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| Kawanishi, K.; Sunquist, M.E.; Jasmi, A. | |
| Effects of human activities on the tiger-prey community in Taman Negara National Park, Peninsular Malaysia and their implications for conservation | |
| 2006 Book Chapter | |
As the largest national park in Malaysia, the main objective of Taman Negara National Park is to preserve the intact biodiversity. Because humans are part of the ecosystem, it is important to monitor human impact on endangered species. The three major sources of possible human impact on wildlife in Taman Negara are aborigines, tourists, and poachers. We examined effects of the levels of human traffic, types of other human activities, and the land-use pattern adjacent to the park on the tiger-prey community at Merapoh, Kuala Terenggan and Kuala Koh in Taman Negara, Peninsular Malaysia based on camera-trapping and track-count data collected between 1999 and 2001. There was no negative trend in species richness observed, but the abundance of both tigers and their prey species was slightly depressed in Kuala Terenggan, a study site with the highest human traffic. At a microhabitat level, however, the possible impact of the high human traffic, mostly of tourists and aborigines, did not result in a temporal or spatial shift in activity patterns of animals. Partly due to the lack of the aborigines, low tourist traffic, and the proximity to a main road, the Merapoh study site registered the highest evidence of illegal activities. Wildlife in general was more abundant in Merapoh, but leopard (_X2 _= 6.31, _P _< 0.05), wild boar (_X2 _= 14.5, _P _< 0.001), mouse deer (_X2 _= 3.35, _P _< 0.05), sun bear (_X2 _= 5.12, _P _< 0.10), and tapir (_X2 _= 6.54, _P _< 0.05) were all relatively more nocturnal compared to other sites. Besides humans, only wild boar (_r _= -0.39, _P _= 0.01) in Merapoh with 30% hard edge responded positively to the edge. Muntjac (_r _= 0.26, _P _= 0.07) and elephant (_r _= 0.40, _P _= 0.004) avoided edge in Kuala Terenggan. We found no evidence of poaching of tigers or their prey. We conclude that the overall human impact on the tiger-prey community is minimal in Taman Negara. Continuous efforts in law enforcement and careful park management are necessary to ensure the resilience of the large park to absorb the negative human impact exerted in a few selected areas. Implications for conservation of tigers in Taman Negara are discussed at the ecosystem and landscape levels. |
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