Impact of Forest Isolation on Mammals Diversity and Distribution Due to Impoundment of Hulu Terengganu Hydroelectric Project, Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia

摘要

Impoundment is the main phase of dam development that significantly destroys mammals and its habitats. Elephant rescue activity in Kenyir Reservoir post-impoundment suggests the ability of mammals to swim to the remaining terrestrial habitats in search of shelters. Due to the lack of data on wildlife survival in the reservoirs of Malaysia, this study aimed to establish a list of mammal species surviving in Puah Reservoir, Terengganu after two years of inundation, to assess the developed adaptive behaviour and to describe their movement pattern in the reservoir. Four camera traps were placed on each of the seven selected land-bridge islands for 12 months. All captured images were analysed through camtrapR package in R-3.5.0 software. A total of 11 mammal species were recorded surviving in Puah Reservoir. From these species, Asian palm civet and long-tailed macaque have adapted to permanently inhabit an island while smooth-coated otter, Asian elephant and wild boar are well adapted to fully utilise the reservoir. The primates or solitary mammals such as Sumatran serow, harking deer, marbled cat, Malay tapir, dusky leaf monkey and palethighed langur have adapted to be the occasional utilisers of the reservoir. The second group has developed a movement strategy where their presence on each island are not overlapping with each other. This study concludes that mammals can survive in a reservoir by adapting to habitat changes and develop a survival strategy. This study will be among the earlier study inMalaysia which documents the survival data of mammals in reservoirs.