AUGUST 9,
2019
Destruction
of tropical rainforests reduces many unprotected habitats to small fragments of
remnant forests within agricultural lands, and to date, these remnant forest
fragments have been largely disregarded as wildlife habitat.
Researchers
conducted camera trap surveys within Sumatra's Bukit Barisan Selatan National
Park and five surrounding remnant forest fragments, finding 28 mammal species in the
protected forest and 21 in the fragments—including critically endangered species such
as Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) and Sumatran tiger (Panthera
tigris sumatrae), along with species of conservation concern such as
marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata) and Asiatic golden cat (Pardofelis
temminckii).
The
biodiversity found within the fragments suggests that these small patches of
remnant forest may have conservation value to certain mammal species and
indicates the importance of further research into the role these habitats may
play in landscape-level, multispecies conservation planning.
More
information: Sarah R Weiskopf et al, The conservation value of forest
fragments in the increasingly agrarian landscape of Sumatra, Environmental
Conservation (2019). DOI:
10.1017/S0376892919000195
Provided
by Wildlife
Conservation Society
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