The first description of population density and habitat use of the mainland clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa within a logged-primary forest in South East Asia

The mainland clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) is classified as vulnerable under the IUCN Red List, meaning that it faces a high risk of extinction in the wild. However, hardly any ecological research has been published on this species apart from several radiotelemetry studies in Thailand and Nepal, and one camera-trapping study in India. Here we present findings on the clouded leopard from a camera-trapping study conducted in Temengor forest reserve (a logged-over forest) and Royal Belum State Park (a primary forest) within Peninsular Malaysia. Using the spatially-explicit capture-recapture method, the density from Temengor forest reserve and Royal Belum State Park was estimated at 3.46 ± SE 1.00 and 1.83 ± SE 0.61, respectively. Clouded leopard habitat use was found to be highly influenced by the availability of small and medium prey species and therefore intrinsically highlights the potential conservation importance of species such as pig-tailed macaques, porcupine, mouse deer and small carnivores. These findings provide the first estimates of density and habitat use of this species in a logged-primary forest from both Peninsular Malaysia and South East Asia. Our study provides important baseline information on clouded leopards and contributes to filling up the knowledge gap that exists in understanding the population ecology of this species, not only within Peninsular Malaysia, but also on a regional level.     

Holocene evolution of the granite based Lizard Island and MacGillivray Reef systems, Northern Great Barrier Reef

Radiocarbon dating of seven drill cores from both the windward Lizard Island fringing reef and the windward and leeward margins of MacGillivray platform reef, Northern Great Barrier Reef Province, reveal the Holocene evolution of these two mid shelf coral reefs. The windward margin at Lizard Island started growing approximately 6,700 calendar years before present (cal yr BP) directly on an assumed granite basement and approached present day sea level approximately 4,000 cal yr BP. Growth of the windward margin at MacGillivray Reef was initiated by 7,600 cal yr BP and approached present day sea level by approximately 5,600 cal yr BP. The leeward margin at MacGillivray was initiated by 8,200 cal yr BP also directly on an assumed granite basement, but only approached sea level relatively recently, between 260 and 80 cal yr BP. None of the cores penetrated the Holocene-Pleistocene unconformity. The absence of Pleistocene reefal deposits, at 15 m depth in the cores from MacGillivray Reef, raises the possibility that the shelf in this region has subsided relative to modern day sea level by at least 15 m since the last interglacial [125,000 years ago (ka)].