Rabu, 23 Desember 2009

POPULATION DENSITY, DISTRIBUTION AND SOCIALITY OF LOWLAND ANOA AND SYMPATRIC UNGULATES

Abdul Haris Mustari (1), Peter Jarman (2)

  1. Department of Forest Resources Conservation and Ecotourism, Faculty of Forestry, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia (haris.anoa@yahoo.com)
  2. Division of Ecosystem Management, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia
SUMMARY

Population density of lowland anoas was estimated using direct and indirect observations. Of the direct observations, 20 and 10 sightings of anoas were made during the 372 and 124.3 km of transects walked in Tanjung Peropa and Tanjung Amolengo reserves, respectively. Sightings were made in all forest types. For indirect observations, densities of the dung of the animals and their calculated defecation rates were used to determine habitat occupancy in each of the habitat types occupied by lowland anoas, which were shown to include riverine, bamboo, lowland and rocky-lowland forest, and forests at higher altitude up to 900 m asl in Tanjung Peropa and mangrove, beach and lowland forests in Tanjung Amolengo, indicating that lowland anoas occupy a wide range of habitats (indeed, they occur in all the natural forested habitats studied). They could be found in the mangrove forest during low tides and they could also be observed in the mountainous forests at the peak of the reserve. This study revealed that habitat occupancies of the anoas were slightly higher in the riverine, bamboo and lowland forests than in the rocky-lowland forest in Tanjung Peropa whereas the animals spent more time in the beach forest than the lowland forest in Tanjung Amolengo. The lowland anoas significantly avoid forests near to settlement and roads. Anoas are water-dependent animals; they need water every day for drinking and they frequently visited water holes and wallowing sites. Distribution of anoa is significantly associated with water sources during the dry season.

Anoas adopt solitary behaviour (average 1.2 animals/group or per sightings; n = 38 detections, S.D. 0.41); they were mostly found singly or in pairs and were very rare as three animals in a group. Young anoas accompany their mother until the next calf is born, and in some cases longer.

1 komentar:

  1. saya sangat mendukung atas kegiatan bapak dalam meng-konservasi anoa agar tidak terjadi kepunahan...

    semoga kegiatan bapak ini selalu dilancarkan dan memberikan hasil yang terbaik khususnya bagi anak cucu kita yag nantinya akan mengenal satwa asli Indonesia ini...

    BalasHapus