Viability and management of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) population in the Endau Rompin landscape, Peninsular Malaysia

Salman Saaban; Mohd Nawayai Yasak; Melvin Gumal; Aris Oziar; Francis Cheong; Zaleha Shaari; Martin Tyson; Simon Hedges

doi:10.7717/peerj.8209

Viability and management of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) population in the Endau Rompin landscape, Peninsular Malaysia

PeerJ. 2020 Jan 24:8:e8209. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8209. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Salman Saaban¹, Mohd Nawayai Yasak¹, Melvin Gumal², Aris Oziar², Francis Cheong³, Zaleha Shaari⁴, Martin Tyson⁵, Simon Hedges⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP), Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
² Malaysia Program, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.
³ Johor National Parks Corporation (JNPC), Kota Iskandar, Johor, Malaysia.
⁴ Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
⁵ Global Conservation Programs, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Bronx, NY, United States of America.

Abstract

The need for conservation scientists to produce research of greater relevance to practitioners is now increasingly recognized. This study provides an example of scientists working alongside practitioners and policy makers to address a question of immediate relevance to elephant conservation in Malaysia and using the results to inform wildlife management policy and practice including the National Elephant Conservation Action Plan for Peninsular Malaysia. Since ensuring effective conservation of elephants in the Endau Rompin Landscape (ERL) in Peninsular Malaysia is difficult without data on population parameters we (1) conducted a survey to assess the size of the elephant population, (2) used that information to assess the viability of the population under different management scenarios including translocation of elephants out of the ERL (a technique long used in Malaysia to mitigate human-elephant conflict (HEC)), and (3) assessed a number of options for managing the elephant population and HEC in the future. Our dung-count based survey in the ERL produced an estimate of 135 (95% CI [80-225]) elephants in the 2,500 km² area. The population is thus of national significance, containing possibly the second largest elephant population in Peninsular Malaysia, and with effective management elephant numbers could probably double. We used the data from our survey plus other sources to conduct a population viability analysis to assess relative extinction risk under different management scenarios. Our results demonstrate that the population cannot sustain even very low levels of removal for translocation or anything other than occasional poaching. We describe, therefore, an alternative approach, informed by this analysis, which focuses on in situ management and non-translocation-based methods for preventing or mitigating HEC. The recommended approach includes an increase in law enforcement to protect the elephants and their habitat, maintenance of habitat connectivity between the ERL and other elephant habitat, and a new focus on adaptive management.

Keywords: Abundance estimates; Applied research; Elephants; Evidence-based conservation; Human–elephant conflict; Poaching; Population monitoring; Population viability analysis (PVA); Translocation; Wildlife management.

Grants and funding

Funding for this project was provided by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, the Johor National Parks Corporation, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Asian Elephant Conservation Fund (No. 98210-7-G198), the CITES Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) program (No. QTL-2234-2661-2310-211200), and the Denver Zoological Foundation, with in-kind contributions from the State Forestry Departments of Pahang and Johor. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.