Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 114, Issue 31, Pages 8307-8312Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1706780114
Keywords
Bornean orangutan; Carnegie Airborne Observatory; conservation; Light Detection and Ranging; movement ecology
Categories
Funding
- United Nations Development Program
- Avatar Alliance Foundation
- Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
- World Wildlife Fund
- Rainforest Trust
- Arcus Foundation
- zoo of Zooparc de Beauval
- zoo of la Palmyre
- zoo of Chester
- zoo of Woodland Park
- zoo of Houston
- zoo of Cleveland
- zoo of Columbus
- zoo of Phoenix
- zoo of Saint Louis
- zoo of Basel
- zoo of Apenheul
- zoo of Hogle
- Oregon Metroparks
- Association of Zoos and Aquariums Great Ape Taxon Advisory Group
- Synchronicity Earth
- United States Fish and Wildlife Service
- World Land Trust
- Waterloo Foundation
- Margaret A. Cargill Foundation
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment
- W. M. Keck Foundation
- John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
- Andrew Mellon Foundation
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The conservation of charismatic and functionally important large species is becoming increasingly difficult. Anthropogenic pressures continue to squeeze available habitat and force animals into degraded and disturbed areas. Ensuring the long-term survival of these species requires a well-developed understanding of how animals use these new landscapes to inform conservation and habitat restoration efforts. We combined 3 y of highly detailed visual observations of Bornean orangutans with high-resolution airborne remote sensing (Light Detection and Ranging) to understand orangutan movement in disturbed and fragmented forests of Malaysian Borneo. Structural attributes of the upper forest canopy were the dominant determinant of orangutan movement among all age and sex classes, with orangutans more likely to move in directions of increased canopy closure, tall trees, and uniform height, as well as avoiding canopy gaps and moving toward emergent crowns. In contrast, canopy vertical complexity (canopy layering and shape) did not affect movement. Our results suggest that although orangutans do make use of disturbed forest, they select certain canopy attributes within these forests, indicating that not all disturbed or degraded forest is of equal value for the long-term sustainability of orangutan populations. Although the value of disturbed habitats needs to be recognized in conservation plans for wide-ranging, large-bodied species, minimal ecological requirements within these habitats also need to be understood and considered if long-term population viability is to be realized.
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