little carnivore species is semi-arboreal, perhaps also skulking
around in dense bushy vegetation, waiting to pounce on small mammals and other
prey. So it’s not altogether surprising that these guys rarely show up in
camera trap surveys. However, despite having only checked about half of our cameras
so far we’ve already recorded linsang at 3 different ridgeline sites. Amazing! Perhaps the lack of a contiguous canopy
at these heights forces them to move more frequently along the ground? Who
knows – anyway it’s great to see these guys on camera. Another great result is that of the Endangered Hose’s civet Diplogalehosei. This rarely detected Bornean endemic is thought to be associated with mossy forests at higher altitudes, although a handful of (questionable?) sightings in relatively low forest suggests that they may be more adaptable than previously thought. So far we’ve detected Hose’s civet at three relatively high level sites (867 -1280m), establishing the first confirmed record of this civet in Crocker Range!! Let’s hope these guys keep getting snapped, so that we can start piecing together some information regarding their ecology. Perhaps Crocker would be the perfect place to start some in depth studies of this beastie… any takers?
Last, but certainly not least, is a personal favorite of mine, a tiny, brightly orange coloured carnivore with a white head – the Malay weasel Mustela nudipes. Although thought to be relatively common throughout its range (southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra), and found in a range of habitats (we even recorded some in an oil palm plantation), it is yet another Bornean carnivore that is rarely camera trapped. Why then are we recording them relatively frequently (3 different sites so far) in Crocker? Although listed as Least Concern by the IUCN it has never been studied.
Clearly a great start… I can’t wait to see what the remaining unchecked cameras reveal!
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