(The Impact of Habitat Fragmentation on Mammal Species Diversity at the Central Forest Spine Ecological Corridor (CFS), Main Range Forest Complex, Peninsular Malaysia)

Abstract

Habitat fragmentation is a key driver to the issue of multi-species extinction which causes forest fragments to become smaller and more isolated. This study was conducted to determine the composition and diversity of terrestrial mammal species (medium to large size) in the ecological corridors of CFS1:PL1 and CFS1:PL6. The installation of 211 camera traps in both corridors successfully recorded a total of 43,799 independent images (8,594 traps/night). There are a total of 30 mammalian species documented, including 28 species in PL1 and 17 species in PL6. The Order with the highest frequency of presence (869 independent images) was Artiodactyla, while the Order with the highest species diversity was Carnivore (14 species). There were no significant differences between the mammalian communities in the two study areas, and nine species contributed to more than 90% of the mammalian communities in PL1 and PL6. This analysis found that wild boar (Sus scrofa) (PCRI = 62.17), barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak) (PCRI = 31.20), and sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) (PCRI = 15.14) recorded a high frequency of crossing the ecological corridor (PCRI > 10) of PL1. While in PL6, the most frequently recorded species were barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak) (PCRI = 47.70), Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus) (PCRI = 26.21), wild boar (Sus scrofa) (PCRI = 23.61), Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) (PCRI = 11.57) and gaur (Bos gaurus) (PCRI = 10.63). However, for medium sized mammals, the frequency of crossing the corridor was only seen in PL1 by the species of mousedeer (Tragulus sp.) (PCRI = 20.88) and Malayan porcupine (Hystrix brachyura) (PCRI = 14.68). Therefore, more effective conservation plans and wildlife crossing structure need to be implemented in both corridors as these corridors were used at high frequencies.