1. Socio-ecological factors shape the distribution of a cultural keystone species (bearded pig, Sus barbatus) in Malaysian Borneo
- Author
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struebig, matthew, Macdonald, David, Luskin, Matthew, Simpson, Boyd, Kurz, David, Gardner, Penny, Connor, Thomas, Baking, Esther, Brodie, Jedediah, Ross, Joanna, Wearn, Oliver, Deith, Mairin, Ampeng, Ahmad, Mohd-Azlan, Jayasilan, Deere, Nicolas, Bernard, Henry, Goossens, Benoit, Potts, Matthew, Brashares, Justin, Lim, Hong-Ye, Szeto, Sabrina, Hearn, Andrew, Granados, Alys, Helmy, Olga, and Wern, Jocelyn
- Subjects
bepress|Life Sciences|Ecology and Evolutionary Biology|Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology ,bepress|Life Sciences ,bepress|Life Sciences|Ecology and Evolutionary Biology - Abstract
Biophysical and socio-cultural factors have jointly shaped the distribution of global biodiversity, yet relatively few studies have quantitatively assessed the influence of social and ecological landscapes on wildlife distributions. We sought to determine whether social and ecological covariates shape the distribution of a cultural keystone species, the bearded pig (Sus barbatus). Drawing on a dataset of 295 total camera trap locations and 25,755 trap days across 18 field sites and three years in Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, we fitted occupancy models incorporating socio-cultural covariates and environmental covariates hypothesized to be associated with bearded pig occupancy. We found that all competitive occupancy models included both socio-cultural covariates and ecological covariates. Moreover, we found quantitative evidence supporting Indigenous pig hunting rights: high levels of Indigenous pig-hunting groups were positively associated with pig occupancy in low-accessibility areas, and medium and low levels of Indigenous pig-hunting groups were positively associated with pig occupancy in high-accessibility areas. These results suggest that bearded pig populations in Malaysian Borneo should be managed with context-specific strategies, promoting Indigenous pig hunting rights. We also provide important baseline information on bearded pig occupancy levels prior to the 2020-2021 outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF), which caused social and ecological concerns after mass dieoffs of bearded pigs in Borneo.
- Published
- 2022