First structured camera-trap surveys in Karen State, Myanmar, reveal high diversity of globally threatened mammals

Abstract

The hill forests of Karen State, Myanmar, were previously inaccessible to biologists and conservationists for security and political reasons. We have, however, now been able to conduct six surveys across the area, using camera traps, for a total of 9,511 trap-nights, to ascertain the presence of threatened mammal species. We obtained 4,191 records of at least 31 mammal species, including 17 categorized as Near Threatened, Vulnerable or Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Carnivores were especially diverse, with 19 species recorded, indicating a globally significant community, including the tiger Panthera tigris, leopard Panthera pardus and dhole Cuon alpinus. Our methodology was not appropriate for estimating relative abundance or occupancy but the species richness of the mammal community, the number of records and the number of locations where species were detected suggest the area is important for the conservation of a globally threatened mammal community that is in decline across the majority of its range. Despite long-standing conservation efforts undertaken by the Karen people, their forests are threatened by hunting and habitat loss. These threats are likely to be exacerbated as political change brings rapid development. Urgent action is thus needed to assist the Karen people to protect one of South-east Asia's last intact rich and diverse ecosystems.

Camera settings and biome influence the accuracy of citizen science approaches to camera trap image classification

“…Motion‐activated cameras (hereafter “camera traps”) have revolutionized wildlife science, providing a robust and noninvasive mode for ecological data collection on a wide range of species (O'Connell, Nichols, & Karanth, 2010). Camera traps are being used to gather data on species’ population sizes and distributions, habitat use, and behavior, thereby facilitating better understanding and protection of natural ecosystems (Agha et al., 2018; McShea, Forrester, Costello, He, & Kays, 2016; Moo, Froese, & Gray, 2018; O'Connor et al, 2019). Camera traps are also extremely useful for capturing rare or elusive species (Pilfold et al., 2019; Tobler, Carrillo‐Percastegui, Pitman, Mares, & Powell, 2008) and discovering new species all together (Rovero & Zimmermann, 2016).…”

Monitoring tropical forest ungulates using camera‐trap data

“…Camera-traps are widely used in South East Asia for conservation and research particularly for inventorying ground-dwelling large mammal diversity within conservation landscapes (Phan, Prum & Gray, 2010;Moo, Froese & Gray, 2017) and estimating species density and abundance for conservation impact monitoring (Rayan & Mohamad, 2009;Gray, 2012;Gray & Prum, 2012). However, robustly estimating species abundance from camera-trap data is extremely difficult unless animals have unique individual markings such as tiger Panthera tigris or leopard P. pardus (Karanth & Nichols, 1998).…”

“…Thus, ruling out application of the REM to many widely used camera-trap placement strategies which, logically, try to increase the number of detections of species through targeted trap deployment (e.g. at waterholes, or on animal trails: Gray, 2012;Moo et al, 2017). In this paper, I use camera-trap records from a randomly generated camera-trap grid located within one protected area, Southern Cardamom National Park, to estimate the density of lesser oriental chevrotain using the REM method of Rowcliffe et al (2008).…”

Mammalian diversity in West Java, Indonesia

“…The analytical methods used to estimate these processes vary based on the specific objectives, sampling designs and data recorded by ecologists (Keim et al 2019). Camera-traps are widely used in South-East Asia for conservation and research particularly for inventorying ground-dwelling large mammal diversity within conservation landscapes (Phan et al 2010;Moo et al 2017) and estimating species density and abundance for conservation impact monitoring (Rayan and Mohamad 2009;Gray 2012;Gray and Prum 2012).…”