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Kawanishi, K.; Yatim, S.H.; Abu Hashim, A.K.; Topani, R.
Distribution and potential population size of the tiger in peninsular Malaysia
2003  Journal Of Wildlife And Parks (Malaysia) (21): 29-50

The current distribution of the Malayan tiger (_Panthera tigris jacksoni_) was mapped based on 1,775 entries of data collected by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia between 1991 and 2003. Since the majority of the data were collected as part of tiger-human conflict management, the spatial bias towards forest edge was inevitable. To overcome this, using Geographic Information System with a conservation forest (a protected area or permanent reserved forest) as a spatial unit, this mapping exercise took an approach to delineate the forest where tigers were likely to occur based on the locations where data were actually collected. Three categories of tiger habitat, comprising 37,674 km2 of confirmed tiger habitat or Tiger Conservation Forest (TCF), 11,655 km2 of expected tiger habitat and 16,882 km2 of possible tiger habitat, altogether encompassed 66,211 km2 or 50% of the land area. This did not include non-forested lands such as riverine habitats, abandoned fields and agricultural land where tigers were observed, especially in the eastern states. The 4 main tiger states, Pahang, Perak, Kelantan, and Terengganu, with the 4 lowest per-state human densities, ranging from 34 persons/km2 in Pahang to 94 persons/km2 in Perak and 4 highest proportional forest coverage, ranging from 53% in Perak to 69% in Kelantan, contributed 87% of the total TCF. Resources for tiger conservation are better distributed proportionally to the state total acreage of TCF. The 3 main contiguous blocks of TCF were identified in Peninsular Malaysia as the Main Range (ca. 20,000 km2), Greater Taman Negara (ca. 15,000 km2) and the Southern Forest Complex (ca. 10,000 km2). The landscape connectivity within and across the TCFs, 7 critical conservation areas, conservation priorities and challenges are described and discussed in detail so as to provide directions for future actions and guidelines for landuse planning and Environmental Impact Assessments. An attempt was made to roughly guess how many tigers can be supported in the confirmed and expected tiger habitat. Assuming that the mean estimated adult tiger density in those 2 habitat types was 1-3 tigers/100 km2, the habitat of good to fair conservation value can potentially support 493 to 1,480 adult tigers as long as tigers and tigers' prey were not depleted throughout Peninsular Malaysia. The potential population size did not include tigers still found in the remaining habitat of marginal conservation value such as isolated forests, belukar (early-succession vegetation fields), riparian forests, and agricultural fields. Limitations of the analysis, recommendations for improvement as well as conservation implications are discussed.

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