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Pangolins in global camera trap data : Implications for ecological monitoring

Despite being heavily exploited, pangolins (Pholidota: Manidae) have been subject to limited research, resulting in a lack of reliable population estimates and standardised survey methods for the eight extant species. Camera trapping represents a unique opportunity for broad-scale collaborative spec...

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Main Authors:	Khwaja, Hannah, Buchan, Claire, Wearn, Oliver R., Mohd Azlan, Jayasilan
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Elsevier Ltd. 2019
Subjects:	Q Science (General) QL Zoology
Online Access:	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27306/1/Mohd%20Azlan.pdf http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27306/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989419303105
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spelling	my.unimas.ir.273062021-03-30T07:57:13Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27306/ Pangolins in global camera trap data : Implications for ecological monitoring Khwaja, Hannah Buchan, Claire Wearn, Oliver R. Mohd Azlan, Jayasilan Q Science (General) QL Zoology Despite being heavily exploited, pangolins (Pholidota: Manidae) have been subject to limited research, resulting in a lack of reliable population estimates and standardised survey methods for the eight extant species. Camera trapping represents a unique opportunity for broad-scale collaborative species monitoring due to its largely nondiscriminatory nature, which creates considerable volumes of data on a relatively wide range of species. This has the potential to shed light on the ecology of rare, cryptic and understudied taxa, with implications for conservation decision-making. We undertook a global analysis of available pangolin data from camera trapping studies across their range in Africa and Asia. Our aims were (1) to assess the utility of existing camera trapping efforts as a method for monitoring pangolin populations, and (2) to gain insights into the distribution and ecology of pangolins. We analysed data collated from 103 camera trap surveys undertaken across 22 countries that fell within the range of seven of the eight pangolin species, which yielded more than half a million trap nights and 888 pangolin encounters. We ran occupancy analyses on three species (Sunda pangolin Manis javanica, white-bellied pangolin Phataginus tricuspis and giant pangolin Smutsia gigantea). Detection probabilities varied with forest cover and levels of human influence for P. tricuspis, but were low (<0.05) for all species. Occupancy was associated with distance from rivers for M. javanica and S. gigantea, elevation for P. tricuspis and S. gigantea, forest cover for P. tricuspis and protected area status for M. javanica and P. tricuspis. We conclude that camera traps are suitable for the detection of pangolins and large-scale assessment of their distributions. However, the trapping effort required to monitor populations at any given study site using existing methods appears prohibitively high. This may change in the future should anticipated technological and methodological advances in camera trapping facilitate greater sampling efforts and/or higher probabilities of detection. In particular, targeted camera placement for pangolins is likely to make pangolin monitoring more feasible with moderate sampling efforts. Elsevier Ltd. 2019 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27306/1/Mohd%20Azlan.pdf Khwaja, Hannah and Buchan, Claire and Wearn, Oliver R. and Mohd Azlan, Jayasilan (2019) Pangolins in global camera trap data : Implications for ecological monitoring. Global Ecology and Conservation, 20. pp. 1-14. ISSN 2351-9894 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989419303105 DOI:org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00769
institution	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
building	Centre for Academic Information Services (CAIS)
collection	Institutional Repository
continent	Asia
country	Malaysia
content_provider	Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
content_source	UNIMAS Institutional Repository
url_provider	http://ir.unimas.my/
language	English
topic	Q Science (General) QL Zoology
spellingShingle	Q Science (General) QL Zoology Khwaja, Hannah Buchan, Claire Wearn, Oliver R. Mohd Azlan, Jayasilan Pangolins in global camera trap data : Implications for ecological monitoring
description	Despite being heavily exploited, pangolins (Pholidota: Manidae) have been subject to limited research, resulting in a lack of reliable population estimates and standardised survey methods for the eight extant species. Camera trapping represents a unique opportunity for broad-scale collaborative species monitoring due to its largely nondiscriminatory nature, which creates considerable volumes of data on a relatively wide range of species. This has the potential to shed light on the ecology of rare, cryptic and understudied taxa, with implications for conservation decision-making. We undertook a global analysis of available pangolin data from camera trapping studies across their range in Africa and Asia. Our aims were (1) to assess the utility of existing camera trapping efforts as a method for monitoring pangolin populations, and (2) to gain insights into the distribution and ecology of pangolins. We analysed data collated from 103 camera trap surveys undertaken across 22 countries that fell within the range of seven of the eight pangolin species, which yielded more than half a million trap nights and 888 pangolin encounters. We ran occupancy analyses on three species (Sunda pangolin Manis javanica, white-bellied pangolin Phataginus tricuspis and giant pangolin Smutsia gigantea). Detection probabilities varied with forest cover and levels of human influence for P. tricuspis, but were low (<0.05) for all species. Occupancy was associated with distance from rivers for M. javanica and S. gigantea, elevation for P. tricuspis and S. gigantea, forest cover for P. tricuspis and protected area status for M. javanica and P. tricuspis. We conclude that camera traps are suitable for the detection of pangolins and large-scale assessment of their distributions. However, the trapping effort required to monitor populations at any given study site using existing methods appears prohibitively high. This may change in the future should anticipated technological and methodological advances in camera trapping facilitate greater sampling efforts and/or higher probabilities of detection. In particular, targeted camera placement for pangolins is likely to make pangolin monitoring more feasible with moderate sampling efforts.
format	Article
author	Khwaja, Hannah Buchan, Claire Wearn, Oliver R. Mohd Azlan, Jayasilan
author_facet	Khwaja, Hannah Buchan, Claire Wearn, Oliver R. Mohd Azlan, Jayasilan
author_sort	Khwaja, Hannah
title	Pangolins in global camera trap data : Implications for ecological monitoring
title_short	Pangolins in global camera trap data : Implications for ecological monitoring
title_full	Pangolins in global camera trap data : Implications for ecological monitoring
title_fullStr	Pangolins in global camera trap data : Implications for ecological monitoring
title_full_unstemmed	Pangolins in global camera trap data : Implications for ecological monitoring
title_sort	pangolins in global camera trap data : implications for ecological monitoring
publisher	Elsevier Ltd.
publishDate	2019
url	http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27306/1/Mohd%20Azlan.pdf http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/27306/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989419303105
_version_	1696979498011983872
score	13.211869

Pangolins in global camera trap data : Implications for ecological monitoring

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