Suitability for salt-lick tourism: A preliminary assessment on the natural salt-licks at Segaliud-Lokan Forest Reserve, Sandakan, Sabah

Abstract

The natural salt-licks are visited by various species of terrestrial mammals, hence ideal for mammal watching, although the suitability for salt-lick tourism is influenced by other factors. Preliminary research was conducted on the suitability of four natural salt-licks for mammal watching in Segaliud-Lokan Forest Reserve (SLFR), Sabah. The camera trapping survey and field assessment were conducted for eight months, and then the assessment criteria applied in this study included the lick accessibility, detection frequency, species richness, viewable activity sighting probability, reliability and visibility on the terrestrial mammals, at a given lick. A total of 12 different mammal species were recorded, where Sambar Deer, Bearded Pig, Banteng, and Bornean Orang-utan were determined as the main visitor species of this study. Among the four selected salt-licks, the rating score of SL50A (Score=1.71) was significantly lower than those of SL50B, SL56 and SL59 (Score=2.57 respectively, χ2 2 =6.794, p=0.042), hence highlighting that SL50A was not suitable for conducting mammal watching activity, unlike the other three natural licks at SLFR. The assessment on the compatibility between the supply (mammalian physical availability) and demand (highly anticipated species) was excluded from this research, therefore emphasizing the need to fill up this particular research gap in the future.

Assessment of Nutrients in Natural Saltlicks, Artificial Saltlicks, and General Soils Used by Wild Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) in the Western Forests of Thailand

“…Therefore, natural saltlicks (NSs) have been classified as important landscape resources [7]. They affect the density and structure of wildlife in the surrounding areas [8] and suitability for salt-lick tourism, as has been studied in the Segaliud-Lokan Forest Reserve, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia [9]. In the natural habitats, NSs are located in certain specific areas that cannot be properly managed, which can cause some impacts on the special prey distribution of tigers (Panthera tigris) in the Royal Belum Rainforest, Malaysia [10].…”

Monitoring of the habitat usage of Tembadau (Bos javanicus lowi) around salt lick in a forest plantation of Sabah, Malaysia

“…Salt lick can provide mineral sources and animal feeding sites (Tawa et al 2022). Identifying these sites for critical temporal use can be protected, managed, and monitored to avoid further human disturbances such as logging operations (Matsubayashi et al 2007;Lim et al 2022). Nevertheless, this crucial habitat is being exploited for tourism purposes (Wahab et al 2020;Lim et al 2022), which may have detrimental long-term effects on wildlife populations (Adewale and Alarape 2020) if not adequately deliberated (Moorhouse et al 2017).…”