Rewilding in Southeast Asia: Singapore as a case study
Re-establishing extirpated wildlife—or “rewilding”—is touted as a way to restore biodiversity and ecosystem processes, but we lack real-world examples of this process, particularly in Southeast Asia. Here, we use a decade of aggregated camera trap data, N-mixture occupancy models, and input from loc...
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sg-ntu-dr.10356-1696972023-07-31T15:30:48Z Rewilding in Southeast Asia: Singapore as a case study Lamperty, Therese Chiok, Wen Xuan Khoo, Max D. Y. Amir, Zachary Baker, Nick Chua, Marcus A. H. Chung, Yi Fei Chua, Yen Kheng Koh, Joshua J.-M Lee, Benjamin P. Y.-H. Lum, Shawn K. Y. Mendes, Calebe P. Ngiam, Jonathan O Dempsey A. Png, Kenny G. C. Sovie, Adia R. Tan, Lorraine Teo, Robert Thomas, Noel Li, Tianjiao Lim, Bryan Tze-Ming Loo, Adrian H. B. Wardle, David A. Luskin, Matthew Scott Asian School of the Environment Science::Geology Tropical Forest Urban Ecology Re-establishing extirpated wildlife—or “rewilding”—is touted as a way to restore biodiversity and ecosystem processes, but we lack real-world examples of this process, particularly in Southeast Asia. Here, we use a decade of aggregated camera trap data, N-mixture occupancy models, and input from local wildlife experts to describe the unassisted recolonization of two native large herbivores in Singapore. Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor) escaped from captivity (in private or public zoos) in the 1970s and contemporary camera trap data show they have only colonized nearby forest fragments and their abundance remains low. Wild pigs (Sus scrofa), in contrast, naturally recolonized by swimming from Malaysia in the 1990s and have rapidly expanded their range and abundance across Singapore. While wild pigs have not recolonized all viable green spaces yet, their trajectory indicates they soon will. We also note that a third ungulate, the muntjac deer (Muntiacus muntjak), was captured in camera trapping in 2014 and 2015 but was never recorded afterward despite increased sampling effort, and thus we do not focus on their presumably unsuccessful recolonization. The divergent rewilding trajectories between sambar deer and wild pigs suggest different conservation outcomes and management requirements. Sambar deer may restore lost plant–animal interactions such as herbivory and seed dispersal without requiring significant management. Wild pigs, in contrast, have reached high numbers rapidly and may require active management to avoid hyperabundance and negative ecological impacts in regions, such as Singapore that lack both hunting and large predators. Nanyang Technological University National Parks Board Published version The research was funded by the National Parks Board of Singapore, the Smithsonian Institution's ForestGEO program, Nanyang Technological University, and the University of Queensland (UQ). 2023-07-31T07:34:46Z 2023-07-31T07:34:46Z 2023 Journal Article Lamperty, T., Chiok, W. X., Khoo, M. D. Y., Amir, Z., Baker, N., Chua, M. A. H., Chung, Y. F., Chua, Y. K., Koh, J. J., Lee, B. P. Y., Lum, S. K. Y., Mendes, C. P., Ngiam, J., O Dempsey A., Png, K. G. C., Sovie, A. R., Tan, L., Teo, R., Thomas, N., ...Luskin, M. S. (2023). Rewilding in Southeast Asia: Singapore as a case study. Conservation Science and Practice, 5(3), e12899-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/csp2.12899 2578-4854 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/169697 10.1111/csp2.12899 2-s2.0-85149409895 3 5 e12899 en Conservation Science and Practice © 2023 The Authors. Conservation Science and Practice published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. application/pdf |
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Science::Geology Tropical Forest Urban Ecology Lamperty, Therese Chiok, Wen Xuan Khoo, Max D. Y. Amir, Zachary Baker, Nick Chua, Marcus A. H. Chung, Yi Fei Chua, Yen Kheng Koh, Joshua J.-M Lee, Benjamin P. Y.-H. Lum, Shawn K. Y. Mendes, Calebe P. Ngiam, Jonathan O Dempsey A. Png, Kenny G. C. Sovie, Adia R. Tan, Lorraine Teo, Robert Thomas, Noel Li, Tianjiao Lim, Bryan Tze-Ming Loo, Adrian H. B. Wardle, David A. Luskin, Matthew Scott Rewilding in Southeast Asia: Singapore as a case study |
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Re-establishing extirpated wildlife—or “rewilding”—is touted as a way to restore biodiversity and ecosystem processes, but we lack real-world examples of this process, particularly in Southeast Asia. Here, we use a decade of aggregated camera trap data, N-mixture occupancy models, and input from local wildlife experts to describe the unassisted recolonization of two native large herbivores in Singapore. Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor) escaped from captivity (in private or public zoos) in the 1970s and contemporary camera trap data show they have only colonized nearby forest fragments and their abundance remains low. Wild pigs (Sus scrofa), in contrast, naturally recolonized by swimming from Malaysia in the 1990s and have rapidly expanded their range and abundance across Singapore. While wild pigs have not recolonized all viable green spaces yet, their trajectory indicates they soon will. We also note that a third ungulate, the muntjac deer (Muntiacus muntjak), was captured in camera trapping in 2014 and 2015 but was never recorded afterward despite increased sampling effort, and thus we do not focus on their presumably unsuccessful recolonization. The divergent rewilding trajectories between sambar deer and wild pigs suggest different conservation outcomes and management requirements. Sambar deer may restore lost plant–animal interactions such as herbivory and seed dispersal without requiring significant management. Wild pigs, in contrast, have reached high numbers rapidly and may require active management to avoid hyperabundance and negative ecological impacts in regions, such as Singapore that lack both hunting and large predators. |
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Asian School of the Environment |
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Asian School of the Environment Lamperty, Therese Chiok, Wen Xuan Khoo, Max D. Y. Amir, Zachary Baker, Nick Chua, Marcus A. H. Chung, Yi Fei Chua, Yen Kheng Koh, Joshua J.-M Lee, Benjamin P. Y.-H. Lum, Shawn K. Y. Mendes, Calebe P. Ngiam, Jonathan O Dempsey A. Png, Kenny G. C. Sovie, Adia R. Tan, Lorraine Teo, Robert Thomas, Noel Li, Tianjiao Lim, Bryan Tze-Ming Loo, Adrian H. B. Wardle, David A. Luskin, Matthew Scott |
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Article |
author |
Lamperty, Therese Chiok, Wen Xuan Khoo, Max D. Y. Amir, Zachary Baker, Nick Chua, Marcus A. H. Chung, Yi Fei Chua, Yen Kheng Koh, Joshua J.-M Lee, Benjamin P. Y.-H. Lum, Shawn K. Y. Mendes, Calebe P. Ngiam, Jonathan O Dempsey A. Png, Kenny G. C. Sovie, Adia R. Tan, Lorraine Teo, Robert Thomas, Noel Li, Tianjiao Lim, Bryan Tze-Ming Loo, Adrian H. B. Wardle, David A. Luskin, Matthew Scott |
author_sort |
Lamperty, Therese |
title |
Rewilding in Southeast Asia: Singapore as a case study |
title_short |
Rewilding in Southeast Asia: Singapore as a case study |
title_full |
Rewilding in Southeast Asia: Singapore as a case study |
title_fullStr |
Rewilding in Southeast Asia: Singapore as a case study |
title_full_unstemmed |
Rewilding in Southeast Asia: Singapore as a case study |
title_sort |
rewilding in southeast asia: singapore as a case study |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10356/169697 |
_version_ |
1773551424148340736 |