Beyond the Target: Using Camera Trap By-catch to Reveal Niche Partitioning in Bornean Viverrids
- The Civet Project
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
In this special Meet the Researcher blog, we hear from The Civet Project Foundation's very own Keyana Grace and learn all about her research into Viverridae ecology as part of her Masters degree in Wildlife Conservation.
Welcome!
I’m Keyana, a recent Wildlife Conservation graduate from the University of the West of England. I also work with The Civet Project as a Programmes Administrator and Research Assistant, and having been part of the team for over a year, I am fully enthralled by all things civets!
When deciding which project to take in my MSc course, I chose to diverge from the list presented to me. Having worked with The Civet Project as first and intern and now a member of staff, I knew all too well that Viverrids were in desperate need of further research and representation within conservation. Therefore, I teamed up with Dr Susan Cheyne, Director Science at Borneo Nature Foundation, and Dr Jes Hooper, CEO of The Civet Project, to develop a project on Bornean Viverrids. Unable to travel to Borneo myself, I opted for a remote project utilizing Borneo Nature Foundation's extensive long term camera trap data spread across Indonesian Borneo.
Why Viverrids?
Since I began my studies into conservation, animal behaviour has always captured my interest.
Specifically, the behaviour of the unknown. Species missed by science, or simply too elusive and mysterious to warrant the effort to understand them. Civets are just that. Some of the oldest carnivores on the planet, yet most people won’t even know who civets are, where they live, and the threats they face.
Research Aims
A vast majority of species within the Viverridae family are due an IUCN re-assessment, and the resources to gather this data are slim. As a solution, I set out to analyse by-catch data. “By-catch” refers to the species captured on a camera trap that are not the target of the study, and are just passing through. The by-catch data I was interested in was all the times that curious civets were caught on camera just going about their daily (or nightly) business.
The core objectives of my study were to assess the occupancy of Viverrids, the impact of logging and oil palm concessions, distance to water and elevation on occupancy, and the utility of ground-based by-catch data to research Viverrids. What this meant in practice was reviewing thousands of Viverrid by-catch images available from Borneo Nature Foundation and mapping the species I observed across varied Borean habbits.
Discovering the Viverrid Guilds of Borneo
My research immediately highlighted the vast and diverse Viverrid guilds in Borneo. With eight members of the Viverridae family inhabiting the island, I found seven of these on camera; Binturong, Small-toothed palm civets, Asian palm civets, Banded civets, Malay civets, Hose's civets and Otter civets. The only absent member was the Masked palm civet. Species were found together in multiple sites. For example, the Hose’s civet, Malay civet, Banded civet, Small-toothed palm civet and Binturong were all captured at the same site! This warranted further investigation.
How are these small carnivores able to occupy these spaces without intense competition?
Through analysing the detection data in this specific highland site, I was able to distinguish that some viverrids were separating themselves physically. Small-toothed palm civets showed a preference for only coming down to the ground when occupying inland forest (far from main water sources). This could be driven by the more connected canopy, as these are highly arboreal civets, or these inland forests could provide an opportunity to avoid larger bodied carnivores such as the Malay civet which may occupy the forest edges more readily.
The extremely elusive Hose's civet was also found to separate themselves from the other Viverrids, specifically through elevation. These civets were only spotted a few times, but each sighting was at the highest elevation cameras. This suggests that they avoided other Viverrids through only occupying the high points, and further studies at higher elevations could shed more light on the behaviours of this mysterious civet.
Specialists vs. Generalists
Within my research, themes of specialists and generalists also started to emerge. Civets which held no preference for where they went, and were found to be quite adaptable, were classed as generalists. This included species such as the Malay civet and Banded civet, which were found somewhat closer to concession boundaries, and had no preference for being close or far from water or occupying specific elevations. These are civets that may be extremely key for aiding the health of degraded habitats; acting as meso-predators to stabilise the populations of small mammals, insects, reptiles and amphibians.
In contrast, species which showed a strong preference for a specific habitat type were categorized as specialists. The elusive, endangered Otter civet was a clear specialist, primarily occupying the lowest elevation site (Sabagau Reserve), which is dominated by damp peat-swamp forests. As their name suggests, Otter civets look similar to otters, and have adapted similarly.
Their paws are webbed, their ears and nose can close in the water, their fur is thick and coarse, and they are classed as semi-aquatic.
These civets were expected to be found in this special reserve, closest to consistent water sources where they can hunt for fish and crustaceans. Sabanagau is one of the few remaining large protected peat-swamp forests on Borneo, and is a stronghold for this species, as they were not found significantly in any other site for this study.
Harnessing the Power of By-catch
As I worked through years of by-catch data, it became clear that studying Viverrids is difficult. Despite high survey efforts most detection probabilities were extremely low, and typical occupancy models were unable to show any clear results. However, newer methods for analysing sparse detection data have evolved, which allowed the model to still pull results, and give me insights despite poor data quality. These insights give me a baseline, pointing towards trends that allow for more precise and targeted studies.
The research did have limitations, as all cameras were ground based, highly arboreal species were underrepresented, such as the Asian palm civet and Binturong, while the Masked palm civet was absent from all cameras. This gives us a clear idea of which species are suitable for ground based monitoring, and which need a more specialised approach, such as targeted arboreal cameras, spotlight surveying eDNA analysis.
The Future
The methods used, and insights gained, hold much potential for the future of researching Viverrids and other such elusive species. If analysis across large datasets took place, we could start to piece together the reality of Viverrid populations, how they react to human settlements, agriculture, forest loss and climate change.
Within Borneo, the entire guild of Viverrids act as sentinels of change.
As specialists, the Otter and Hose's civets highlight the health of very specific habitats, their absence from these habitats acts as an alarm system for conservationists. Continual monitoring of these species is especially important. While our generalists like the Banded and Malay civet, allow us to monitor recovery in disturbed areas and assess differences in habitat quality where the species are absent. By studying these guilds as a whole, we can understand habitat quality, dispersal barriers, and the long-term health of Bornean forests. It is amazing to think of all the information these secretive, rarey-seen, species hold.
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