Threats to Big Cats in Southeast Asia
Abstract
Southeast Asia is experiencing rapid rates of habitat conversion as homogenous oil
palm plantations are replacing biodiverse areas. These oil palm plantations have exploded
over recent decades, altering the landscape for species such as tigers, leopards,
and clouded leopards who depend on large tracts of habitat for survival. To understand
how to protect these big cats and their habitats, I examined 1) the current state
of big cat habitat and habitat connectivity in Southeast Asia, 2) how oil palm plantation
expansion would impact remaining habitat, 3) additional threats challenging big cats
such as poaching, forest loss, and human population growth, and 4) the overlap between
protected areas and threatened habitat. This study found that big cat habitat patches
are already isolated from one another. While oil palm was not found to be the biggest
threat to big cat connectivity, habitat in Malaysia would suffer most from the expansion
of oil palm plantations. Overall, big cats are experiencing the greatest anthropogenic
threats to their habitat in Malaysia, Myanmar, and eastern India with over half of
the threatened habitat patches falling outside of protected areas.
Type
Master's projectPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/16527Citation
McMillan, Madeleine (2018). Threats to Big Cats in Southeast Asia. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/16527.Collections
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