Abstract
Wildlife populations in southeast Asia are increasingly experiencing a broad array of anthropogenic threats, and mammalian carnivores are particularly vulnerable. Populations of the Malayan sun bear Helarctos malayanus are estimated to have declined by 30% over the last 30 years from forest conversion to industrial plantations and mortality associated with human–bear conflicts and illegal wildlife trade. However, the effects of industrial plantations on habitat selection and activity patterns of mammals that live at the protected area-plantation interface, including sun bears, are not well known. We investigated habitat selection and activity patterns of sun bears in Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Sabah, Malaysia. We deployed 83 remote camera sites to record sun bear detections during two sampling periods (2012–2013 and 2017). We used generalized linear models to examine relationships between sun bear presence and site covariates representing physical, environmental and anthropogenic elements of the landscape. Relative probability of sun bear presence was positively associated with distance to roads and elevation. Because most roads were on the reserve boundary and often associated with oil palm plantations, proximity to roads likely served as a surrogate measure of human accessibility and activity in peripheral areas of the reserve. Supporting that interpretation, sun bears close to the reserve boundary were primarily active at night, whereas daytime activity was more common for bears in the interior. Our findings indicate that sun bears alter behaviour and habitat selection likely in response to anthropogenic activities at the edges of Tabin Wildlife Reserve (112 200 ha). Because the ratio of edge to interior increases steeply with declining habitat area, smaller protected areas bordered by plantations are predicted to have greater impacts on sun bear behaviour and, potentially, population persistence. Effective conservation actions may benefit from management to improve the security of edge habitats for sun bears and other vulnerable species.
Highlights
Conceived to preserve unique ecosystems and provide refuge for threatened species, protected areas across the globe are facing growing challenges in fulfilling their principal role (Watson et al 2014)
Distance to reserve boundary was strongly correlated with distance to nearest road (VIF > 10)
Distance to roads better captured anthropogenic disturbance at Tabin Wildlife Reserve so we retained it as a covariate
Summary
Conceived to preserve unique ecosystems and provide refuge for threatened species, protected areas across the globe are facing growing challenges in fulfilling their principal role (Watson et al 2014). Protected areas and threatened wildlife, in turn, experience an increasing array of direct and indirect threats, including illegal hunting and resource extraction (Vaidyanathan et al 2010, Muposhi et al 2016, Duporge et al 2020), and the persecution of species that threaten human life or property (Nyhus 2016). These threats are most intense at the periphery of protected areas and are expected to increase in smaller reserves as the ratio of perimeter to protected area magnifies (Woodroffe and Ginsberg 1998, DeFries et al 2010). The intensity of hunting to feed the demand for bushmeat and the illegal global trade in wildlife is tightly coupled with the loss of biodiversity (Lee et al 2014) and affects large-bodied, forest-dependent mammals like sun bears Helarctos malayanus whose paws and gall bladders have high market value in the global wildlife trade
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