Deforestation in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia has increased significantly in the past few years to accommodate the growing population of Cameron Highlands. This led to a rapid urbanisation in Cameron Highlands which increased anthropogenic activities, causing degradation of the natural environment. Such environmental changes highlight the necessity of wildlife and resource inventories of available forested areas to improve existing conservation and management plans, especially for threatened taxa such as the non-volant small mammals. However, very few studies are known to focus on the effect of deforestation on non-volant small mammals, especially in the adjacent forest. This survey aimed to document non-volant small mammals from four habitat types (restoration areas, boundary, disturbed and undisturbed areas) of Terla A and Bertam, and undisturbed forest of Bukit Bujang Forest Reserve, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. Samplings were conducted in two phases between August 2020 to January 2021. A total of 80 live traps were deployed along the transect lines in all three study sites, and 10 camera traps were set randomly in each forested area. Results demonstrated that species diversity () is higher at Terla A Forest Reserve compared to Bertam and Bukit Bujang Forest Reserve. In contrast, species diversity in the boundary area ( = 8, = 2.025) and disturbed forest area ( = 8, = 1.992) had similar number of species () compared to others study habitat; restoration area had the lowest species diversity ( = 3, = 0.950). was the most captured species from trappings and was the most frequently recorded species from camera trappings for all study sites. The results of the survey provided new information on non-volant small mammals in Cameron Highlands for future research, conservation, and management.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10093765PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.21315/tlsr2023.34.1.10DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

cameron highlands
24
non-volant small
20
species diversity
16
small mammals
16
highlands malaysia
12
forest reserve
12
boundary disturbed
8
disturbed undisturbed
8
conservation management
8
bukit bujang
8

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!