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Diversity of Small Mammals at Less Disturbed
Primary Forest of Gunung Gading National Park
GROUP 1: MAMMALS
MEMBERS:
AHMAD FARHAN BIN MOHAMMED AMIN
40396MALINKA AK SIKIM
41989RIDHWAN BIN ABDUL RAHIM
43824ABANG MOHD HARIZT BIN ABG ABD KHALEX
40320AISYA FATHIYA BINTI CHE ROSLI
40457RACHEAL AK ROSEDY
43768PHILOVENNY ANAK PENGIRAN
43733EMY RITTA AK JINGGONG
41118BRENDA MAY ENGKIAN AK NANDONG @ SULIE
40747CHRIST HANI BT LIAN LEE
40907HILDA JELEMBAI AK NEILSON ILAN
41423DATE OF SUBMISSION: 10th DECEMBER 2014
LECTURER:
Dr. Mohd Azlan Jayasilan
STH 2113 FIELD ECOLOGY
FIELD SAMPLING REPORT
DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY
Faculty of Resources Science and Technology
University of Malaysia Sarawak
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Abstract... 3
1 Introduction... 5
-Objectives... 5
2 Materials and Methods... 6
-Study Area... 6
-Field Methodology... 7
-Statistical Analysis... 8
-Species Identification and Preservation... 10
3 Results... 11
4 Discussion... 18
5 Conclusion... 25
6 Recommendation... 26
7 Acknowledgement... 27
8 References... 28
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Diversity of Small Mammals at Less Disturbed Primary
Forest of Gunung Gading National Park
M.AMIN, A.F., SIKIM, M., A.RAHIM, R., A.A.KHALEX, A.M.H., C.ROSLI, A.F., ROSEDY, R., PENGIRAN, P., JINGGONG, E.R., N.SULIE, B.M.E., L.LEE, C.H & N.ILAN, H.J.
Animal Resource Science and Management Program,
Faculty of Resource Science &Technology,Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia.
ABSTRACT
A study of field ecology aimed to document small mammals (volant and non-volant) was
conducted at less disturbed primary forest of Gunung Gading National Park (GGNP) from 18th to
23rd October 2014. This was a practical study on Field Ecology under the Department of Zoology
of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). Ten mist nets, two harp traps complete with bags
and 45 cage traps were set up for six sampling days. A total of 45 individuals from three orders,
six families and 25 species were caught in this study. Of the 12 species, four were frugivorous
bats and eight were insectivorous bats. On the other hand, there were comprised of 13 species of
non-volant small mammals, seven of them are from the family Muridae, four species from
Tupaiidae and two species from family Sciuridae. Our sampling site has several layers of
understory and mainly covered with lowland primary forest. This is evidence by the highest
abundance of Rhinolophus affinis and R. luctus for volant small mammals, and Maxomys whiteheadi for volant small mammals. The increasing species cumulative curve for non-volant small mammals indicates that there may be more species yet to be recorded from this
study site compared to Chiropteran. As a whole the study indicates that species diversity of
volant and non-volant small mammals is associated with the forest type and level of disturbance
in a particular area.
Keyword: Chiroptera, Rodentia, Scandentia, species diversity, primary forest, Gunung Gading
4 ABSTRAK
Satu kajian ekologi lapangan bertujuan untuk mendokumentasikan mamalia kecil telah dijalankan di hutan asal Taman Negara Gunung Gading dari 18hb hingga 23hb Oktober 2014. Ini merupakan kajian praktikal dalam kursus Ekologi Lapangan di bawah Jabatan Zoologi Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). Sebanyak sepuluh jaring kabus, dua perangkap 'harp trap' lengkap dengan beg dan 45 perangkap tikus biasa telah digunakan sepanjang 6 hari kajian tersebut. Sebanyak 45 individu daripada tiga order, enam famili dan 25 spesies telah ditangkap dalam kajian ini. Daripada 12 spesies, empat adalah daripada kelawar jenis pemakanan buah dan lapan adalah kelawar pemakanan serangga. Sebaliknya, daripada 13 spesies mamalia kecil daratan, tujuh daripada mereka adalah dari famili Muridae, empat spesies dari Tupaiidae dan dua spesies daripada famili Sciuridae. Kawasan lapangan kami mempunyai beberapa lapisan tanah hutan yang terutamanya diliputi dengan hutan primer yang bertanah rendah. Disebabkan itu, kelimpahan yang tinggi oleh Kelawar Ladam Hutan (Rhinolophus affinis) dan R. luctus untuk mamalia kecil terbang, dan Maxomys whiteheadi untuk mamalia kecil daratan. Graf kumulatif spesies yang masih meningkat menunjukkan potensi penemuan banyak lagi spesies yang masih belum direkodkan di kawasan ini, terutamanya bagi spesies mamalia kecil daratan berbanding mamalia kecil terbang iaitu kelawar. Secara keseluruhannya kajian ini menunjukkan bahawa kepelbagaian spesies kelawar dan mamalia kecil daratan dikaitkan dengan jenis hutan dan tahap gangguan dalam suatu kawasan tertentu.
5 INTRODUCTION
The small mammals can be defined as a group of mammal that are small in size and weight less than 5 kg. Small mammals can be divided into two types, namely volant and non-volant. Non-volant small mammals belong to orders Scandentia, Rodentia, and Insectivora which are non-flying mammals. Whereas volant small mammals exclusively are belong to order Chiroptera. Bats are mammals in order Chiroptera. They are different from other mammals because they can fly. They are the second largest order in class Mammalia after rats and squirrels in term of biodiversity (Rahman et al. 2011). According to Payne et al. (2007), species of bats in Borneo are classified into 8 families. They are distinguished based on ear shape, muzzle shape, tail pattern and presence of noseleaf (Payne et al. 2007). Chiroptera are further divided into suborder Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera. In terms of bats diversity, there are 96 species of bats in Borneo harbours (Struebig et al, 2010), which made up 42% of mammals species in Borneo. Sarawak itself recorded 73 species of bats (Jayaraj, 2008).
The most abundant group comprises of rats and mice (Muridae), which can be found on the ground but also in the canopy. In contrast, treeshrew (Scandentia) have basically diversified on the ground, with only two out of five abundant lowland species exploring the canopy space,
Tupaia minor and Ptilocercus lowii (Sargis, 2002; Wells et al., 2004).
OBJECTIVES
1. To determine the species diversity of volant and non-volant small mammals at less disturbed
primary forest in Gunung Gading National Park.
2. To determine the species richness and relative abundance of volant and non-volant small
mammals.
3. To compare the findings with previous studies on small mammals in Sarawak and Peninsular
6 MATERIALS AND METHODS
Study Area
A sampling survey of small mammals was conducted at Gunung Gading National Park (N O10 42.00’ E 1090 50.20’) Lundu, southeast of Sarawak which is located 80 km from west of Kuching. Gunung Gading NP is mainly composed by tropical rainforest which most species-rich
terrestrial ecosystem on earth. The highest peak Of Gunung Gading NP rises to the height of
965m above sea level (a.s.l) which composed of remains of an old British jungle base during the
communist insurgency of the 1960's. It has a wide range of habitats including the riverine
vegetation, hill dipterocarp forest, lower and upper montane forest. Gunung Gading NP are fully
reserve forest under Sarawak Forestry Department, Malaysia and were gazetted as a park in
August 1983 primarily to provide a conservation zone for protection of the Rafflesia (Sarawak
Forestry Corporation, 2006) and it is now well known as place for camping, mother nature
exploration and recreation.
During the field ecology work, a survey was done mainly on species diversity of small in
the primary forest. Our sampling site was conducted at less disturbed primary forest that covered
with mixed dipterocarp forest, full ceiling canopy and several layers of understory. The ground
floor is generally clear of heavy vegetation. The primary forest is labelled as less disturbed forest
where less human intervention occurs in the forest. Therefore, we were interested to discover the
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Figure 1: Location of study (source: Google map, 2013), Gunung Gading NP that has an area of 4,106 hectares.
Field Methodology
A sampling survey of small mammals was conducted from from 18th until 23rd October
2014. There were ten mist nets, two harp traps complete with bags and 45 cage traps were set up
throughout the sampling period. Mist nets that shared with aves taxa, were put up along the forest trail and over the stream. The harp traps were deployed between trees and narrow paths in
the forest. The mist nets and harp traps were checked regularly at 0530 and for every two hours
from 1800 to 2400 hours for 6 sampling days. The cage traps were placed on the ground near to
the main trail, a distance of 5 meters between the centre points along the trail and approximate
distance of 10 meters apart form each other. These traps were checked twice a day and re-baited
if necessary. The first checking was done in the morning around 1000 hours and the second
checking was done around 1700 hours in the evening. For the first sampling day we used
8 Statistical Analysis
Diversity Indices
In order to have an effective measure of diversity in a community, we need to account (in most instances) for both species richness and the evenness with which individuals are distributed among species. Species diversity is a measure of the diversity within an ecological community that incorporates both species richness (the number of species in a community) and the evenness of species abundances. Species richness is the number of different species in a particular area. Species evenness is the relative abundance with which each species are represented in an area. One way to do this is through the use of a proportional abundance index. While more than 60 indices have been described, we used the two most widely used in the ecological literature: Simpson's and Shannon-Weiner Index.
1) Shannon Index (H´)
The Shannon's diversity index (H’), also known as communication entropy, was introduced by Claude Shannon (1948). The Shannon-Weaver Index (H’) measures overall biodiversity. It assumes that all species are represented in a sample and the sample was obtained randomly. H is maximized when all species have the same number of animals collected. Shannon Index was also used for the calculation in Zar (1999) modified t-test to test the hypotheses that the two sampling areas (primary and secondary forest) were different in species abundance.
where:
H’= Shannon diversity index
S = numbers of species encountered
pi is the proportion of individuals found in the ith species.
ln is the natural logarithm.
Si
i
i
p
p
H
1
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2) Simpson’s Index (1-D)
Simpson's Index is considered a dominance index because it weights towards the abundance of the most common species. Simpson's Index gives the probability of any two individuals drawn at random from an infinitely large community belonging to different species. The bias corrected form of Simpson's Index is:
Where
ni = number of individuals in ith species
N = number of individuals in all species
Simpson’s Index of Diversity = 1-D
Simpson’s Reciprocal Index = 1/D
Rank Abundance Curve
The rank abundance curve/plot is plotted by ranking from the highest abundance to the lowest abundance in X-axis. Ranking species from most abundant to least provides another useful way to visualize community data, this allow us to make comparisons of samples of different sizes. It is the comparison of abundance of the species of a group of organisms in a given locality. Y-axis shows the relative species abundance measured in a log scale, because plotting the data on a log scale allows for better data visualization. It can also be used to visualise species richness and species evenness. It overcomes the shortcomings of biodiversity indices that cannot display the relative role different variables played in their calculation.
Si
i i s
N
N
n
n
D
1
1
10 Species Accumulation Curve
A species accumulation curve is the graph of the cumulative number of observed species
as a function of some measure of sampling effort (Colwell et al. 2004). The species accumulation curve also indicates whether we have captured all the species which we suppose to catch in the population of our study site. So this graph can also be used to estimate the species richness, which important to estimate the number of overall species present at the site. Species richness is the most commonly used biodiversity indicators for conservation correspondence.
Non-parametric estimator
Species richness can be estimated by using three approaches (Magurran 2004), but for this study we used non-parametric estimators. This method is for estimating species richness from samples which were adapted from mark-recapture applications for estimating population size. They also require no assumptions about community structure (Colwell and Coddington 1995). Species richness estimators attempt to predict the asymptote of the species accumulation curve, thus correcting for the downward bias inherent in observed species richness. Richness estimators predict richness, including species not discovered in the sample, from the proportional abundances of species within the total sample (Sobero´n and Llorente 1993; Colwell 2005).
Species Identification and Preservation
Species identification and measurement followed A Field Guide to the Mammals of
Borneo (Payne et al. 2007). For each individual caught, external measurements were conducted, recorded and used to identify the species before released back to the forest. There were two
species include both volant and non-volant small mammals that were collected as wet specimens
preserved in 70% ethanol. The specimens were deposited in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
11 RESULTS
A total of 45 individuals of small mammals from Order Chiroptera, Rodentia and Scandentia were caught during the sampling period. From the six days of trapping, 25 species of small mammals were recorded. These were eight insectivorous bats, four frugivorous bats, seven rats, two squirrels and four treeshrews (Table 1 and 2). The insectivorous bats captured were representing the family Rhinolophidae and Hipposideridae, whereas the frugivorous bats were from the family Pteropodidae. As for the rodents, rats were from the family Muridae and squirrels from the family Sciuridae, while treeshrews from the family Tupaiidae.
Table 1: List of volant species in Gunung Gading NP (18th -23rd October 2014). N=Total individuals, RA=Relative abundance
Family Species Name Common Name N RA%
Hipposideridae Hipposideros cervinus Fawn Roundleaf Bat 2 9.09
Hipposideros dyacorum Dayak Roundleaf Bat 1 4.54 Pteropodidae Cynopterus brachyotis Short-nose Fruit Bat 3 13.64
Penthetor lucasii Dusky Fruit Bat 2 9.09
Dyacopterus spadiceus Dayak Fruit Bat 1 4.54
Balionycteris maculata Spotted-winged Fruit Bat 1 4.54 Rhinolophidae Rhinolopus arcuatus Arcuate Horseshoe Bat 1 4.54
Rhinolopus affinis Intermediate Horseshoe Bat 4 18.18
Rhinolopus luctus Great Woolly Horseshoe Bat 4 18.18
Rhinolopus borneensis Bornean Horseshoe Bat 1 4.54
Rhinolopus trifoliatus Trefoil Horseshoe Bat 1 4.54
Rhinolopus creaghi Creagh’s Horseshoe Bat 1 4.54
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Table 2: List of non-volant species in Gunung Gading NP (18th -23rd October 2014). N=Total individuals, RA=Relative abundance
Order Family Species Common Name N RA%
Rodentia Muridae Sundamys muelleri Muller’s Rat 1 4.35
Maxomys whiteheadi White Head’s Rat 4 17.4
Maxomys surifer Red Spiny Rat 1 4.35
Maxomys rajah Brown Spiny Red 1 4.35
Niviventer cremoriventer Dark-tailed Tree Rat 2 8.7
Rattus tiomanicus Malaysian Field Rat 1 4.35
Leopoldamys sabanus Long-tailed Giant Rat 1 4.35 Sciuridae Lariscus insignis Three-striped Ground Squirrel 2 8.7
Sundasciurus lowii Low’s Squirrel 1 4.35 Scandentia Tupaiidae Tupaia tana Large Treeshrew 3 13.64
Tupaia minor Lesser Treeshrew 2 8.7
Tupaia gracilis Slender Treeshrew 2 8.7
Tupaia picta Painted Treeshrew 2 8.7
Total 13 23 100
For the species richness, the most recorded order for small mammals is order Chiroptera with 12 species. There are six families of small mammals recorded, and family Muridae has the most caught species of non-volant small mammals with 7 species.
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The species accumulation curve (Figure 2) and rank abundance plot/curve (Figure 3) for small mammals were plotted to measure the sampling effort of total six days.
Figure 2: Observed species cumulative graph for volant and non-volant small mammals caught in Gunung Gading NP for 6 days of sampling
14 0
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Log abu
n
d
a
n
ce
Rank Abundance Curve
Volant
Non-volant
Figure 3: The rank abundance curve for volant and non-volant small mammals
The shape of the rank abundance curve can provide an indication of dominance or evenness while the width of the horizontal curve indicates the species richness. In this study, the species rank is based on the number of individuals of each species that we had caught during the sampling days. Based on the Rank Abundance Curve for volant, the first and second rank species have the highest relative abundance of 18.18% which ran for both Rhinolophus affinis and
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Table 3: Diversity indices used to measure the species diversity in the primary forest
The value of species diversity indices for volant and non-volant can be seen in Table 3. Species diversity of small mammals was measured using the Shannon-Wiener Index (H’), which is sensitive to changes in the abundance of rare species in a community, and the Simpson’s Index (1-D), which is sensitive to changes in the most abundant species in a community (Solow, 1993). The total number of volant species caught was 12 (H’= 2.311), while non-volant species captured was 13 (H’= 2.450). Based from the table, the diversity indices for non-volant showed higher in value compared to volant with the difference of H’=0.139 and 1-D=0.193. The slightly difference in diversity values of volant and non-volant is because there is only one species of non-volant that makes it difference from volant small mammals in terms of the total species and individuals captured. As a result, the diversity indices of non-volant small mammals indicates that it has more species diversity by having higher number of unique species or greater species evenness.
The use of species accumulation functions for the prediction of species richness. Almost without exception, species richness can be neither accurately measured nor directly estimated by observation because the observed number of species is a downward-biased estimator for the complete (total) species richness of a local assemblage (Colwell et al. 2011). EstimateS by Colwell (2005) computes seven non-parametric estimators of species richness and three of them were used in this study. The estimated species richness using the formulae of Chao1, Jack1 and ACE (Abundance Coverage-based Estimator) are three estimators that use a total abundance of 1 (singletons) or 2 (doubletons) in an abundance-based sample to estimate rare species in the few samples.
Diversity Index Volant Non-volant
Shannon 2.311 2.450
16 0
5 10 15 20 25 30
1 2 3 4 5 6
No.
of
sp
ec
ies
Species Richness Estimation Curves (Volant)
ACE Mean
Chao I mean
Jack 1 Mean
Sampling days
Figure 4: Species richness estimation curves for volant in Gunung Gading NP by using EstimateS (Colwell, 2009)
From the above graph, ACE mean shows that the expected number of species is 24, while Chao1 mean and Jack1 mean stated that there are 21 and 18 species respectively. Based on the graph plotted, estimated potential species to be found at our study site is more higher than the actual value of observed species found, which is only 12 species of volant. There are about around 6 to 12 more species that can be discovered at our study site during six days of sampling. This is casually caused by several factors that affecting our results. The unexpected weather of heavy rains during the fourth day of sampling could lead to the declination of bats distribution in the area. Another possible reason that could have cause to low capture of fruit bats, especially (only 32% of total bats captured) and as a result of this above graph, there are few of human disturbance mainly, tourism at present, as the primary forest has been less disturbed.
17 0
5 10 15 20 25
1 2 3 4 5 6
No.
of
sp
ec
ies
Species Richness Estimation Curves (Non-Volant)
ACE Mean
Chao I mean
Jack 1 Mean
Sampling days
Figure 5: Species richness estimation curves for non-volant small mammals in Gunung Gading NP by using EstimateS (Colwell, 2009)
For non-volant small mammals, the estimator of ACE mean, Chao1 mean and Jack1 mean stated that there are 21, 18 and 16 estimated potential species to be found at our study site. However, the total species of non-volant that we found were only 13 species. Means, the unseen species in the sampling site are about 3 to 8 species. This might due to insufficient skills, no replacement of cage traps, lack of baits variability and the effect of habitat degradation. In addition to this, the weather condition also a factor that contributes to this result.
18 DISCUSSIONS
Overall, there were 45 individuals and 25 species of small mammals captured during this survey. We account for species diversity to show the species richness and species evenness in our study site as it is one of the component of the concept of biodiversity. According to Krebs (1989), species richness is the oldest and the simplest concept of species diversity that accounts for the number of species in the community.
All bats comes from the order Chiroptera and a total of 12 species captured in primary forest of Gunung Gading NP comprising 22 individuals throughout the six sampling days which 4 individuals come from family Pteropodidae, 6 individuals come from family Rhinolophidae and lastly 2 individuals from family Hipposideridae. The most abundance species recorded are 4 individuals of species Rhinolophus affinis and Rhinolophus luctus respectively which both species come from family Rhinolophidae.
More insectivorous bats than frugivorous bats were captured in this study (68% of the total bat captured). This also representing 12.5% of the 96 chiropteran species recorded in Borneo (Struebig et al, 2010). The trappings were focused in the forest understorey. This can be mainly a result of insectivorous bats behaviour that forage understorey in a lowland forest, and some of these bats is known to forage in groups (e.g. Hipposideros cervinus, Payne & Francis et al. 1985). In this study, species from the family Hipposideridae and Rhinolophidae that were caught mostly in harp traps, were one of the most common insectivorous families in the forest interior with high manoeuvrability in light and good echolocators that allow them to efficiently avoid mist nets (Francis 1989). Besides we also captured Rhinolophus trifoliatus and the conservation status for this species was listed as least concern (IUCN 2010).
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survive. The traps including harp trap and mist net were all placed at unexposed areas. 10 mist nets and 2 harp traps were used to set up at primary forest during the six days of sampling.
Whenever we captured bats in small number of individuals on certain sampling day, we would try to relocate some of the mist net and harp trap and placed at more strategic place such as between openings of two trees along the trail. As a result, the species accumulation graph that we constructed has reached the asymptote. If the species are randomly and sequentially recorded one after another within a sampling area, then the resulting accumulation curves are individual-based (Gotelli and Colwell 2001). This as a result of 22 individuals of volant captured which are enough for our study purposes. Eventhough the species accumulation curve reaches an asymptote after 6 days of sampling, the overall species diversity may not represent the bat fauna of the entire Gunung Gading NP due to the limited number of sampling methods, duration of the study, and types and structure of forest. These factors directly affect the number of species and individuals that are likely to be captured (Kingston et al. 2003).
For the six sampling days of trapping non-volant, we managed to set up 45 cage traps at the primary forest of Gunung Gading NP. Twenty cage traps, numbered from 1 until 20, were set at trail A, while 25 cage traps, numbered from 21 until 45, were set at trail B. The cage trap that we used in this study, is one of the most commonly used traps for small mammals such as rats, squirrels and treeshrews (Payne et al. 2007). On our first sampling day, the cage traps was baited with pineapple. As we got only one species on the first and second day of trapping, then we decided to change the bait with banana. For the third day onwards, the number of species captured kept increasing from 6 to 13 species. This is suggested that banana was shown to be the most effective bait to attract small mammals and as for bait preference in our study. According to Payne et al. (2007), small ripe bananas are one of the easiest to obtain and most effective baits. Tuen (2000), also suggested that banana is the most effective bait to capture rodent in Sarawak. As a result more rodents were captured compared to treeshrews in terms of species diversity.
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and this further supports that habitat in Gunung Gading NP where these specimens were collected at less disturbed primary forest. The difference in numbers of species caught was due to the soil and vegetation type. This also might be the sampling site was a less disturbed forest, where there are fewer disturbances especially from humans. Species of the genus Maxomys are the most common rodents in the Indo–Malayan region. They are distributed from mainland Southeast Asia, throughout much of the Peninsular Malaysia to Borneo, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Java and Palawan Island in the Philippines, as well as on several of the smaller islands of Sunda Self (Anang Setiawan Achmadi, 2010).
As we constructed the species accumulation graph of these captured non-volants, our graph did not reached its asymptote condition and the number of species kept increasing during the six sampling days. This might due to insufficient skills, no replacement of the cage traps, lack of baits variability and the effect of habitat degradation. As for that, there are many other species of non-volant small mammals that have to be discovered.
Table 4: Diversity index and tests of significance for the two different study sites in Gunung Gading National Park
Based form the result, the diversity index of less disturbed primary forest (H’= 3.075) is higher than the secondary forest (H’= 2.534). Thus, indicates that primary forest has higher species diversity in terms of species richness and evenness compared to secondary forest. In addition to this, the species richness in primary forest is 25 (12 species of non-volant, 13 species of non-volant), eventhough the total individuals captured were not high enough as compared to secondary forest.
Primary forest Secondary forest
No. of species 25 19
Total individuals 45 53
Shannon diversity index 3.075 2.534 Significant test p<0.0125
Abundance species
-Rhinolophus affinis -Rhinolophus luctus
-Maxomys Whiteheadi
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Shannon-Weiner Index was also used for the calculation in Zar’s T-test (Zar 1996) that was computed using PAST Software. We used modified t-test to test the hypotheses that the two sampling areas (primary and secondary forest) were different in species abundance. The H’ value of Shannon Index had been calculated for both sites, resulting in p<0.0125 (t=2.5456, df=96.82) and showing that there are significantly less species present in secondary forest compared to primary forest. This can be supported by the number of non-volant species captured in secondary forest was only 6 species compared to 13 species in less disturbed primary forest. A less disturbed primary forest has been relatively less unaffected by human activities which include plantation and this can effect the higher number of non-volant species.
As for volant small mammals, both study sites do not show the significant in species abundance. In terms of species diversity of volant small mammals, primary forest has greater species evenness because the 12 species captured are in almost equal proportions compared to secondary forest that is dominated by one of its 13 species (Cynopterus brachyotis, n=12) and so has lower species diversity. The higher individuals of Cynopterus brachyotis (n=12) mainly and
Panthetor lucasii (n=5) in secondary forest is because the secondary vegetation supports their habitat and also there are many types of fruit tree planted in that area such as cocoa, durian, and many more as sources of foods for fruit bats.
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We also had compare our findings with previous studies on small mammals (bats, rodents, shrews and treeshrews) documented at two different sites in both Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia. The selected sites include Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary (LEWS), Sarawak (Abdullah et al, 2008), Gunung Regu, Sarawak (Laman et al. 2009) Kuala Atok, Taman Negara, Pahang (Ridhwan et al, 2012), Royal Belum WR, Perak (Nur-Aida et al. 2008) to our study site (Table 1). These sites were selected based on the availability and relevant of data (e.g. habitat type, trapping effort) to our study site.
Table 5: Comparisons between Gunung Gading NP and other sites in Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak. MN=mist-net, HT=harp trap, PFT=pit fall trap, CG=cage trap, ST=sherman trap,
TT=tomahawk trap, v=volant, nv=non-volant, na=data not available **excluding the unidentified species.
Present study
Sampling site Less disturbed primary forest
Kuala Atok Sungai Kejar
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We expected that the results will show different parameters used effect the diversity of species collected. For example, eventhough the sampling period in Gunung Regu was five nights, the total species recorded were the highest among the other study sites. This was probably due to the vegetation type that is undisturbed primary forest which usually support high species diversity. In addition to that, the total traps used were quite large in number and they used more trapping methods compared to the others.
During the six days of sampling, we faced many challenges that certainly affect our findings. They are as follows:
Weather
The weather especially heavy rain influences the small mammals (arboreal and terrestrial) activity and hence, it is difficult for us to trap them and do the sampling work. Besides, one of our bats sample (Rhinolophus trifoliatus), was dead due to cold when trapped at mist net.
Baits
The bait has a great effect on the type and numbers of small terrestrial mammals that we caught. On the first day of the sampling, we used pineapple as baits in the cage traps, and as a result, we only managed to captured one species in total for 2 days of sampling. On the third day until the last day of sampling, we used banana as baits and we managed to trap more small mammals. Banana is one of the effective baits but it is rotten easily, thus, we had insufficient amount of banana. If the baits rotten or moist mix, we had to change the baits to the new one. To overcome this problem we need to change the baits every day and make sure that the baits not too ripe.
Traps
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Difficulty to handle the small mammals
25 CONCLUSIONS
The study at less disturbed primary forest of Gunung Gading National Park provide interesting data especially on the diversity of species. The results of this study indicated that Gunung Gading NP especially at less disturbed primary forest has a higher number of species consisting of bats, rodents and treeshrews. Overall, the study site seems to support high diversity of rats and also bats especially the insectivorous bats. Therefore, more sampling days is needed to document the additional species since the sampling site seems to support high diversity of the species. The cumulative graph of non-volant small mammals indicate that there are possibilities that many species is yet to be discovered in this area.
The insectivorous species from the Hipposideridae and Rhinolophidae familly usually roost in large colonies in caves, this suggests that they may be caves in the surrounding area. The forest type, and level of disturbance are the factor determining the diversity of bats in a particular area. Suitable baits played an important role in order to attract the non-volant small mammals. Vegetation types also play an important role in the availability of species.
26 RECOMMENDATIONS
There are some recommendations for future studies on small mammals. For volant small mammals, the sampling was conducted for seven days and six nights. Limited days may limit the actual number of bats that can be caught in Gunung Gading NP. Therefore, sampling days should be extended. In addition, the number of mist nets and harp traps should be increased in order for us to capture more individuals. Mist nets and harp traps should be placed at a more strategic place such as across small stream of water and root entrances. Harp traps and mist nets could be monitored more often. Bats that are trapped should be released or taken out immediately in order to reduce stress and becoming weak which eventually died. Despite this, correct techniques of handling and taking measurements of bats should be learned before going to the field trip.
27 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the name of ALLAH, The Compassionate, the Merciful, Praise be to ALLAH, Lord of the Universe, Peace and Prayers be upon His Final Prophet and Messenger.
First and foremost, we would like to express our sincere thanks to our supervisor, Dr Mohd Azlan Jayasilan for his comments, advice, patience and encouragement during the sampling period and throughout this assessment. We are very grateful to him for his guidance and support to make this assessment possible. We also want to thanks Miss Ratnawati Hazali and Mr. Badiozaman Sulaiman for their motivation, enthusiasm, comment and immense knowledge for enlightening us during this assessment. We want to express our gratitude to Mr Charlie J. Laman for the guidance for processing the data and results.
Deepest thanks are also forwarded to Mr. Isa Sait, Mr.Wahap Marni, Mr. Huzal Irwan Husin and Mr. Trevor Allen Nyaseng, the staffs of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak for their dedications and support throughout this study whom without their supports and faiths, this report would not be accomplished. Their helps are truly meaningful and without them, our research will not go as planned.
28 REFERENCES
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30
32
23/10 Niviventer
cremoriventer
M 90 19.
5
13.37 2.6 15.2 CAGE 20A
*dead Niviventer
cremoriventer
M 55 16.
3
1.6 2.6 10.5 CAGE 32B
Maxomys whiteheadi
M 43 11.
4
12.39 2.7 10.5 CAGE 25B
Ratus sp. M 60 14.
1
33
Appendix B : Diversity Indices of small mammals caught in Primary Forest
Overall Data
Taxa_S 25
Individuals 45
Dominance_D 0.05284 Simpson_1-D 0.9472
Shannon_H 3.075
Evenness_e^H/S 0.8659
Brillouin 2.47
Menhinick 3.727
Margalef 6.305
Equitability_J 0.9553 Fisher_alpha 23.16 Berger-Parker 0.08889
34 Diversity Indices of volant and non-volant
Volant
Taxa_S 12
Individuals 22 Dominance_D 0.1157
Simpson_1-D 0.8843 Shannon_H 2.311 Evenness_e^H/S 0.8405
Brillouin 1.77 Menhinick 2.558
Margalef 3.559 Equitability_J 0.9301
Fisher_alpha 10.81 Berger-Parker 0.1818
Chao-1 19
Non-Volant
Taxa_S 13
Individuals 23 Dominance_D 0.09641
Simpson_1-D 0.9036 Shannon_H 2.45 Evenness_e^H/S 0.8912
Brillouin 1.877 Menhinick 2.711 Margalef 3.827 Equitability_J 0.9551
Fisher_alpha 12.38 Berger-Parker 0.1739
35
Appendix C : EstimateS (Version 9.1.0), Copyright R. K. Colwell: http://purl.oclc.org/estimates
Diversity Output from Input File: Species Diversity (Volant) at Primary Forest of Gunung Gading National Park (30 November, 2014)
37
Diversity Output from Input File: Species Diversity (Non Volant) at Primary Forest of Gunung Gading National Park (30 November, 2014)
39 Appendix D
40 Appendix E
Photos of some species.
Fawn Roundleaf Bat:
Hipposideros cervinus
Short-nosed Fruit Bat:
41
Large treeshrew: Long-tailed Giant Rat:
Tupaia tana Leopoldamys sabanus
Muller’s Rat:
