Hornbill Distribution in Totally Protected Areas of Sarawak-preliminary investigations

Transcription

1 Hornbill Distribution in Totally Protected Areas of Sarawak-preliminary investigations Sim, Lee Kheng 1 J., Mohd-Azlan 2 Tisen, Oswald Braken 3 1,3 Sarawak Forestry Corporation 2 Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

2 Presentation Outline Introduction Objective Materials & methods Results Discussion Conclusion Acknowledgements References

3 Introduction Sarawak, one of the East Malaysian states on the island of Borneo Land area 124,449 sq km; Latitude 0 50 &5 N, Longitude & Known as Bumi Kenyalang or Land of the Hornbills Eight species of hornbills in its avifauna inventory Legal framework for the protection & conservation of hornbills are in place

4 All eight species are listed Totally Protected by the Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998 Hornbill habitat are protected by the establishment of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries Purpose is to protect physical features or iconic species, for biodiversity conservation & recreation

5 Totally Protected Areas

6 Hornbills Hornbills are birds from the family Bucerotidae - 54 species worldwide Large, conspicuous birds of tropical rainforests Frugivores, also consume animal prey (Poonswad 1998, Smythies 1999) Eight species in Sarawak, Borneo: White crested hornbill, Bushy crested hornbill, Wrinkled hornbill, Wreathed hornbill, Black hornbill, Oriental Pied hornbill, Rhinoceros hornbill, Helmeted hornbill

7 Hornbills of Sarawak Mnsperak.wordpress.com Wreathed Hornbill Wrinkled Hornbill Helmeted Hornbill

8 Bushy crested Hornbill Black Hornbill White crowned Hornbill

9 Rhinoceros Hornbill Oriental-pied Hornbill

10 Materials & methods We examined relationships between Size of protected areas vs number of hornbill species Number of forest types within TPAs vs number of hornbill species Analysis of data by Excel and SPSS

11 Materials and methods Relationships between What is.. Size of protected areas & number of hornbill species Most common hornbill species sighted in protected areas Number of forest types & number of hornbill species Most common forest types in protected areas

12 Results A total of 17 TPAs (protected areas) and their sizes were assessed Log size of protected area plotted against number of hornbill species recorded

13 No of hornbill species 9 8 y = x R² = Log size of protected area

14 Results Log area of TPAs in hectares compared to number of hornbill species recorded. There is a positive correlation R square = 0.388; y = 2.435x This implies as size of protected areas increases, number of hornbill species increases.

15 No of protected areas No of tpas vs hornbill species BH RH BCH OPH WH HH WCH WKH BH Black; RH Rhinoceros; BCH Bushy crested; OPH Oriental pied; WH Wreathed; HH Helmeted; WCH White crested; WKH Wrinkled

16 Results We then looked at number of protected areas which recorded a particular hornbill species and plotted a histogram. The Black hornbill is found in most protected areas ie 13 out of 17 protected areas, therefore is the most common, followed by the Rhinoceros hornbill which has been recorded in 11 protected areas. The Wrinkled hornbill is the least recorded, as it occurs only in five protected areas.

17 Results - Forest types in TPAs Nine major forest types (Hazebroek & Abg.Morshidi, 2000) Mixed dipterocarp forest (MDF)-richest forest type Riverine Kerangas Montane Mangrove Peat swamp forest (PSF) Limestone forest, beach, secondary forests

18 Number of hornbill species y = x R² = Number of forest types

19 Results We plotted a graph for forest types in protected areas against hornbill species therein and run a SPSS test on the results, to see if there was a relationship between the two. y= 0.68x , R sq= 0.12, F (1,16) = 1.82, P= 0.2 There is no significant relationship between number of forest type/habitat in a protected area and the species richness of hornbills in Sarawak. This suggests that hornbills are not habitat generalist, thus dependent on dipterocarp forests

20 No of protected areas Beach Limestone PSF Mangrove Montane Kerangas Riverine MDF Secondary Forest types in protected areas

21 Results The most common habitat type is secondary forests, which is found in all 18 protected areas. Second most common is MDF (mixed dipterocarp forests). Least common is beach forests and limestone forests (3 protected areas)

22 Discussions & conclusion Hornbills not habitat generalist; protecting an area most used/preferred Not necessary to protect all different forest types in hornbill conservation; perhaps connectivity between forest patches is useful Habitat preference, matured MDF, consistent with their breeding requirement; hornbills are cavity nesters

23 Acknowledgements We would like to thank Forest Department Sarawak for data on size of Protected Areas. Park staff for hornbill observations Photo credits: internet

24 References Hazebroek, H.P. and Abg Morshidi, A.K., 2000 National Parks of Sarawak. Poonswad, P. (Ed)., The Asian Hornbills: Ecology and Conservation. Smythies, B.E. (revised G.W.H. Davison), The Birds of Borneo. Fourth Edition Sarawak Government Gazette

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