Tembadau next on extinction list?
Published on: Sunday, August 11, 2024
By: David Thien
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Visitors viewing Tembadau at Lok Kawi Zoo. There are suggestions that these may be a mixed breed.
Former WWF Malaysia senior advisor Dr Glyn Davies once told a “Sabah Society Talk: Wildlife Atlas of Sabah – A perspective from 1982 – 2022” that the black-coated animal with “white leggings” have been falling victim to trophy hunters and locals who prize them for their meat.
Former WWF Malaysia senior advisor Dr Glyn Davies
Relentless habitat loss in increasingly fragmented forests have also reduced their numbers in Sabah to estimated less than 500.
Facing severe existential threats in the form of habitat loss, forest fragmentation and poaching, their survival also is aggravated by the many wild boar deaths from the African swine fever outbreak in Sabah as hunters might be tempted to go after them instead.
Wild banteng is classified as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List, and their numbers have decreased by more than 50 per cent in the past few decades. So losing any more places the species in the category of going extinct.
Banteng in the wild: Only 500 left in Sabah and an unknown number in Kalimantan.
Dr Glyn, who is now back in the UK after his contract in Sabah ended two years ago, said he was heartened by public response against deaths of elephants and orangutans reported in the media.
Banteng are hard to see in the wild. As shy animals, they dwell in remote tropical lowland mixed dipterocarp, swamp or beech forest. Within disturbed habitat, banteng exhibit diurnal nocturnal behaviour. However, where human activity is infrequent, banteng use forest edge grassland openly during the day.
Despite their endangered status, Banteng have received little attention from researchers and their plight rarely receives publicity. A research project in the area known as the Malua Biobank in the Heart of Borneo, is hoping to get more data on them.
Banteng were once widespread in Borneo but now confined to isolated forest reserves in Sabah and (unconfirmed) on the Sabah/Kalimantan border. Over the past 30-40 years, the banteng suffered catastrophic events which caused their demise and resulted in the local extinction of some herds. It is the poachers who are primarily responsible for their situation.
A basic survey of Sabah’s banteng population conducted in the 1980s by WWF estimated their size to be in the range of 300-550. The population size of banteng in Kalimantan remains unknown.
It is highly probable that Borneo’s banteng population has dramatically declined by more than 50 per cent as a result of widespread deforestation and conversion to agricultural land, hunting, and disease transmission from domestic cattle. Hybridisation with domestic cattle and inbreeding consequential of isolation are also likely threats.
With the opportunity to breed the Sumatra rhino in captivity being missed, cooperating with Indonesia on conservation efforts to prevent their extinction seems logical.
In UKNP (Ujung Kulon National Park, banteng (Bos javanicus) is one of six ungulate species and most prominent endemic mammals. The population of banteng are believed to be small in the UKNP.
A close-up of the animals.
The Rhino Monitoring Unit (RMU) in Ujung Kulon National Park, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the Republic of Indonesia contributed to data collection that document the banteng showing a slow reproductive cycle (approximately a 295-day gestation period), besides that of the Javan rhinoceros.
Indonesian researchers recorded that the population size of Javan rhino in 2013 was a minimal 58 individuals consisting of 8 calves and 50 sub adults or adults with a sex ratio of 35 males: 23 females. The birth rate was recorded at 13.79 per cent while the mortality rate was 3.45 per cent with four new calves in 2013.
Besides habitat destruction, intrinsic factors such as low reproduction rates, low densities, and extensive area requirements cause a high level of threat in the medium-large bodied mammal populations.
UKNP is a remnant of ancient forests that survived after a major eruption of a super volcano of Krakatoa and tsunami in 1883, and still have a significant threat of natural catastrophes such as earthquakes.
It has a secondary growth tropical lowland rainforest with four main habitat types and highly rainfall seasonal monsoonal climate. Biodiversity on land are suffering from anthropogenic activities, whereas the largest carnivores Javan tiger, Panthera tigris sondaica, has been extirpated, while the two remaining carnivores are Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas) and dholes (Cuon alpinus).
In 1970, there were 13 locations known as banteng habitat in Java, whereas it shrinks into four locations where the most abundant population occurs in UKNP recorded in 1997 (in total 905 individuals).
Habitat competition from domestic cattle which grazed illegally in the national park appears to be a problem to the species since zoonosis appears from domestic cattle to banteng.
Therefore, effective law enforcement and an adequate conservation strategy are required to eliminate the impacts of both direct and indirect threats.
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