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Go DeeperThe Nature Conservancy in Indonesia |
When it comes to thriving in dynamic tropical forests affected by timber harvests, it helps to be young—a young species, that is. A study of mammals in Borneo, led by The Nature Conservancy’s Erik Meijaard, found that species that arrived on the scene more recently in geological time tend to adapt better to changing landscapes. Southeast Asian species more than 5 million years old tended to decline in population after logging. The results appeared in the journal Biotropica last winter. They followed a pattern reported elsewhere in Southeast Asia in which older species tend to specialize in narrow ecological niches, making the animals resistant to change, while younger species are more flexible in where they live and what they eat.
Meijaard, who’s based in the Indonesian state of Kalimantan, on Borneo, says the study could help conservation workers manage mammal populations on the island, where little is known about the ecological habits of animals. “We do know a lot about species’ evolutionary history; there are people working on it in labs all over the world,” Meijaard says. “This could be a nice tool to predict how species will react to land changes. If you know a species in a timber area is rare and old, you could develop a management plan for that species without doing a whole lot of research.”
The study also suggests that if younger species can handle a certain level of forest disturbance, timber and plantation companies need to become active participants in conservation efforts, because their productive land remains important habitat.
—Oakley Brooks
Nature picture credits: Illustrations © Stan Fellows
