The contribution of other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) to protecting global biodiversity.

Nations recently agreed to set aside 30% of the planet by 2030 as conservation areas (the "30 × 30" goal) necessitating major expansions, not just of traditional protected areas like national parks, but also of 'other effective area-based conservation measures' (OECMs) - areas that provide de facto benefits to biodiversity despite conservation not being the primary management objective. But evidence for whether OECMs achieve positive biodiversity outcomes remains critically needed. Here we quantify how OECMs contribute to biodiversity conservation in the three high-biodiversity countries in which they have been extensively trialed.

Seasonal variation in activity budgets of critically endangered Bornean banded langur, in Malaysian Borneo.

The activity budget of a primate varies in response to environmental and habitat conditions, including seasonality. To elucidate how primates adapt their behavior to the seasonal shift, the activity budget of Bornean banded langurs () in the Tanjung Datu National Park southwestern of Sarawak and stratum utilization were studied from July 2023 to February 2024. The behavioral data were collected through scan sampling (336 observation hours) of Bornean banded langur groups.

Comparative Analysis of Quan and Watanabe Pan-Coronavirus Assays for Bat Coronavirus Diversity in Sarawak, East Malaysia.

Bats are natural reservoirs for a diverse range of coronaviruses (CoVs), including those closely related to SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, making them crucial for understanding CoV genetics and zoonotic transmission. The exceptional bat diversity in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, provides an ideal setting to investigate CoV diversity and potential transmission pathways. This study examined CoV prevalence and diversity in 346 fecal samples from bats across 29 species in northern and western Sarawak, employing two pan-CoV PCR assays: Quan (Q-assay) and Watanabe (W-assay).

A well-connected Earth: The science and conservation of organismal movement.

Global biodiversity targets focus on landscape and seascape connectivity as a foundational component of biodiversity conservation, including networks of connected protected areas. Recent advances allow the measurement and prediction of organismal movements at multiple scales. We provide a definition of connectivity that links movement to persistence and ecological function.

Landscape-level human disturbance results in loss and contraction of mammalian populations in tropical forests.

Tropical forests hold most of Earth's biodiversity and a higher concentration of threatened mammals than other biomes. As a result, some mammal species persist almost exclusively in protected areas, often within extensively transformed and heavily populated landscapes. Other species depend on remaining remote forested areas with sparse human populations.

Preliminary assessment of group composition and activity pattern of the critically endangered Bornean Banded Langur in Tanjung Datu National Park.

The Bornean banded langur () is critically endangered species primarily found in Sarawak, Malaysia. Albeit this species is in peril, the ecology knowledge of this endemic species of Borneo is still scarce. Thus, a rapid survey employing total count and scan sampling method was conducted between July to August 2023 at Tanjung Datu National Park (TDNP), Sarawak to observe the social interaction of species with the environment.

Checklist of land snail species of Gua Rumbang, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo (Mollusca, Gastropoda), with a description of a new species, sp. nov.

The current study presents an annotated checklist of the land snail species in the vicinity of the limestone hill of Gua (= cave) Rumbang, an outcrop located at the district of Padawan, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. The sampling was conducted at the surrounding areas and near the cave's entrance. A total of 62 species, involving 19 families and 38 genera, were recorded.

CamTrapAsia: A dataset of tropical forest vertebrate communities from 239 camera trapping studies.

Information on tropical Asian vertebrates has traditionally been sparse, particularly when it comes to cryptic species inhabiting the dense forests of the region. Vertebrate populations are declining globally due to land-use change and hunting, the latter frequently referred as "defaunation." This is especially true in tropical Asia where there is extensive land-use change and high human densities.

Landscape-scale benefits of protected areas for tropical biodiversity.

The United Nations recently agreed to major expansions of global protected areas (PAs) to slow biodiversity declines. However, although reserves often reduce habitat loss, their efficacy at preserving animal diversity and their influence on biodiversity in surrounding unprotected areas remain unclear. Unregulated hunting can empty PAs of large animals, illegal tree felling can degrade habitat quality, and parks can simply displace disturbances such as logging and hunting to unprotected areas of the landscape (a phenomenon called leakage).

Socio-ecological factors shape the distribution of a cultural keystone species in Malaysian Borneo.

Biophysical and socio-cultural factors have jointly shaped the distribution of global biodiversity, yet relatively few studies have quantitatively assessed the influence of social and ecological landscapes on wildlife distributions. We sought to determine whether social and ecological covariates shape the distribution of a cultural keystone species, the bearded pig (Sus barbatus). Drawing on a dataset of 295 total camera trap locations and 25,755 trap days across 18 field sites and three years in Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, we fitted occupancy models that incorporated socio-cultural covariates and ecological covariates hypothesized to influence bearded pig occupancy.

The dynamics of the microbiome in Ixodidae are shaped by tick ontogeny and pathogens in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo.

Tick-borne diseases have recently been considered a potential emerging public health threat in Malaysia; however, fundamental studies into tick-borne pathogens and microbiome appear limited. In this study, six tick species (, , and ) collected from two primary forests and an oil palm plantation in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, were used for microbiome analysis targeting bacterial 16S rDNA using next-generation sequencing (NGS). In addition, bacterial species were further characterized in conventional PCRs to identify potential pathogens.

The Distribution and Community's Perception of Flying Fox, in Limbang, a Transboundary Area in Sarawak.

Flying foxes are threatened throughout their geographic range, and there are large gaps in the understanding of their landscape-scale habitat use. This study identified potential habitats in Limbang, Sarawak and informed potential distribution based on dispersal and interview surveys. Here, biological surveys were combined with interviews of local communities in Limbang Mangrove National Park (LMNP), Sarawak to illustrate distribution and the communities' perception on the protected flying fox ().

Detection of a Babesia sp. genotype closely related to marsupial-associated Babesia spp. in male Haemaphysalis shimoga from Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo.

In this study, Babesia screening was conducted in 55 rodents and 160 tick samples collected from primary forests and an oil palm plantation in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. PCR targeting the 18S ribosomal DNA revealed the presence of Babesia spp. DNA detected in two questing male Haemaphysalis shimoga ticks collected from the oil palm plantation.

Land snails and slugs of Bau limestone hills, Sarawak (Malaysia, Borneo), with the descriptions of 13 new species.

This study presents a list of land snails and slugs found on limestone hills in the District of Bau, the state of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo. Systematic and random sampling for land snails was conducted at eight limestone outcrops, namely, Gunung Stulang, Padang Pan, Gunung Kapor, Gunung Lobang Angin, Gunung Doya, Gunung Batu, Bukit Sekunyit and Gunung Sebayat. A total of 122 land snail species was documented with photographs of each species.

Detection of Sensu Lato and Relapsing Fever in Feeding Ticks and Rodents in Sarawak, Malaysia: New Geographical Records of and .

Members of the sensu lato (Bbsl) complex are etiological agents of Lyme disease (LD), and is one of the relapsing fever (RFB). Despite the serological evidence of LD in Malaysia, there has been no report from Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Thus, this study aimed to detect and characterize in rodents and ticks from primary forests and an oil palm (OP) plantation in Sarawak.

Molecular phylogenetics and evolutionary history of the endemic land snail genus in northern Borneo.

Borneo has gone through dramatic changes in geology and topography from the early Eocene until the early Pliocene and experienced climatic cycling during the Pleistocene. However, how these changes have shaped the present-day patterns of high diversity and complex distribution are still poorly understood. In this study, we use integrative approaches by estimating phylogenetic relationships, divergence time, and current and past niche suitability for the Bornean endemic land snail genus to provide additional insight into the evolutionary history of this genus in northern Borneo in the light of the geological vicariance events and climatic fluctuations in the Pleistocene.

Gastrointestinal parasites of zoonotic importance observed in the wild, urban, and captive populations of non-human primates in Malaysia.

Background: A study was undertaken to determine gastrointestinal (GI) parasites commonly found in Malaysia's non-human primates (NHP) living in three different types of populations (wild, urban, and captive) and the basis of major GI parasites of zoonotic importance.

Methods: A total of 308 samples was collected and microscopically screened from the NHP in the wild (n = 163), urban (n = 76), and captive (n = 69) populations. The samples were taken from 12 species of local NHPs.

Lowland biotic attrition revisited: body size and variation among climate change 'winners' and 'losers'.

The responses of lowland tropical communities to climate change will critically influence global biodiversity but remain poorly understood. If species in these systems are unable to tolerate warming, the communities-currently the most diverse on Earth-may become depauperate ('biotic attrition'). In response to temperature changes, animals can adjust their distribution in space or their activity in time, but these two components of the niche are seldom considered together.

How individual links affect network stability in a large-scale, heterogeneous metacommunity.

Elucidating how dispersal and landscape connectivity influence metacommunity stability will shed light on natural processes structuring ecosystems and help prioritize conservation actions in an increasingly fragmented world. Much of the theoretical and mathematical development of the metacommunity concept has been based on simplified experimental systems or simulated data. We still have limited understanding of how variation in the habitat matrix and species-specific differences in dispersal ability contribute to metacommunity dynamics in heterogeneous landscapes.

Correlation and persistence of hunting and logging impacts on tropical rainforest mammals.

Humans influence tropical rainforest animals directly via exploitation and indirectly via habitat disturbance. Bushmeat hunting and logging occur extensively in tropical forests and have large effects on particular species. But how they alter animal diversity across landscape scales and whether their impacts are correlated across species remain less known.