Abstract
Tarsius bancanus borneanus was first reported by Elliot in 1990 which an endemic species that can be found on the Island of Borneo consisting of Sabah and Sarawak of Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Kalimantan, Indonesia. This sub-species has been listed as a totally protected animal under the Sarawak Wild Life Protection Ordinance (1998) and vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The present study was conducted at Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu Campus (UPMKB), Sarawak from October 2014 till March 2015. Through mark and recapture sampling covering an area of 37 ha of secondary forest patches and 7.13 ha of rehabilitated forest, a total of 16 tarsiers were captured using mist nets while one tarsier was recapture. The population density was 38 individuals/km2 was captured using mist nets in the secondary forest while 28 individuals/km2 was recorded for the rehabilitated forest. Using the catch per unit effort (net hour) method, the average time for capturing tarsiers in the secondary forest patches was 26.6 net hour per animal and 30.0 net hour per animal in the rehabilitated forest. The presented results provides information on the presence of tarsiers in both the secondary and rehabilitated forests of UPMKB, Sarawak, Malaysia which underlines the conservation value of these forested areas.
Highlights
The name ‘tarsier’ is derived from the word ‘tarsal’ meaning ankle bone (Encyclopedia Britannica 2009)
Tarsius bancanus borneanus was first reported by Elliot in 1990 which an endemic species that can be found on the Island of Borneo consisting of Sabah and Sarawak of Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Kalimantan, Indonesia
In the case of Bintulu town, the Nirwana Forest Reserve and the Mitsubishi Rehabilitation Forest are the only two places available near UPMKB as alternative homes for wild life which are in close proximity to its natural habitat
Summary
The name ‘tarsier’ is derived from the word ‘tarsal’ meaning ankle bone (Encyclopedia Britannica 2009). Studies on Tarsius bancanus borneanus have been very slow compared to the Philippines Tarsier (Brandon-Jones et al 2004), as the species cannot be bred well in captivity and the specimen for the capture is low in number (Hellingman 2004). The whole species range of Tarsius bancanus borneanus occurrence as recorded by Brandon-Jones et al (2004) was estimated to be more than 100,000 km. Gursky et al (2008) acknowledged that data on tarsier species and populations, especially its distribution is lacking. More regional studies should be conducted to obtain accurate data so that estimations on population density and other parameters can be scientifically recorded. The aim of this study was to determine the species distribution, population density, average time of capture, including morphology and behavior sampling of Tarsius bancanus
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