COS 99-3 - **Socio-ecological factors shape the distribution of a cultural keystone species (bearded pig, Sus barbatus) in Malaysian Borneo**

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

2:00 PM – 2:15 PM EDT

Location: 518B

Presenting Author(s)

DK

David J. Kurz

Trinity College, United States

Coauthor(s)

TC

Thomas Connor

Postdoctoral Scholar
UC Berkeley, United States
JB

Jedediah Brodie

University of Montana, United States
SS

Sabrina Szeto

Sabrina Szeto Consulting, Germany
AH

Andrew Hearn

University of Oxford, United Kingdom
PG

Penny Gardner

RSPB, United Kingdom
OW

Oliver Wearn

Fauna & Flora International, Vietnam
MD

Mairin Deith

University of British Columbia, Canada
AA

Ahmad Ampeng

Forest Department Sarawak, Malaysia
EB

Esther Baking

Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia
HB

Henry Bernard

Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia
ND

Nicolas Deere

University of Kent, United Kingdom
JW

Jocelyn Wern

Danau Girang Field Centre, Malaysia
AG

Alys Granados

Felidae Conservation Fund, United States
OH

Olga Helmy

USDA, United States
HL

Hong-Ye Lim

Forever Sabah, Malaysia
ML

Matthew Luskin

University of Queensland, Australia
DM

David Macdonald

University of Oxford, United Kingdom
JM

Jayasilan Mohd-Azlan

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia
JR

Joanna Ross

University of Oxford, United Kingdom
BS

Boyd Simpson

Copenhagen Zoo, Denmark
MS

Matthew Struebig

University of Kent, United Kingdom
MP

Matthew Potts

UC Berkeley, United States
BG

Benoit Goossens

Cardiff University, Malaysia
JB

Justin S. Brashares

UC Berkeley, United States

Background/Question/Methods

Biophysical and socio-cultural factors have jointly shaped the distribution of global biodiversity, yet relatively few studies have quantitatively assessed social and ecological influences on wildlife distributions. Socio-cultural factors (e.g. hunting practices, armed conflict, recreation, and value systems) have been shown to have far-reaching implications on wildlife behavior and occurrence. As such, social and cultural factors require greater research attention as important predictor variables, alongside ecological variables, for determining wildlife distribution patterns. We collated a dataset of 321 total camera trap locations and 38,017 camera days across 18 field sites in Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Incorporating socio-cultural and ecological covariates, we then fit three single-year occupancy models to assess the influence of socio-ecological factors on the distribution of the bearded pig (Sus barbatus), a cultural keystone species.

Results/Conclusions

We find that most competitive occupancy models included both socio-cultural and ecological covariates. Predicted average probability of occupancy (psi ± SE) for bearded pigs across study areas was 0.86 ± 0.05 (2010), 0.62 ± 0.07 (2012), and 0.71 ± 0.08 (2014). Our results provide quantitative evidence of the influence of social and ecological factors on the distribution of a cultural keystone species. Our results also suggest that context-specific management of bearded pigs—considering Indigenous communities, hunting accessibility, and environmental characteristics in each district—is required in Malaysian Borneo. Finally, our findings provide important baseline information on bearded pig occupancy prior to the 2020-2021 outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF), which has caused social and ecological vulnerabilities after mass dieoffs of bearded pigs in Borneo, and domestic pigs across much of Asia.

COS 99-3 - Socio-ecological factors shape the distribution of a cultural keystone species (bearded pig, Sus barbatus) in Malaysian Borneo

Presenting Author(s)

Coauthor(s)

COS 99-3 - **Socio-ecological factors shape the distribution of a cultural keystone species (bearded pig, Sus barbatus) in Malaysian Borneo**