Effects of forest degradation on the moonrat Echinosorex gymnura in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo

Publication date: Available online 15 October 2018Source: Mammalian BiologyAuthor(s): Robert Brozovic, Jesse F. Abrams, Azlan Mohamed, Seth T. Wong, Jürgen Niedballa, Tejas Bhagwat, Rahel Sollmann, Sam Mannan, Johnny Kissing, Andreas WiltingAbstractCommercial timber extraction and agricultural expansion lead to substantial degradation and loss of tropical rainforests, posing a severe threat to biodiversity in South-east Asia. Although the impacts of these disturbances are well understood for some species, they remain largely unknown for most species, impeding any directed conservation efforts. One of these little known, presumably forest-dwelling species is the moonrat Echinosorex gymnura, an insectivorous mammal ranging from southern Myanmar and southern Thailand to Sumatra and Borneo. While the moonrat is currently listed as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, large parts of its range have been severely degraded due to unsustainable logging practices and the conversion of forest to oil palm plantations. We conducted a systematic large-scale camera trap survey in three forest reserves under different forest management strategies in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. We recorded a total of 67 independent moonrat detections at 22 of 180 camera trap stations over 12,281 camera trap days. We analysed moonrat habitat associations using occupancy modelling and a set of 9 different environmental covariates. Canopy closure and forest quality were positively associated w...
Source: Mammalian Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: research