Preliminary assessment of group composition and activity pattern of the critically endangered Bornean Banded Langur in Tanjung Datu National Park.

The Bornean banded langur () is critically endangered species primarily found in Sarawak, Malaysia. Albeit this species is in peril, the ecology knowledge of this endemic species of Borneo is still scarce. Thus, a rapid survey employing total count and scan sampling method was conducted between July to August 2023 at Tanjung Datu National Park (TDNP), Sarawak to observe the social interaction of species with the environment.

Checklist of land snail species of Gua Rumbang, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo (Mollusca, Gastropoda), with a description of a new species, sp. nov.

The current study presents an annotated checklist of the land snail species in the vicinity of the limestone hill of Gua (= cave) Rumbang, an outcrop located at the district of Padawan, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. The sampling was conducted at the surrounding areas and near the cave's entrance. A total of 62 species, involving 19 families and 38 genera, were recorded.

CamTrapAsia: A dataset of tropical forest vertebrate communities from 239 camera trapping studies.

Information on tropical Asian vertebrates has traditionally been sparse, particularly when it comes to cryptic species inhabiting the dense forests of the region. Vertebrate populations are declining globally due to land-use change and hunting, the latter frequently referred as "defaunation." This is especially true in tropical Asia where there is extensive land-use change and high human densities.

Combining camera trap surveys and IUCN range maps to improve knowledge of species distributions.

Reliable maps of species distributions are fundamental for biodiversity research and conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) range maps are widely recognized as authoritative representations of species' geographic limits, yet they might not always align with actual occurrence data. In recent area of habitat (AOH) maps, areas that are not habitat have been removed from IUCN ranges to reduce commission errors, but their concordance with actual species occurrence also remains untested.

Landscape-scale benefits of protected areas for tropical biodiversity.

The United Nations recently agreed to major expansions of global protected areas (PAs) to slow biodiversity declines. However, although reserves often reduce habitat loss, their efficacy at preserving animal diversity and their influence on biodiversity in surrounding unprotected areas remain unclear. Unregulated hunting can empty PAs of large animals, illegal tree felling can degrade habitat quality, and parks can simply displace disturbances such as logging and hunting to unprotected areas of the landscape (a phenomenon called leakage).

Socio-ecological factors shape the distribution of a cultural keystone species in Malaysian Borneo.

Biophysical and socio-cultural factors have jointly shaped the distribution of global biodiversity, yet relatively few studies have quantitatively assessed the influence of social and ecological landscapes on wildlife distributions. We sought to determine whether social and ecological covariates shape the distribution of a cultural keystone species, the bearded pig (Sus barbatus). Drawing on a dataset of 295 total camera trap locations and 25,755 trap days across 18 field sites and three years in Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, we fitted occupancy models that incorporated socio-cultural covariates and ecological covariates hypothesized to influence bearded pig occupancy.

The dynamics of the microbiome in Ixodidae are shaped by tick ontogeny and pathogens in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo.

Tick-borne diseases have recently been considered a potential emerging public health threat in Malaysia; however, fundamental studies into tick-borne pathogens and microbiome appear limited. In this study, six tick species (, , and ) collected from two primary forests and an oil palm plantation in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, were used for microbiome analysis targeting bacterial 16S rDNA using next-generation sequencing (NGS). In addition, bacterial species were further characterized in conventional PCRs to identify potential pathogens.

The Distribution and Community's Perception of Flying Fox, in Limbang, a Transboundary Area in Sarawak.

Flying foxes are threatened throughout their geographic range, and there are large gaps in the understanding of their landscape-scale habitat use. This study identified potential habitats in Limbang, Sarawak and informed potential distribution based on dispersal and interview surveys. Here, biological surveys were combined with interviews of local communities in Limbang Mangrove National Park (LMNP), Sarawak to illustrate distribution and the communities' perception on the protected flying fox ().

Detection of a Babesia sp. genotype closely related to marsupial-associated Babesia spp. in male Haemaphysalis shimoga from Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo.

In this study, Babesia screening was conducted in 55 rodents and 160 tick samples collected from primary forests and an oil palm plantation in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. PCR targeting the 18S ribosomal DNA revealed the presence of Babesia spp. DNA detected in two questing male Haemaphysalis shimoga ticks collected from the oil palm plantation.

Land snails and slugs of Bau limestone hills, Sarawak (Malaysia, Borneo), with the descriptions of 13 new species.

This study presents a list of land snails and slugs found on limestone hills in the District of Bau, the state of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo. Systematic and random sampling for land snails was conducted at eight limestone outcrops, namely, Gunung Stulang, Padang Pan, Gunung Kapor, Gunung Lobang Angin, Gunung Doya, Gunung Batu, Bukit Sekunyit and Gunung Sebayat. A total of 122 land snail species was documented with photographs of each species.

Detection of Sensu Lato and Relapsing Fever in Feeding Ticks and Rodents in Sarawak, Malaysia: New Geographical Records of and .

Members of the sensu lato (Bbsl) complex are etiological agents of Lyme disease (LD), and is one of the relapsing fever (RFB). Despite the serological evidence of LD in Malaysia, there has been no report from Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Thus, this study aimed to detect and characterize in rodents and ticks from primary forests and an oil palm (OP) plantation in Sarawak.

Molecular phylogenetics and evolutionary history of the endemic land snail genus in northern Borneo.

Borneo has gone through dramatic changes in geology and topography from the early Eocene until the early Pliocene and experienced climatic cycling during the Pleistocene. However, how these changes have shaped the present-day patterns of high diversity and complex distribution are still poorly understood. In this study, we use integrative approaches by estimating phylogenetic relationships, divergence time, and current and past niche suitability for the Bornean endemic land snail genus to provide additional insight into the evolutionary history of this genus in northern Borneo in the light of the geological vicariance events and climatic fluctuations in the Pleistocene.

Gastrointestinal parasites of zoonotic importance observed in the wild, urban, and captive populations of non-human primates in Malaysia.

Background: A study was undertaken to determine gastrointestinal (GI) parasites commonly found in Malaysia's non-human primates (NHP) living in three different types of populations (wild, urban, and captive) and the basis of major GI parasites of zoonotic importance.

Methods: A total of 308 samples was collected and microscopically screened from the NHP in the wild (n = 163), urban (n = 76), and captive (n = 69) populations. The samples were taken from 12 species of local NHPs.

Lowland biotic attrition revisited: body size and variation among climate change 'winners' and 'losers'.

The responses of lowland tropical communities to climate change will critically influence global biodiversity but remain poorly understood. If species in these systems are unable to tolerate warming, the communities-currently the most diverse on Earth-may become depauperate ('biotic attrition'). In response to temperature changes, animals can adjust their distribution in space or their activity in time, but these two components of the niche are seldom considered together.

How individual links affect network stability in a large-scale, heterogeneous metacommunity.

Elucidating how dispersal and landscape connectivity influence metacommunity stability will shed light on natural processes structuring ecosystems and help prioritize conservation actions in an increasingly fragmented world. Much of the theoretical and mathematical development of the metacommunity concept has been based on simplified experimental systems or simulated data. We still have limited understanding of how variation in the habitat matrix and species-specific differences in dispersal ability contribute to metacommunity dynamics in heterogeneous landscapes.

Correlation and persistence of hunting and logging impacts on tropical rainforest mammals.

Humans influence tropical rainforest animals directly via exploitation and indirectly via habitat disturbance. Bushmeat hunting and logging occur extensively in tropical forests and have large effects on particular species. But how they alter animal diversity across landscape scales and whether their impacts are correlated across species remain less known.

Evaluating multispecies landscape connectivity in a threatened tropical mammal community.

Habitat corridors are important tools for maintaining connectivity in increasingly fragmented landscapes, but generally they have been considered in single-species approaches. Corridors intended to facilitate the movement of multiple species could increase persistence of entire communities, but at the likely cost of being less efficient for any given species than a corridor intended specifically for that species. There have been few tests of the trade-offs between single- and multispecies corridor approaches.

Modelling the species distribution of flat-headed cats (Prionailurus planiceps), an endangered South-East Asian small felid.

Background: The flat-headed cat (Prionailurus planiceps) is one of the world's least known, highly threatened felids with a distribution restricted to tropical lowland rainforests in Peninsular Thailand/Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra. Throughout its geographic range large-scale anthropogenic transformation processes, including the pollution of fresh-water river systems and landscape fragmentation, raise concerns regarding its conservation status. Despite an increasing number of camera-trapping field surveys for carnivores in South-East Asia during the past two decades, few of these studies recorded the flat-headed cat.