Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary
Summary
- Northeast Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus morio) are present in Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary.
- It has been estimated that 785 (414-1467) individuals occur in the site.
- The orangutan population trend is decreasing.
- The site has a total size of 270 km².
- Key threats to orangutans are logging and clearing land for oil palm plantations, and hunting.
- Conservation activities have focused on helping orangutans survive in fragmented forests by installing bridges, and running research activities and monitoring the population.
Site characteristics
The Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (LKWS) is an important floodplain in the state of Sabah, in northern Malaysia. Sungai Kinabatangan, Sabah's largest and longest river (560 km), runs through this floodplain and floods seasonally (BirdLife International 2021). The catchment area of the river is about 1,680,000 ha, covering almost 23% of the total land area in Sabah (BirdLife International 2021). In spite of the intense exploitation of natural resources that has resulted if forest degradation and fragmentation, Kibatangan remains a biodiversity hotspots, harboring a remarkable diversity of wildlife; in addition to orangutans, the area is also home to proboscis monkeys, Bornean gibbons, Bornean elephants, cloud leopards, sun bears and several bird species, including several globally threatened waterbirds, such as Storm's Stork, Ciconia stormi (HUTAN 2019, BirdLife International 2021). In 2002 the government of Sabah gazetted 27,000 ha of highly disturbed forests as the LKWS (Ancrenaz 2004).
Table 1. Basic site information for Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary
| Area | 270 km² |
| Coordinates | |
| Designation | Wildlife Sanctuary |
| Habitat types | Subtropical/tropical swamp forest, subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest, Subtropical/Tropical Heavily Degraded Former Forest, Plantations |
Ape status
In the early 2000s, the population in Kinabatangan was 1,125 individuals (CI: 691-1,807), with an estimate of 670 individuals for the then-proposed Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (Ancrenaz 2018). Compared to that estimate, the 2006-2007 surveys revealed a 28% decline in the population, and a further decline was revealed by a 2015 survey which estimated 785 (CI: 414-1,467) (Ancrenaz 2018).
Table 2. Ape population estimates in Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary
| Species | Year | Abundance estimate (95% CI) | Density estimate [ind./ km²] (95% CI) | Encounter rate (nests/km) | Area | Method | Source | Comments | A.P.E.S. database ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pongo pygmaeus morio | 2002-2003 | 1,125 (691-1807) | 0.7-6.0 | 1.5-7.37 | Kinabatangan and surrounding forest fragments | Aerial survey and line transects | Ancrenaz et al. 2004 | ||
| Pongo pygmaeus morio | 2006-2007 | 812 (425-1,418) | Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary and surrounding forest fragments | Aerial survey and line transects | Ancrenaz 2018 | ||||
| Pongo pygmaeus morio | 2015 | 785 (414-1467) | Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary | Aerial survey and line transects | Ancrenaz 2018 |
Threats
Table 3. Threats to apes in Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary
| Category | Specific threats | Threat level | Quantified severity | Description | Year of threat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Residential & commercial development | Unknown | ||||
| 2. Agriculture & aquaculture | 2.1 Annual & perennial non-timber crops | High | Approx. 13,000 ha have been converted into oil palm plantations between 2005 and 2014 (Ancrenaz 2018). | Habitat loss due to conversion of forest to oil palm plantations (Ancrenaz 2018). | Ongoing (2018) |
| 3. Energy production & mining | Unknown | ||||
| 4. Transportation & service corridors | Unknown | ||||
| 5. Biological resource use | 5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals | High | Signs of hunting have been found at the site, such as cartridges, snares and traps (Ancrenaz 2018). | Ongoing (2018) | |
| 5.3 Logging & wood harvesting | High | Logging and clearing land for oil palm plantations (Ancrenaz 2018). | Ongoing (2018) | ||
| 6. Human intrusion & disturbance | Unknown | ||||
| 7. Natural system modifications | Unknown | ||||
| 8. Invasive & other problematic species, genes, diseases | Unknown | ||||
| 9. Pollution | 9.3 Agricultural & forestry effluents | Present, but threat severity unknown | Pollution in the Sungai Kinabatangan catchment area from palm oil mills, pesticides, fertilizers and sediment from plantations, sediment from logging activities and sewage and refuse from villages along the river (BirdLife International 2021). | Ongoing (2021) | |
| 10. Geological Events | Absent | ||||
| 11. Climate change & severe weather | Unknown | ||||
| 12. Other options | Absent |
Conservation activities
In 1998, the NGO called HUTAN established the Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Programme with support from Sabah's Wildlife Department (https://www.hutan.org.my/about-us/). Research by HUTAN has shown that orangutans can thrive in highly disturbed and logged forests; where hunting is not an issue, they can use the mixed forest/oil palm matrix as long as they have forest corridors (HUTAN 2019). It is therefore crucial to design orangutan conservation strategies at the landscape level that can incorporate existing oil palm plantations with the network of protected forest (HUTAN 2019).
Table 4. Conservation activities in Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary
| Category | Specific activity | Description | Year of activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Residential & commercial development | Not reported | ||
| 2. Agriculture & aquaculture | Not reported | ||
| 3. Energy production & mining | Not reported | ||
| 4. Transportation & service corridors | 4.2. Install rope or pole (canopy) bridges | As part of the Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Programme of HUTAN, orangutan bridges started to be installed in the early 2000s to address the issue of habitat fragmentation. This allows venturing males and adolescents to ensure proper gene flow between sub-populations (HUTAN 2019). | Ongoing (2019) |
| 5. Biological resource use | Not reported | ||
| 6. Human intrusion & disturbance | Not reported | ||
| 7. Natural system modifications | Not reported | ||
| 8. Invasive & other problematic species, genes, diseases | Not reported | ||
| 9. Pollution | Not reported | ||
| 10. Education & Awareness | Not reported | ||
| 11. Habitat Protection | Not reported | ||
| 12. Species Management | Not reported | ||
| 13. Livelihood; Economic & Other Incentives | Not reported |
Challenges
Table 5. Challenges reported for Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary
| Challenge | Source |
|---|---|
| Not reported |
Research activities
https://www.hutan.org.my/research-articles/
Documented behaviours
Table 6. Ape behaviors reported for Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary
| Behavior | Source |
|---|---|
| Not reported |
External links
Relevant datasets
References
Ancrenaz, M., Goossens, B., Gimenez, O., Sawang, A., & Lackman-Ancrenaz, I. (2004, November). Determination of ape distribution and population size using ground and aerial surveys: a case study with orang-utans in lower Kinabatangan, Sabah, Malaysia. In Animal Conservation forum (Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 375-385). Cambridge University Press.
Ancrenaz, M. (2018). Wildlife Surveys in the Lower Kinabatangan. Report to Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Project, HUTAN.
BirdLife International (2021). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Kinabatangan floodplain. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 04/11/2021.
HUTAN (2019). Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Programme, 2019 Yearly Activity Report. https://www.hutan.org.my/wp-content/uploads/Reports/Internal%20reports/Report_2019.pdf
Page completed by: A.P.E.S. Wiki team Date: 05/11/2021