ELEPHANT HABITAT USE AND PALM OIL PLANTATIONS IN SABAH, MALASYIA

Photo: M. English 

There are fewer than 2000 Borneo Elephants (Elephas maximus borneensis) left in the wild. These endangered animals are threatened by the clearing of lowland forest for agriculture, particularly palm oil plantations.

One key area is the Lower Kinabatangan floodplains in Sabah, Malaysia, where elephants are restricted to a strip of forest along the Kinabatangan River. The elephant population in this area has doubled in the last ten years, and the elephants have recently begun moving out of the forest and feeding in the surrounding palm-oil plantations.

If human and elephant populations continue to increase, the environment will not be able to sustain both populations and human-elephant conflicts in the area are likely to increase drastically.

With support from Zoos Victoria, Ms Megan English (Victoria University of Wellington) is collaborating with other universities, conservation authorities and NGOs to investigate ways of improving conservation strategies for elephants in this region.

AIMS

This project will systematically investigate the elephants' relationship with their environment by:

1. Determining the elephants' use of food and habitat, and the factors that influence elephant resource selection.
2. Evaluating the impact of elephant resource use on vegetation composition and structure.
3. Determining the influence of landscape factors (such as spatial distribution of habitat and oil palm plantations) on elephant resource use.
4. Modelling the potential implications of elephant populations on future management of Kinabatangan habitats and surrounding land-use.

OUTCOMES

The information obtained in this study will help determine how, why and when the elephants use plantations and other habitats, and the short-term impacts of elephants on their environment.

The results will be compared with previous studies of elephant herd movement patterns, crop-raiding and human-elephant conflict rates. This will help predict how future changes in habitat may influence elephant resource use. For example, how elephant populations and behaviour would be affected by the expansion (or reduction) of plantation areas, forest succession, changes in forest corridors, habitat changes caused by climate (e.g. flooding), or human disturbance.

PROJECT SUPPORT

This project receives financial and logistical support, and involves researchers, from the following institutions:

Victoria University of Wellington: Megan English & Dr Wayne Linklater

Zoos Victoria: Dr Graeme Gillespie

Sabah Wildlife Department: Dr Benoit Goossens

Hutan - Elephant Conservation Unit: Dr Marc Ancrenaz

FOR MORE INFORMATION

- on this research project - click here to email Megan English (Principal Investigator) 

- on research partners: the Hutan - Elephant Conservation Unit and the Danau Girang Field Centre.

- on Zoos Victoria's Don't Palm us Off campaign - click here.

- on Asian Elephants and the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species - click here.