A Preliminary Survey on the Effect of Anthropogenic Noise to Bird Community in Gaya Island

To date, there is still scarce study that has been done looking on the impact of the anthropogenic noise in influencing the bird community in Gaya Island as it acts as an important indicator for the health of the island’s ecosystem. Hence, this preliminary study aims to determine the effect of the anthropogenic noise on the bird community in Gaya Island. The data collection was conducted for three months in three of the selected sites within the island. The methods that were being used were the point count sampling and noise mapping respectively. The anthropogenic noise level that was being measured at the selected sites ranges from 29dB to 80dB. Meanwhile, descriptive analysis, diversity indexes and correlation analysis were used to analyze the obtained data. A total of 422 individuals from 24 species and 16 families were recorded during the survey in Gaya Island. The result of the Shannon Wiener index showed that the diversity of the birds in low anthropogenic noise zone is slightly higher (H’=2.559) as compared to the bird in high anthropogenic noise zone (H’= 2.558) even though there is no significant different in terms of diversity of birds between these two zones. However, the Spearman’s correlation analysis showed a very significant and negative correlation of the anthropogenic noise with the abundance and species richness of bird (r= -0.076, p=0.000). Therefore, this study shows that the bird community is negatively affected with the increasing of anthropogenic noise in Gaya Island

The Preliminary Survey of Bird Populations in Kinabalu Park with Different Noise Level

Birdwatching activity has become one of the main attractions among tourists in Kinabalu National Park. Therefore, the number of tourists that come inside the park were directly contribute to the increasing number of vehicles inside the park. To date, there is no studies that have been done in Malaysia to investigate the response of birds on traffic noise. Therefore, this research was conducted to study the impact of traffic noise on bird population in Kinabalu Park. The study includes two methods, i.e., traffic noise mapping and bird survey. Traffic Noise Mapping involves identifying High Traffic Noise Zone and Low Traffic Noise Zone based on the existing trails by using a digital sound level meter. High Traffic Noise Zone was classified as noise level above ≥60dB and Low Traffic Noise Zone was classified as noise level below <60dB. One control site was selected which was far from the traffic noise. Bird survey was done by using point count method. A total of 1150 birds were recorded of which were 35 species and 20 families. Pearson Correlation shows very significant and negative correlation of traffic noise with bird’s species richness and bird abundance of which were (r = -0.671, p<0.000) and (r = -0.753, p<0.000), respectively. The results in this study show birds’ population in Kinabalu Park was very significantly reduce both in species richness as well as abundance in High Traffic Noise Zone. We recommend that there should be a mechanism that is established by the Park management to control the number of vehicle that enters the Park. Alternative mode of transportation inside the Park such as electric powered buggy is recommended to address the issue of traffic noise around the park

An Update on the Bird Population in Gaya Island

The ecosystem of small islands also plays a crucial role in serving as a habitat for birds especially the endemic and migratory birds. To date, there is still limited study that has been done in documenting the avian community in small islands such as Gaya Island in Sabah. Hence, this study aims to document and update the bird population by looking at the species richness and abundance of birds in Gaya Island. The method that was being used was solely standard point count method in three selected sampling trails for six months of survey. A total number of 524 individuals from 26 species and 17 families were recorded of which adding 16 species of birds from the past study. The value of the Shannon Wiener index and Simpson diversity index for the diversity of birds were 2.607 and 0.906 respectively. Interestingly two endemic species, two near threatened and one vulnerable species namely Philippine Megapode (Megapodius cumingii), White-crowned Shama (Copsychus strickladii), White-chested Babbler (Trichastoma rostratum), Grey-chested Jungle Flycatcher (Rhinomyias umbratilis) and Great Slaty Woodpecker (Mulleripicus pulverulentus) were sighted during the survey. The result from this study showed that Gaya Island supports diverse species of birds and play a crucial transit location for migratory bird species. Hence, it indicates for the need of further bird conservation studies in the island

Brood hosts of Oriental Cuckoo Cuculus saturatus in Sabah, Malaysia

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Using diverse data sources to detect elevational range changes of birds on Mount Kinabalu, Malaysian Borneo

Few empirical studies have measured the effects of climate change on tropical biodiversity, and this paucity has contributed to uncertainty in predicting the severity of climate change on tropical organisms. With regards to elevational changes, most studies have either re-sampled historical systematic survey sites or analyzed time series of occurrence data at long-term study sites. Such data sources are unavailable for most tropical mountains, so other methods of detecting elevational changes must be sought. Here we combine data from published checklists, recent field work, peer-reviewed literature, unpublished reports, birdwatchers’ trip reports, databases of birdwatchers’ observations, audio recordings, and photographs to compare historical (pre-1998) and current (post-2006) bird distributions on Mt. Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Records were carefully checked by experts on Bornean birds. More species are now known from Mt. Kinabalu, but historical data provided elevational range estimates for more species than current data because of extensive mountain-wide collections and surveys. Most elevational comparisons for this study had to be limited to the 1450–1900 m elevational band, where most of the recent work has been done. Information was compiled into an annotated list of 342 species from 200–4095 m. We present this list to encourage refi nement of the dataset and future work on elevational distributions on the mountain. Of 58 species with suffi cient data from 1450 m to the summit, 38 appear to have shifted their ranges (24 species upslope and 14 downslope). A total of 22 resident species have recently been observed above their published maximum elevation for Borneo. Some species that have shifted upwards, such as Chalcophaps indica and Pellorneum pyrrogenys, are now common or breeding at elevations above their published maximum. Fifteen species appear to have declined on the mountain, probably as a result of habitat loss outside the protected area. Several of the upslope shifts are probably attributable to climate change, but many downslope shifts may be artifacts of incomplete recent sampling. The upward shifts agree with the few other tropical range comparisons that have been published. Our approach demonstrates the viability of combining diverse data sources (of varying accuracy and bias) to detect distributional shifts from climate change.J. Berton C. Harris, Ding Li Yong, Frederick H. Sheldon, Andy J. Boyce, James A. Eaton, Henry Bernard, Alim Biun, Angela Langevin, Thomas E. Martin, Dan Weihttp://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/rbz/supplement25.htm

An assessment of avifauna in a recovering lowland forest at Kinabalu National Park, Malaysian Borneo

Pegan, Teresa M., Gulson-Castillo, Eric R., Biun, Alim, Byington, Joseph I., Moyle, Robert G., Yu, Fred Tuh Yit, Wood, Eric M., Winkler, David W., Sheldon, Frederick H. (2018): An assessment of avifauna in a recovering lowland forest at Kinabalu National Park, Malaysian Borneo. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 66: 110-131, DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.535855

Evolution of endemismon a young tropical mountain

Tropical mountains are hot spots of biodiversity and endemism(1-3), but the evolutionary origins of their unique biotas are poorly understood(4). In varying degrees, local and regional extinction, long-distance colonization, and local recruitment may all contribute to the exceptional character of these communities(5). Also, it is debated whether mountain endemics mostly originate from local lowland taxa, or from lineages that reach the mountain by long-range dispersal from cool localities elsewhere(6). Here we investigate the evolutionary routes to endemism by sampling an entire tropical mountain biota on the 4,095-metre-high Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, East Malaysia. We discover that most of its unique biodiversity is younger than the mountain itself (6 million years), and comprises a mix of immigrant pre-adapted lineages and descendants from local lowland ancestors, although substantial shifts from lower to higher vegetation zones in this latter group were rare. These insights could improve forecasts of the likelihood of extinction and 'evolutionary rescue'(7) in montane biodiversity hot spots under climate change scenarios