In the Borneo canopy, life thrives in surprising ways, camera-trap study shows

The first systematic camera-trapping survey of arboreal mammals in Southeast Asia reveals a diverse and distinct community; the researchers also recorded evidence of new behaviors and the first ever photograph of a rare flying rodent. The team collected more than 8,000 photographs, cataloging 57 species in total, 30 of which were detected exclusively on ground cameras and 18 exclusively in the canopy. Since few past studies have targeted arboreal mammals, scientists do not know how human disturbances such as logging may affect them. The results demonstrate that surveying in the forest canopy is “crucial to our understanding of rainforest mammal communities,” say the study authors. In her spare time as a research assistant in the forests of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, Jessica Haysom turned to perusing mammal field guides. She found herself especially intrigued by the vast number of animals that live high in the Bornean forest canopy, about which next to nothing is known. “The more I read, the more I realized that there was so much going on in the canopy which very few people were studying,” she said. Now, she’s uncovering the secrets of that lofty realm. In a recent study in Frontiers in Forests and Global […]

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