TY - JOUR

T1 - Pangolins in global camera trap data

T2 - Implications for ecological monitoring

AU - Khwaja, Hannah

AU - Buchan, Claire

AU - Wearn, Oliver R.

AU - Bahaa-el-din, Laila

AU - Bantlin, Drew

AU - Bernard, Henry

AU - Bitariho, Robert

AU - Bohm, Torsten

AU - Borah, Jimmy

AU - Brodie, Jedediah

AU - Chutipong, Wanlop

AU - Preez, Byron du

AU - Ebang-Mbele, Alex

AU - Edwards, Sarah

AU - Fairet, Emilie

AU - Frechette, Jackson L.

AU - Garside, Adrian

AU - Gibson, Luke

AU - Giordano, Anthony

AU - Veeraswami Gopi, Govindan

AU - Granados, Alys

AU - Gubbi, Sanjay

AU - Harich, Franziska

AU - Haurez, Barbara

AU - Havmøller, Rasmus W.

AU - Helmy, Olga

AU - Isbell, Lynne A.

AU - Jenks, Kate

AU - Kalle, Riddhika

AU - Kamjing, Anucha

AU - Khamcha, Daphawan

AU - Kiebou-Opepa, Cisquet

AU - Kinnaird, Margaret

AU - Kruger, Caroline

AU - Laudisoit, Anne

AU - Lynam, Antony

AU - Macdonald, Suzanne E.

AU - Mathai, John

AU - Sienne, Julia Metsio

AU - Meier, Amelia

AU - Mills, David

AU - Mohd-Azlan, Jayasilan

AU - Nakashima, Yoshihiro

AU - Nash, Helen C.

AU - Ngoprasert, Dusit

AU - Nguyen, An

AU - O'Brien, Tim

AU - Olson, David

AU - Orbell, Christopher

AU - Poulsen, John

AU - Ramesh, Tharmalingam

AU - Reeder, Dee Ann

AU - Reyna, Rafael

AU - Rich, Lindsey N.

AU - Rode-Margono, Johanna

AU - Rovero, Francesco

AU - Sheil, Douglas

AU - Shirley, Matthew H.

AU - Stratford, Ken

AU - Sukumal, Niti

AU - Suwanrat, Saranphat

AU - Tantipisanuh, Naruemon

AU - Tilker, Andrew

AU - Van Berkel, Tim

AU - Van der Weyde, Leanne K.

AU - Varney, Matthew

AU - Weise, Florian

AU - Wiesel, Ingrid

AU - Wilting, Andreas

AU - Wong, Seth T.

AU - Waterman, Carly

AU - Challender, Daniel W.S.

PY - 2019/10

Y1 - 2019/10

N2 - Despite being heavily exploited, pangolins (Pholidota: Manidae) have been subject to limited research, resulting in a lack of reliable population estimates and standardised survey methods for the eight extant species. Camera trapping represents a unique opportunity for broad-scale collaborative species monitoring due to its largely non-discriminatory nature, which creates considerable volumes of data on a relatively wide range of species. This has the potential to shed light on the ecology of rare, cryptic and understudied taxa, with implications for conservation decision-making. We undertook a global analysis of available pangolin data from camera trapping studies across their range in Africa and Asia. Our aims were (1) to assess the utility of existing camera trapping efforts as a method for monitoring pangolin populations, and (2) to gain insights into the distribution and ecology of pangolins. We analysed data collated from 103 camera trap surveys undertaken across 22 countries that fell within the range of seven of the eight pangolin species, which yielded more than half a million trap nights and 888 pangolin encounters. We ran occupancy analyses on three species (Sunda pangolin Manis javanica, white-bellied pangolin Phataginus tricuspis and giant pangolin Smutsia gigantea). Detection probabilities varied with forest cover and levels of human influence for P. tricuspis, but were low (<0.05) for all species. Occupancy was associated with distance from rivers for M. javanica and S. gigantea, elevation for P. tricuspis and S. gigantea, forest cover for P. tricuspis and protected area status for M. javanica and P. tricuspis. We conclude that camera traps are suitable for the detection of pangolins and large-scale assessment of their distributions. However, the trapping effort required to monitor populations at any given study site using existing methods appears prohibitively high. This may change in the future should anticipated technological and methodological advances in camera trapping facilitate greater sampling efforts and/or higher probabilities of detection. In particular, targeted camera placement for pangolins is likely to make pangolin monitoring more feasible with moderate sampling efforts.

AB - Despite being heavily exploited, pangolins (Pholidota: Manidae) have been subject to limited research, resulting in a lack of reliable population estimates and standardised survey methods for the eight extant species. Camera trapping represents a unique opportunity for broad-scale collaborative species monitoring due to its largely non-discriminatory nature, which creates considerable volumes of data on a relatively wide range of species. This has the potential to shed light on the ecology of rare, cryptic and understudied taxa, with implications for conservation decision-making. We undertook a global analysis of available pangolin data from camera trapping studies across their range in Africa and Asia. Our aims were (1) to assess the utility of existing camera trapping efforts as a method for monitoring pangolin populations, and (2) to gain insights into the distribution and ecology of pangolins. We analysed data collated from 103 camera trap surveys undertaken across 22 countries that fell within the range of seven of the eight pangolin species, which yielded more than half a million trap nights and 888 pangolin encounters. We ran occupancy analyses on three species (Sunda pangolin Manis javanica, white-bellied pangolin Phataginus tricuspis and giant pangolin Smutsia gigantea). Detection probabilities varied with forest cover and levels of human influence for P. tricuspis, but were low (<0.05) for all species. Occupancy was associated with distance from rivers for M. javanica and S. gigantea, elevation for P. tricuspis and S. gigantea, forest cover for P. tricuspis and protected area status for M. javanica and P. tricuspis. We conclude that camera traps are suitable for the detection of pangolins and large-scale assessment of their distributions. However, the trapping effort required to monitor populations at any given study site using existing methods appears prohibitively high. This may change in the future should anticipated technological and methodological advances in camera trapping facilitate greater sampling efforts and/or higher probabilities of detection. In particular, targeted camera placement for pangolins is likely to make pangolin monitoring more feasible with moderate sampling efforts.

KW - Camera trap

KW - Detection

KW - Macroecology

KW - Monitoring

KW - Occupancy modelling

KW - Pangolin

U2 - 10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00769

DO - 10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00769

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85072190559

VL - 20

JO - Global Ecology and Conservation

JF - Global Ecology and Conservation

SN - 2351-9894

M1 - e00769

ER -