Rare otter find sparks hope

Roy Goh New Straits Times 26 Jul 10;

KOTA KINABALU: The world's most endangered otter has been rediscovered in Sabah.

This hairy-nosed otter (Lutra sumatrana) was recently caught on camera at the Deramakot forest reserve in Sandakan, thanks to the efforts of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) of Germany, the Sabah Forestry Department and the Sabah Wildlife Department .
"This is great news for Sabah and shows once again how unique and fortunate we are in terms of wildlife and nature," said state wildlife director Dr Laurentius Ambu.

"These findings will boost the conservation of this endangered otter internationally as historically this otter was found in many parts of the Southeast Asian region."

The last confirmed record of the hairy-nosed otter in Sabah is a museum specimen collected over a hundred years ago.

"Even in the whole island of Borneo the last record -- a road-kill from Brunei -- was in 1997, over 10 years ago. Therefore, it was unknown to scientists if this species could still be found in Borneo," said Andreas Wilting of IZW.

In 2008, IZW initiated the Conservation of Carnivores in Sabah (ConCaSa) project in collaboration with the Wildlife Department and the Forestry Department to study carnivores such as the Sunda clouded leopard, civets and otters in the state.

The ConCaSa project used automated camera traps that were set up in Deramakot and the surrounding forest reserves in the last two years.

As the different otter species look very similar, the hairy-nosed otter pictures had first to be verified by a number of experts before they were published recently by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission journal.

In addition to capturing camera trap pictures of the endangered hairy-nosed otter, the study also confirmed the presence of all five Bornean cat species, 13 other small carnivores such as the Banded civet and the sun bear.

"These results mean that out of 25 known carnivore species in Borneo, our project, together with Japanese researcher Hiromitsu Samejima, confirmed 20 in Deramakot.

"This makes Deramakot outstanding for being extremely rich in its diversity of carnivores," said Wilting.

Besides pictures, ConCaSa also obtained the first videos footages ever taken for some species such as the otter civet (Cynogale bennettii).

Since 1997, the 55,000ha Deramakot Forest Reserve has been managed by the Forest Department as a sustainable logged forest with the coveted forest stewardship council certification.

"These findings show that long-term sustainable forest management is of great importance for the protection of some of this country's most threatened species and of the unique biodiversity of the forests of Borneo," said Forestry director Datuk Sam Mannan.

The next step in the conservation of Bornean carnivores being planned is the holding of the first Borneo Carnivore Symposium to be held here in June next year.

This symposium will be a landmark international meeting bringing together scientists, government agencies and non-governmental organisations working on the protection of the Bornean carnivores.

Rarest otter discovered in Sabah, Borneo
Matt Walker, BBC News 27 Jul 10;

The world's rarest otter has been rediscovered in Borneo, after a single individual was photographed by a camera trap set by conservation scientists.

The hairy-nosed otter was pictured in the Deramakot Forest Reserve in Sabah.

The last confirmed record of the hairy-nosed otter in the state of Sabah was more than 100 years ago, and it has not been seen in Borneo since an individual was killed by a car in 1997.

The otter only occurs in a handful of locations outside of Borneo.

Experts only realised they had recorded a hairy-nosed otter (Lutra sumatrana) after examining photos of three different otter species.

One otter species caught on camera was the smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata), while another was the Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus).

But a close examination of one photograph revealed it had recorded a hairy-nosed otter, which has a flatter, longer head, a white throat and darker fur than its two relatives.

Trapped by technology

The otter was recorded by an automated camera trap, one of many set up in Deramakot and the surrounding forest reserves during the last two years as part of the Conservation of Carnivores in Sabah (ConCaSa) project initiated by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) and performed in collaboration with the Sabah Wildlife Department and Sabah Forestry Department.

Details of the latest finding have been published in the journal Small Carnivore Conservation, a publication of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission.

"Even over the whole island of Borneo the last record, a road-kill from Brunei, was 1997, over ten years ago. Therefore it was unknown to scientists if this species can be still found on Borneo," says project leader Mr Andreas Wilting of the IZW.

"Also outside of Borneo it is just known from a few localities throughout its distribution and in general it is very rare," he told the BBC.

"This is great news for Sabah and shows once again how unique and fortunate we are in terms of wildlife and nature," says Dr Laurentius Ambu, director of the Sabah Wildlife Department.

"These findings also boost the conservation of this endangered otter internationally, as historically this otter was distributed throughout large parts of southeast Asia."

The otter has been known to live in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra, but the records of its existence in these places are patchy, depending on a few sightings, road kill and skins.

Few hairy-nosed otters are thought to survive in the wild, with the species listed as endangered by the IUCN.

It is a medium-sized otter, around 1.3m in length and weighing around 7kg. The paws are fully webbed with well-developed claws.

Further steps to protect Bornean otters and other carnivores will be developed at the Borneo Carnivore Symposium, which will be held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia in June 2011.

Earlier this year, the ConCaSa project released the first video to be made public of a wild Sundaland clouded leopard.