People in North America are not very familiar with the cattle outside of our general livestock but there are a number of species of Wild Cattle in Southeast Asia which are all in decline. Many of you have probably heard of the Yak, but who knows what a Gaur, Kouprey or Banteng are? How about Anoa, Saola, or Tamaraw? So when working with our partners in Borneo on Orangutan and Elephant conservation efforts, an opportunity to support a project focused on the population dynamics of a little known species of Wild Cattle – the Banteng – was quickly seized upon.
Researcher (2nd from left), mud, humidity, leeches, and research assistants. Not necessarily in that order
This week, our reports come from lead field researcher Penny Gardner who is working on her PhD through Danau Girang Field Centre with an affiliation to Cardiff University on determining the population status and habitat needs of this species.
In February, after months of planning, I was finally ready to leave for Sabah and get stuck into some field work. The heat and humidity of Sabah was a welcome relief after months of snow in the U.K. The following two weeks were spent in the capital city, Kota Kinabalu, settling into the office and meeting my supervisor, Dr Benoit Goossens, and staff at the Sabah Wildlife Department after which I went to Tabin Wildlife Reserve for to visit the field site. Tabin’s manager Rashid kindly showed me the accessible parts of Tabin, which is the largest (approximately 120,000ha) of my two study sites and contains a wealth of different habitat types and biodiversity, including all the endangered large charismatic mammals Borneo is famous for. The reserve is quite remote; 1.5hrs off road driving to get to the western border, thus a 4×4 is essential for getting around.
April 2011: First images on camera traps from this project
The next few weeks I spent getting organised and making daily trips out along the forest border to establish where the banteng were emerging. Another researcher had conducted camera trapping of Clouded Leopard in Tabin the previous year and had managed to photograph banteng so I tried to revisit these locations, however the dense jungle made access a slow and difficult process and myself and a ranger managed to cut a trail 500m long however it took us 2 hours! I also spent many days looking for banteng dung along the roads and collecting samples for DNA analysis; banteng generally emerge from the forest at night and during the early hours to feed on nutritional grasses not prevalent inside the forest, and they appear to defecate whilst grazing. DNA from dung samples is generally of low quality and deteriorates quickly in UV exposure and rain thus it’s best to collect samples from fresh dung, however finding dung isn’t an easy task especially inside the forest where the undergrowth is thick, the atmosphere is wet and there are numerous animal trails to follow.
Penny sampling Banteng dung in Tabin Wildlife reserve for DNA analysis
On each occasion when I find dung or fresh tracks I take a GPS point so I build up an overview of where the banteng are active. This is an ongoing process and I eventually hope to map the occupancy and habitat use of banteng in Tabin, and also do the same in my second study site Malua Forest Reserve.
