Discovery of five felids in Sungai Ingei Conservation Forest in Brunei Darussalam, Borneo
JOSEPH K. CHARLES AND BEE BIAW ANG
This is the first camera trap discovery of the presence of all five Bornean felids in the pristine, undisturbed Sungai Ingei Conservation Forest of Brunei Darussalam in 2010–2011 – Bornean clouded leopard Neofelis diardi borneensis, marbled cat Pardofelis marmorata, flat-headed cat Prionailurus planiceps, leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis and the endemic Borneo bay cat Catopuma badia. Camera trapping during the Sungei Ingei Faunal Biodiversity Survey from 2009–2012 involved the deployment of 82 camera traps with a trapping effort of 51,202 trap-nights.
When compared to other sites in Borneo, all the cats in this site showed early detections, bay cat by day 37, flatheaded, cat by day 39, clouded leopard by day 43, marbled cat by day 54 and leopard cat by day 92. In term of independent images, the most detected cat was the clouded leopard with 59 images, followed by leopard cat (24), bay cat (18), marbled cat (12) and flat-headed cat (5).
The absence of human disturbance in this forest is probably reflected in early detections and number of independent images.
This is also the first record of the bay cat in Brunei Darussalam with the images being of the red-brown morph.
The flat-headed cat was detected in only 2 of the 6 camera trapping sites that were associated with aquatic habitats while the other felids were recorded in 5–6 sites.
This is the only site in Borneo where it is rare and unique to have all 5 felids in a small protected forest underscoring the value of this pristine undisturbed forest with lack of total disturbance for the presence and survival of these felids.
Cat News 81 Charles & Ang – Five felids in Ingei Conservation Forest in Brunei Darussalam
