WildCRU
Monday, October 27, 2008
Clouded leopard captured
One morning in January 2008 Jo and I were met by an excited friend of ours who had news of a captured clouded leopard! Wong, who had been studying sun bears and beared pigs in Danum for over 10 years, informed us that his team had accidentally captured the cloudie in one of their traps set for pigs. This was fantastic news for us, as one of the primary aspects of our research was to learn how these threatened wild cats use their habitat, such as how much space do they need to survive? It turned out that the clouded leopard was a subadult female. After sedating her we fitted a radio collar to her to enable us to track her movements in the dense Ulu Segama forest. We named her Alumis, or Aly for short, which in the local Kadasan-Dusan language means beautiful. This was the first time this species of cat had been tagged. For several months afterward we successfully tracked Aly, although she frequently disappeared for a week or so. Then in March ’08, she vanished, despite our considerable efforts to find her.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Rare Sumatran Rhino captured by camera trap
After running camera traps almost continuously over two years we have just captured our first photos of the critically endangered Sumatran Rhino!! These two images of a young female rhino confirm the continued presence of this species within Sabah. However, the fact that these remain to be the only photos we have obtained, and that this is only the second time a rhino has been photographed in this region, highlights the severity of the threat to the rhinos’ continued existence. Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Project Update August 2008
(i) Camera trapping:
Phase 1 of camera trapping in the primary forest of the Danum Valley Conservation area revealed the presence of the apparently extremely rare Bornean bay cat, the first confirmed record of this species in this protected area, and the forth ever photograph of this felid in the wild. No other felids were photo captured during this 6 month operation.
Phase 2 involved camera trapping along abandoned logging roads and trails within an area of good quality selectively logged forest –the Ulu Segama Forest Reserve. Felid photo captures included bay cat, marbled cat, leopard cat and clouded leopard, although the capture rates of the bay and marbled cats proved to be too low to conduct any quantitative density analysis. Photo capture rates of Bornean clouded leopards, however, proved to be sufficiently high to enable the implementation of a density estimation utilising a capture-mark-recapture framework. This has provided the first scientifically robust density estimate for clouded leopards on Borneo and
indeed the first for this species.
During Phase 3 we have returned to the primary forest to re-attempt to conduct a density estimate survey of the clouded leopard. With a greater number of camera traps, thanks in part to the International Trust for Nature Conservation, we have been able to survey at a significantly higher camera density and over a wider area than Phase 1. To date we have collected a further 3 photo capture events of the bay cat and a further 3 of the marbled cat, which is helping us to build a picture of these felid’s activity and habitat use. We photo-captured 3 individual clouded leopards in this area, on several occasions; however, the photo-capture rate is again too low to
perform a capture-recapture analysis.
In the forthcoming stages of camera trapping we plan to move the cameras to an area of heavily logged forest, in which the logging operation has only recently ceased (Dec ’07). This area is much more representative of Borneo’s remaining logged forest, and will provide an excellent area in which to conduct a clouded leopard density estimate. Later phases will entail camera trapping within the Ulu Segama forest (as in Phase 2) at a much higher camera density, which will enable us to conduct a density estimate of the leopard cat and other small individually identifiable mammalian carnivores. Density estimates for these species will also be obtained using molecular scatology techniques, which will enable us to investigate the relative efficacy of these two techniques.
(ii) Live trapping and radio tracking.
Live trapping has now begun in earnest and on 31st January 2008 we successfully trapped and radio collared a female sub-adult Sundaland (Bornean) clouded leopard; this is the first time this species has been radio collared. VHF radio-tracking has proved to be difficult but possible in this heavily forested and rugged terrain. After several months of tracking the female clouded leopard home range had exceeded 20 km2 (100% MCP), although the increase in range size following sequential locations has not reached an asymptote, suggesting that the actually home range is larger. The female began to move in a northerly direction until the signal was lost. To date we have been unable to locate this female and we are now preparing to conduct an aerial search using a helicopter.
In the last 2 months we have also been successful in capturing and tagging 6 leopard cats (4 males, 2 females), and we are successfully collecting excellent data on four of these individuals. Two individuals are proving to be difficult to locate, but these have only been collared for a few weeks.
The live trapping operation has now closed, and it is envisaged that we will reopen the traps in September ’08.
Phase 1 of camera trapping in the primary forest of the Danum Valley Conservation area revealed the presence of the apparently extremely rare Bornean bay cat, the first confirmed record of this species in this protected area, and the forth ever photograph of this felid in the wild. No other felids were photo captured during this 6 month operation.
Phase 2 involved camera trapping along abandoned logging roads and trails within an area of good quality selectively logged forest –the Ulu Segama Forest Reserve. Felid photo captures included bay cat, marbled cat, leopard cat and clouded leopard, although the capture rates of the bay and marbled cats proved to be too low to conduct any quantitative density analysis. Photo capture rates of Bornean clouded leopards, however, proved to be sufficiently high to enable the implementation of a density estimation utilising a capture-mark-recapture framework. This has provided the first scientifically robust density estimate for clouded leopards on Borneo and
indeed the first for this species.
During Phase 3 we have returned to the primary forest to re-attempt to conduct a density estimate survey of the clouded leopard. With a greater number of camera traps, thanks in part to the International Trust for Nature Conservation, we have been able to survey at a significantly higher camera density and over a wider area than Phase 1. To date we have collected a further 3 photo capture events of the bay cat and a further 3 of the marbled cat, which is helping us to build a picture of these felid’s activity and habitat use. We photo-captured 3 individual clouded leopards in this area, on several occasions; however, the photo-capture rate is again too low to
perform a capture-recapture analysis.
In the forthcoming stages of camera trapping we plan to move the cameras to an area of heavily logged forest, in which the logging operation has only recently ceased (Dec ’07). This area is much more representative of Borneo’s remaining logged forest, and will provide an excellent area in which to conduct a clouded leopard density estimate. Later phases will entail camera trapping within the Ulu Segama forest (as in Phase 2) at a much higher camera density, which will enable us to conduct a density estimate of the leopard cat and other small individually identifiable mammalian carnivores. Density estimates for these species will also be obtained using molecular scatology techniques, which will enable us to investigate the relative efficacy of these two techniques.
(ii) Live trapping and radio tracking.
Live trapping has now begun in earnest and on 31st January 2008 we successfully trapped and radio collared a female sub-adult Sundaland (Bornean) clouded leopard; this is the first time this species has been radio collared. VHF radio-tracking has proved to be difficult but possible in this heavily forested and rugged terrain. After several months of tracking the female clouded leopard home range had exceeded 20 km2 (100% MCP), although the increase in range size following sequential locations has not reached an asymptote, suggesting that the actually home range is larger. The female began to move in a northerly direction until the signal was lost. To date we have been unable to locate this female and we are now preparing to conduct an aerial search using a helicopter.
In the last 2 months we have also been successful in capturing and tagging 6 leopard cats (4 males, 2 females), and we are successfully collecting excellent data on four of these individuals. Two individuals are proving to be difficult to locate, but these have only been collared for a few weeks.
The live trapping operation has now closed, and it is envisaged that we will reopen the traps in September ’08.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Project Update July '08
Camera trapping
Most of July has been spent mapping and assessing the new survey area – Malua Forest Reserve. It seems feasible that an area of at least 80 km2 can be effectively surveyed with paired camera traps. From initial surveys here looking for scat and prints it seems that there are several different carnivore species present and also elephant and banteng. A single leopard cat was also sighted here. At the beginning of July the cameras from around Borneo Rainforest Lodge were brought in and we found that we have finally been successful in obtaining a photo-capture of a clouded leopard from one of these sites. The individual photo-trapped is a juvenile who had been sighted on one of the trails a few days before the photo. This brings our total number of individual clouded leopards from the Conservation Area to three and unfortunately with such a low hit rate and re-captures of only one animal we will not be able to quantify these data. We also have recorded marbled cat and have several more bay cat photos from this area of primary forest, but again sample sizes are too small to quantify the data. The new chips in the cameras that allow a higher sensitivity setting are proving very useful, we are capturing more small mammals and small birds, compared to the cameras with the old chips.
Radio tracking
We continue to obtain useful data on the collared leopard cats and our knowledge about their ranges continues to increase. The female remains more difficult to track than the males, but we are managing to get useful data on all the leopard cats. Daniel has been co-ordinating the field work whilst Andy and I have been in the UK and has been sending regular updates with details of radio tracking, however the data will not be fully analysed until our return to Sabah.
Most of July has been spent mapping and assessing the new survey area – Malua Forest Reserve. It seems feasible that an area of at least 80 km2 can be effectively surveyed with paired camera traps. From initial surveys here looking for scat and prints it seems that there are several different carnivore species present and also elephant and banteng. A single leopard cat was also sighted here. At the beginning of July the cameras from around Borneo Rainforest Lodge were brought in and we found that we have finally been successful in obtaining a photo-capture of a clouded leopard from one of these sites. The individual photo-trapped is a juvenile who had been sighted on one of the trails a few days before the photo. This brings our total number of individual clouded leopards from the Conservation Area to three and unfortunately with such a low hit rate and re-captures of only one animal we will not be able to quantify these data. We also have recorded marbled cat and have several more bay cat photos from this area of primary forest, but again sample sizes are too small to quantify the data. The new chips in the cameras that allow a higher sensitivity setting are proving very useful, we are capturing more small mammals and small birds, compared to the cameras with the old chips.
Radio tracking
We continue to obtain useful data on the collared leopard cats and our knowledge about their ranges continues to increase. The female remains more difficult to track than the males, but we are managing to get useful data on all the leopard cats. Daniel has been co-ordinating the field work whilst Andy and I have been in the UK and has been sending regular updates with details of radio tracking, however the data will not be fully analysed until our return to Sabah.
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