Kinabatangan Carnivore Programme
25 March 2011
Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), Sabah Wildlife Department, the NGO HUTAN and WildCRU (University of Oxford) recently launched the "Kinabatangan Carnivore Programme". This long-term programme will intend to advance understanding, and the conservation, of the diverse carnivores of the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain. For this, we are collaborating with Andrew Hearn from WildCRU who spent the last four years studying clouded leopards and other carnivores in Danum Valley and Tabin Wildlife Reserve. We aim at providing insights into Bornean carnivore ecology and density and develop Bornean carnivore species distribution and habitat suitability models. It is crucial for wildlife conservationists and managers to find out about what dispersal opportunities exist for these carnivores and other mammals within the fragmented landscape of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, and how might dispersal corridors be protected, enhanced and restored.
Rob Colgan and Rosanna Tenquist-Clarke, two undergraduates from Cardiff University, who are spending a year at DGFC during their professional training year, are providing field assistance to the project. Last November, they were extremely pleased to find a sequence of 12 pictures showing a clouded leopard female and her cub walking along a trail (see picture). These two individuals were also recorded in December on most of our cameras along a thin corridor of forest between the river and a plantation. The pictures show that these animals rely on forest corridors for moving around forest patches. We would like to take the opportunity to thank the four American zoos, which are funding our programme: Houston, Columbus, Cincinnati and Phoenix; as well as our Friends of DGFC from New York.