Dr. Diana Ramirez from Wildlife Rescue Unit and DGFC checking the heartbeat of Jack during his collaring operation in January 2014.
SANDAKAN: Two more wild Sunda clouded leopards were recently trapped and fitted with a satellite collar in the Kinabatangan, as part of a collaborative project between Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), WildCRU, Oxford University and the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC).
This project, focusing on research and conservation of the Sunda clouded leopard in Sabah, is mainly funded by Sime Darby Foundation, with additional funding and support provided by Atlanta Zoo, Houston Zoo, Recanati-Kaplan Foundation, Robertson Foundation, Point Defiance Zoo, Rufford Foundation and The Clouded Leopard Project.
Dr. Diana Ramirez, a veterinarian attached to the Wildlife Rescue Unit and DGFC wildlife, yesterday said that on February 1 this year, Jack, a male clouded leopard that was first collared last October, was caught again and they took the opportunity to change its collar.
“It was good to see that the collar did not leave any mark on the animal’s skin and that he was in very good health condition,” she said.
Dr. Laura Benedict, Wildlife Rescue Unit veterinarian who supervised Raja’s anaesthesia and collaring, said that more recently, on March 22, they caught another male and named him Raja, the third male Sunda clouded leopard collared within this programme.
Andrew Hearn, from WildCRU and PhD student at Oxford University, lead researcher on collaring study, meanwhile, said that they were all delighted to have been so fortunate to have collared these animals for conservation research.
“Sunda clouded leopards are notoriously difficult to trap. It was an absolute pleasure to finally meet Raja in person, whom we first photographed with camera traps in the Kinabatangan back in 2010.
“It will be fascinating, and, hopefully, incredibly useful for our conservation efforts, to see how these cats move through the human-dominated landscape of the Lower Kinabatangan,” added Hearn.
So far, he said, the results gained from the first ever collaring of a clouded leopard back in September 2013, have shown that the animal had crossed the Sandakan-Lahad Datu highway several times, venturing near human settlements as well, and is travelling a lot in this fragmented landscape.
“By tagging several males and, hopefully, a female or two, we will also learn about territoriality and how those individuals share the shrunken habitat,” Hearn added.
Dr. Benoit Goossens, Director of DGFC and researcher at Cardiff University, leading the programme, commented that the collaring of these two males is part of an intensive satellite tracking programme to study the spatial ecology and habitat associations of the Sunda clouded leopard in the fragmented landscape of the Lower Kinabatangan, dominated by palm oil plantations and highly degraded forest.
“Our research is playing an important role in conservation. Regardless of the level of efforts focused on maintaining and increasing the amount of natural habitat, we are ultimately fighting a losing battle. Therefore, understanding how wildlife is using this ever-changing landscape will help us in mitigating and hopefully reducing the level of threats posed by these changes,” Goossens said.