Affiliation:
1. Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute Conservation Ecology Center Front Royal Virginia USA
2. University of Wisconsin‐Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies Madison Wisconsin USA
3. Glenealy Plantations Sdn Bhd Department of Sustainability Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
4. Sarawak Forestry Corporation Kuching Malaysia
5. Forest Department Sarawak Kuching Malaysia
6. University of Wisconsin‐Madison Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology Madison Wisconsin USA
Abstract
AbstractUnderstanding wildlife spatiotemporal dynamics at protected area boundaries is critical to conservation. In SE Asia, protected areas are often bordered by indigenous communities whose traditional practices result in increased landscape heterogeneity within their community managed forests (CF). Because SE Asian forests exhibit supra‐annual mast fruiting (3–7 yrs) and sustained fruit scarcity, wildlife using CF may benefit from greater availability of fruits and seeds encouraged by traditional management, but incur greater risk of being hunted. We examined shifts in wildlife activity in forests within and adjacent to Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary (LEWS), in Sarawak, Malaysia. Using camera traps and surveys of fruiting phenology, we related presence of fruits and seeds to shifts in large mammal activity over 3 years (October 2016–2019). We first compared relative frequency of five focal species (sun bear, bearded pig, muntjac, mouse deer, and sambar) by forest type for a given survey year and season (rainy vs. dry). We then modeled activity to assess how fruit availability, landscape features, and proxies for hunting risk, influence seasonal shifts in habitat use. Our results suggested seasonal variation in concert with increased landscape heterogeneity influenced patterns of activity. We found no evidence that CF excluded any detected mammal species, suggesting CF contribute important habitat to wildlife, particularly during periods of fruit scarcity in primary forest. However, our findings also imply increased hunting risk for wildlife attracted to resources near human settlements, emphasizing the need to consider the influence of both annual and supra‐annual seasonality when developing best practices for the sustainable management.
Subject
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics