Identifying conservation successes, failures and future opportunities; assessing recovery potential of wild ungulates and tigers in Eastern Cambodia

Hannah J O'Kelly; Tom D Evans; Emma J Stokes; Tom J Clements; An Dara; Mark Gately; Nut Menghor; Edward H B Pollard; Men Soriyun; Joe Walston

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0040482

Identifying conservation successes, failures and future opportunities; assessing recovery potential of wild ungulates and tigers in Eastern Cambodia

PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e40482. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0040482. Epub 2012 Oct 15.

Authors

Hannah J O'Kelly¹, Tom D Evans, Emma J Stokes, Tom J Clements, An Dara, Mark Gately, Nut Menghor, Edward H B Pollard, Men Soriyun, Joe Walston

Affiliation

¹ Wildlife Conservation Society Cambodia Program, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. hokelly@wcs.org

Abstract

Conservation investment, particularly for charismatic and wide-ranging large mammal species, needs to be evidence-based. Despite the prevalence of this theme within the literature, examples of robust data being generated to guide conservation policy and funding decisions are rare. We present the first published case-study of tiger conservation in Indochina, from a site where an evidence-based approach has been implemented for this iconic predator and its prey. Despite the persistence of extensive areas of habitat, Indochina's tiger and ungulate prey populations are widely supposed to have precipitously declined in recent decades. The Seima Protection Forest (SPF), and broader Eastern Plains Landscape, was identified in 2000 as representing Cambodia's best hope for tiger recovery; reflected in its designation as a Global Priority Tiger Conservation Landscape. Since 2005 distance sampling, camera-trapping and detection-dog surveys have been employed to assess the recovery potential of ungulate and tiger populations in SPF. Our results show that while conservation efforts have ensured that small but regionally significant populations of larger ungulates persist, and density trends in smaller ungulates are stable, overall ungulate populations remain well below theoretical carrying capacity. Extensive field surveys failed to yield any evidence of tiger, and we contend that there is no longer a resident population within the SPF. This local extirpation is believed to be primarily attributable to two decades of intensive hunting; but importantly, prey densities are also currently below the level necessary to support a viable tiger population. Based on these results and similar findings from neighbouring sites, Eastern Cambodia does not currently constitute a Tiger Source Site nor meet the criteria of a Global Priority Tiger Landscape. However, SPF retains global importance for many other elements of biodiversity. It retains high regional importance for ungulate populations and potentially in the future for Indochinese tigers, given adequate prey and protection.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Animals
Animals, Wild*
Artiodactyla*
Cambodia
Conservation of Natural Resources*
Elephants*
Tigers*

Grants and funding

Sources of funding for this biological monitoring program were (in alphabetical order): Asian Development Bank; Eleanor Briggs; East Asia and Pacific Environmental Initiative, an initiative of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); Elyssa Kellerman, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; The Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg Foundation; Panthera; and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. HJOK is also supported by an ESRC/NERC research studentship. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.