Let’s say you’ve been travelling across Peninsular Malaysia looking for a particular animal or plant over the years and you’ve marked the GPS coordinates of its presence through an indirect sign (e.g., tracks or vocalizations) or an actual sighting. And one day, you decide to make a map of its distribution, but of course, you do not have the time and effort to look in every nook and cranny of the peninsula to make an accurate map. So wouldn’t you like to know potential places where your species might be found? 
Over the years, scientists have developed a range of species distribution models (SDMs) to help you do just that. SDMs try to establish a relationship between your species records and the environmental or spatial characteristics (e.g., rainfall, temperature, forest cover, land use types, distance to water sources) of your sampling area (Franklin 2009). In other words, SDMs help to predict where you might find other suitable habitats for your species – you don’t always have to depend on luck to go find them! One of the more popular types of SDMs is Maximum Entropy Modelling Continue reading
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Publication update 3: The SAFE Index – what it is and what it isn’t
A conservationist’s work is all about saving endangered species. We all know that. Most of us in the business are also familiar with the IUCN Red List, which categorises species according to how threatened they are.
But have you ever wondered just how close a species really is to extinction? What does it mean exactly, when a species is endangered? And are all endangered species equally endangered? What if you had a limited amount of resources – a bit of funding here, a few members of staff there, and a whole bunch of species that need saving.
Or perhaps it all comes down to a choice between two different species. They’re both endangered. But you can’t save them both, because the resources you have simply aren’t enough. You have to choose. How do you choose? Wouldn’t you want some method to help you decide which species you should invest your resources and effort in?
This is what the SAFE Index is all about.
Project update 3: Kenyir forests are alive and about to be camera trapped!
Heads up folks! This is the first ever fieldwork update from the Kenyir Wildlife Corridor Project and we’re very excited to report that the Kenyir forests are alive and well!
We’ve just completed 4-km transects at more than 30 access points along the Kuala Berang highway. This highway cuts through three contiguous production forest reserves consisting mainly of lowland and hill dipterocarp forests. Our project site lies within a globally important Tiger Conservation Landscape, one of three priority areas according to the National Tiger Action Plan for Malaysia1, and is also identified as Primary Linkage 7 in the Central Forest Spine (CFS) Master Plan for Ecological Linkages2. So you can see why it’s important that we assess impacts of highway viaducts in this landscape.
We’ve already recorded a total of Continue reading
Rimba 