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Impacts of fruit production cycles on Malayan sun bears and bearded pigs in lowland tropical forest of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2005

Siew Te Wong
Affiliation:
College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, USA
Christopher Servheen
Affiliation:
College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, USA
Laurentius Ambu
Affiliation:
Sabah Wildlife Department, 5th floor, Block B, MUIS Complex, 88100 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Ahmad Norhayati
Affiliation:
School of Environment and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract

We observed a period of famine in the lowland tropical rain forest of Sabah, Malaysia from August 1999 to September 2000. All six Malayan sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) that were captured and radio-collared were in poor physical condition, and two were later found dead. The physical condition of bearded pigs (Sus barbatus) that were captured, observed or photographed by camera traps also revealed that the pigs were in various stages of emaciation and starvation. We surmise that the famine resulted from prolonged scarcity of fruit during an intermast interval in the study area. These phenomena of emaciated animals and fruit scarcity have also been reported from other areas of Borneo. Lowland tropical rain-forest trees of Borneo display supra-annual synchronized general fruiting. We believe that the starvation we observed and the generally low density of large animals in Borneo forests is a consequence of a history of prolonged food scarcity during non-general-fruiting years, but may be accentuated by anthropogenic factors such as forest fragmentation, selective logging, and reduced density of fig trees in logged forests.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2005 Cambridge University Press

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