Understory Vegetation in Oil Palm Plantations Promotes Leopard Cat Activity, but Does Not Affect Rats or Rat Damage
Understory Vegetation in Oil Palm Plantations Promotes Leopard Cat Activity, but Does Not Affect Rats or Rat Damage
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DOI：
10.3389/ffgc.2019.00051
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发表时间：
2019-09-19
影响因子：
3.2
通讯作者：
Naim, Mohammad
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Hood, Amelia S. C.;Aryawan, A. Agung K.;Naim, Mohammad
油棕（Elaeis guineensis）种植园的扩张是东南亚土地利用变化和生物多样性丧失的主要原因。这导致对种植园开发更可持续的农业管理实践的需求不断增加，例如综合害虫管理。尽管当森林转变为油棕时，食肉哺乳动物的数量会减少，但一些物种，如豹猫（Prionailurus bengalensis）却被发现持续存在。它们经常因其保护价值而受到种植园管理者的鼓励，并作为害虫防治剂来管理老鼠种群。尽管如此，人们对它们是否减少害鼠数量，或者种植园管理是否影响它们利用油棕栖息地的方式知之甚少。这项研究基于苏门答腊廖内省成熟油棕种植园的热带农业生物多样性和生态系统功能 (BEFTA) 计划，该种植园采用了三种改变林下植被结构的管理策略。我们分别使用相机陷阱、活体陷阱和视觉估计来量化豹猫的活动、入侵老鼠的数量和老鼠的伤害。我们收集了应用管理策略之前和之后四年的数据。我们在种植园内记录了三种野生哺乳动物（豹猫、果子狸和野猪），其中豹猫占观测总数的82%。我们发现，随着林下植被的增加，豹猫栖息地的利用率更高，但植被处理对老鼠的丰度或老鼠的损害没有影响。随着豹猫活动的增加，老鼠的数量也有减少的趋势。这些结果表明，管理实践可以显着影响豹猫栖息地的使用，对害虫控制具有潜在的好处。他们还强调了大规模长期操纵实验对于开发更可持续的油棕管理实践的价值。
The expansion of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantations is a primary cause of land-use change and biodiversity loss in Southeast Asia. This has led to an increasing demand for the development of more sustainable agricultural management practices in plantations, such as Integrated Pest Management. Although populations of carnivorous mammals show declines when forest is converted to oil palm, some species, such as Leopard Cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) have been found to persist. They are often encouraged by plantation managers for their conservation value, and as agents of pest control to manage rat populations. Despite this, little is known about whether they reduce pest rat numbers, or whether plantation management affects how they use the oil palm habitat. This study was based at the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function in Tropical Agriculture (BEFTA) Programme in mature oil palm plantations in Riau, Sumatra, where there are three management strategies altering understory vegetation structure. We quantified Leopard Cat activity, invasive rat abundance and rat damage using camera traps, live traps, and visual estimates, respectively. We collected data over a 4-year period, before and after the management strategies were applied. We recorded three species of wild mammals (Leopard Cats, Common Palm Civets, and Wild Pig) within the plantations, of which Leopard Cats made up 82% of the total number of observations. We found that Leopard Cat habitat use was higher with increased understory vegetation, but that there was no effect of the vegetation treatments on rat abundance or rat damage. There was also a trend for reduced rat abundance with increased Leopard Cat activity. These results show that management practices can significantly affect Leopard Cat habitat use, with potential benefits for pest control. They also highlight the value of large-scale long-term manipulative experiments for developing more sustainable management practices in oil palm.