Title
Protecting the lesser carnivores: diversity and conservation of small carnivores in Sumatra
Author(s)
Pusparini, W.
Published
2015
Publisher
Cambodian Journal of Natural History
Abstract
Conservation funding and politics are often driven by big charismatic carnivores, such as tigers, and hence less protection and research occurs on their lesser known relatives. Using unconstrained ordination, we explore the diversity of small carnivore species in southern and northern parts of Sumatra. The dataset was bycatch from a six-year camera-trapping tiger survey in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, southern Sumatra, 1998–2004, and two years (2010, 2013) of camera-trapping in Gunung Leuser National Park, northern Sumatra. We found 11 species of small carnivores: Arctictis binturong, Arctonyx hoevenii, Cynogale benenett ii, Hemigalus derbyanus, Herpestes semitorquatus, Martes fl avigula, Mustela lutreolina, Mydaeus javanensis, Paguma larvata, Paradoxurus hermaphroditus, and Prionodon linsang. We were interested in extracting dominant, underlying gradients of variation among small carnivore species from a set of environmental variables. The interdependent dataset comprised fi ve environmental variables (kernel density of road and river, distance to nearest village, roughness, and deforestation rate). Species relative abundance data were fitt ed on the fi nal biplot as a preliminary/exploratory analysis to seek the species–environment relationship. Understanding how these species interact and which environmental gradients aff ect them are necessary for designing their conservation initiatives and protection.

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PUB15676