- Where Javan leopards thrive, the diversity and abundance of other wildlife species is also enhanced, a new study shows.
- Researchers used camera traps across Java from 2020 to 2022 to identify the richness of animal life in areas with more leopards.
- Many of these species, such as barking deer and wild boar, are leopard prey, while others, such as dhole wild dogs and Javan rhinos, aren’t.
- The study highlights the importance of targeted conservation strategies that also include protecting these other species and restoring habitats, to support the endangered Javan leopards and their ecosystems.
JAKARTA — A new study on Javan leopards has found that areas with higher numbers of the endangered subspecies have richer wildlife diversity than those from where the elusive big cats are absent.
More Javan leopards (Panthera pardus melas) in a given habitat correspond to higher richness and abundance of other animals that coexist in the same location, said a group of wildlife researchers in a recently published paper. The authors said the study was the first extensive look at what animals the leopard might hunt, using camera traps across all four different types of terrestrial regions on the Indonesian island of Java.
Led by Andhika C. Ariyanto from the University of Twente in the Netherlands and Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the authors studied 7,461 individual photos taken over a combined period of nearly 13,000 days by camera traps between 2020 and 2022 in four national parks.
The Javan leopard is the last big predator on the Indonesian island, following the extinction last century of the Javan tiger. Image courtesy of Conservation International.
They found that Meru Betiri National Park, representing the eastern Java-Bali montane rainforest habitat, had the highest species richness in areas where the Javan leopards are found. Ujung Kulon National Park and Alas Purwo National Park — western Java rainforest and eastern Java-Bali rainforest habitat, respectively — followed closely, their research showed. Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park, representative of the western Java-Bali rainforest habitat, had relatively lower species diversity in areas inhabited by leopards.
“This suggests the interplay between Javan leopards and their prey, revealing how the abundance of prey plays a role in shaping the distribution and behavior of the predators in their natural environment,” the study says.
The researchers identified 10 species whose presence overlapped strongly with that of leopards, both in space and time, and suggested some were prey candidates hunted by the big cat. They include barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak), wild boar (Sus scrofa), junglefowl (Gallus spp.), dhole (Cuon alpinus) and Javan rhinos (Rhinoceros sondaicus).
By identifying which animals Javan leopards hunt and their populations, the study says, conservation managers can create specific plans to protect and increase these animal populations,