Threatened Malaysian wildlife moving higher up into the mountains

Elizabeth John, New Straits Times 2 Dec 07

SEREMBAN: Threatened by logging, land clearing and poachers, wildlife like the gaur and wild dog are moving higher up into the country's mountains. Camera traps set up by the Wildlife and National Parks Department have recently captured images of these animals in mountain forests between 1,500 and 1,700 metres above sea level.

These species usually roam lowland forests and their presence in places about the same elevation as Cameron Highlands is considered unusual and worrying.

The department's surveys, conducted between 2005 and this year, covered 4,120 square kilometres of the peninsula's main range.

In the assessment, the department found that much of the forested land below 1,000 metres had been opened up.

Habitat degradation caused by logging and forest areas converted for agriculture, plantations and housing schemes were recorded in almost all the survey areas below 350 metres.

Signs of encroachment, including dozens of wire snares, were also recorded.

These would have forced animals like the gaur, previously recorded in the lowlands of Taman Negara and the Royal Belum State Park, to move up to safer and less disturbed areas.

Some animals like the wild dog could also have migrated to higher ground, following their prey -- deer.

The results of the surveys were presented by the department's principal assistant director of conservation, Abdul Kadir Hashim, at the National Biodiversity Seminar 2007 earlier this week.

The migration would also have meant a change of diet and behaviour in these wildlife species, which needed further study, he said.

The assessment team also found tracks and traces of the critically endangered Sumatran rhinoceros in the area but camera traps captured no images of the animal.

A prized target among poachers, the rhino has not been sighted in the wild in Peninsular Malaysia for many years.

Their find of footprints, faeces and a wallow has given the department some hope that there are rhinos in the area.

The teams also recorded a high diversity of large mammals -- 17 species representing 852 individuals.

In the surveys, at least 270 sightings of elephants were recorded during a 10- to 12-day period.

Large numbers of wild boar and white-handed gibbon were also recorded.

Cameras traps captured images of tigers, panthers, sun bears, tapir and several species of ungulates.