Information on tropical Asian vertebrates has traditionally been sparse, particularly when it comes to cryptic species inhabiting the dense forests of the region. Vertebrate populations are declining globally due to land-use change and hunting, the latter frequently referred as "defaunation." This is especially true in tropical Asia where there is extensive land-use change and high human densities. Robust monitoring requires that large volumes of vertebrate population data be made available for use by the scientific and applied communities. Camera traps have emerged as an effective, non-invasive, widespread, and common approach to surveying vertebrates in their natural habitats. However, camera-derived datasets remain scattered across a wide array of sources, including published scientific literature, gray literature, and unpublished works, making it challenging for researchers to harness the full potential of cameras for ecology, conservation, and management. In response, we collated and standardized observations from 239 camera trap studies conducted in tropical Asia. There were 278,260 independent records of 371 distinct species, comprising 232 mammals, 132 birds, and seven reptiles. The total trapping effort accumulated in this data paper consisted of 876,606 trap nights, distributed among Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Bhutan, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Nepal, and far eastern India. The relatively standardized deployment methods in the region provide a consistent, reliable, and rich count data set relative to other large-scale pressence-only data sets, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) or citizen science repositories (e.g., iNaturalist), and is thus most similar to eBird. To facilitate the use of these data, we also provide mammalian species trait information and 13 environmental covariates calculated at three spatial scales around the camera survey centroids (within 10-, 20-, and 30-km buffers). We will update the dataset to include broader coverage of temperate Asia and add newer surveys and covariates as they become available. This dataset unlocks immense opportunities for single-species ecological or conservation studies as well as applied ecology, community ecology, and macroecology investigations. The data are fully available to the public for utilization and research. Please cite this data paper when utilizing the data.

Bontang Mangrove Park (BMP) is part of the Kutai National Park area in Bontang City which is covered by magrove with an area of approximately 200 hectares. This area called BMP meaning that a mangrove forest area developed in Bontang city to function not only for recreational purposes but also for conservation, education and adventure purposes. Excessive levels of visits will certainly reduce the quality of an ecotourism area. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the carrying capacity of ecotourism in order to achieve sustainable management, so any types of tourism activity in the area should follow its carrying capacity. This research was conducted within the period of December 2019 to January 2020 with quantitative and qualitative data collected directly in the field and interviews with visitors, communities and managers. The quantitative analysis shows carrying capacity of the Bontang Mangrove Park area for the three activity places (boardwalk, visitor dock and campinf ground) are 433 persons per day, 123 persons per day and 1,102 persons per day, consecutively.

The Sunda Clouded Leopard (Neofelis diardi) and Indochinese Clouded Leopard (N. nebulosa) are medium-sized felids native to tropical south and southeast Asia. In 2019, we began investigating the trade in Clouded Leopards and their parts in Asia. This was partly inspired by social media posts of an apparent pet Sunda Clouded Leopard. Investigations continued with respect to how and where Clouded Leopards are sold on social media and other digital platforms. We discovered several social media posts and local language news articles, that we believe are indicative of an illegal live trade in Sunda Clouded Leopards in Indonesia. While fewer instances of trade in Indochinese Clouded Leopards have been discovered thus far, patterns of trade in other large felids and small carnivores in the region, particularly as influenced by social media, may have implications for future live trade in Indochinese Clouded Leopards and increased trade in Sunda Clouded Leopards. We recommend that additional international attention and investment of resources, including local, national, and international law enforcement activities, focus their efforts on the growing trade in Clouded Leopards.

The binturong Arctictis binturong is a medium-sized carnivore in the civet family Viverridae with a wide geographic distribution in South-east Asia and adjacent parts of South Asia and China. Habitat loss and hunting have led to its classification as Vulnerable by The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The binturong is thought to be forest dependent, although it has been recorded in logged forest and its exact habitat requirements remain unclear. We analysed 47 (Balanced Model) or 83 (Spatial Filtering Model) location records, respectively, to predict habitat suitability across Borneo. The results of the model predict a large area of Borneo to be suitable habitat although the extreme lowlands and much of southern Borneo (South Kalimantan) are predicted to be less suitable or non-sampled, respectively. There is high overlap between protected areas and areas of predicted high suitability. The interior of Borneo, in particular North Kalimantan, is predicted to be highly suitable. A greater survey effort for the binturong in the hitherto less studied Brunei Darussalam and South Kalimantan is warranted.

The leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis is one of the smallest cat species found on Borneo and is the most widely distributed wild cat species in Asia. It is listed on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as Least Concern. The leopard cat is known to tolerate habitat disturbance and to occur in a range of vegetation types including primary and secondary forests, plantations and orchards. However, the extent to which the leopard cat can tolerate habitat disturbance and utilise non-forest areas is still unknown. In this paper, we collected 373 leopard cat location records across Borneo; of these, 228 records were obtained between 2001 and 2011. We analysed 63 (Balanced Model) and 102 (Spatial Filtering Model) records to model habitat suitability. The models predicted more than two-thirds of Borneo to be suitable habitat for the leopard cat. Almost the entire area of Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and East Kalimantan were predicted to be suitable. The south of Central Kalimantan and the majority of West Kalimantan were predicted to be marginally suitable whereas half of South Kalimantan was predicted to be unsuitable for this species. Although more intensive surveys in Brunei, West Kalimantan and South Kalimantan would help to understand leopard cat distribution, no conservation actions are needed for this species.

The bay cat Catopuma badia is a small cat endemic to the tropical forests of Borneo. One of only seven cats to be listed as Endangered by The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the bay cat is seldom seen, rarely photographed and is widely held to be one of the least known of the world’s wild cats. Consequently its distribution is known only poorly, hindering efforts for its conservation. Here we use MaxEnt niche distribution modelling to make predictions regarding its current distribution on Borneo. We collected a total of 71 occurrence records for the bay cat, stemming from all Bornean regions apart from Brunei and South Kalimantan, of which 40 were used in our modelling. Our habitat suitability modelling predicts that an extensive, contiguous area of interior Borneo, much of it hill forest, but also containing lowland and submontane forest, is suitable for the bay cat, supporting an earlier hypothesis that this cat is widespread across the island. Extreme lowlands, supporting mangrove and swamp forest habitats, were typically predicted as low suitability, as were the considerable areas of Borneo now converted to oil palm plantations. Based on the current predicted distribution we provide a list of priority areas for the conservation of the bay cat across Borneo.

Small-toothed palm civet Arctogalidia trivirgata occurs widely across Borneo. Eighty-two spatially precise records were used to model its distribution on the island. While the model predicts some regions of low suitability, the scatter of records (mostly insufficiently spatially precise for use in the model) within them and the generally low relevant search effort make a conclusion of genuine low suitability of these areas premature. Modern surveys rely heavily upon ground-level camera-trapping, a technique demonstrably unsuited to this largely arboreal species, which is therefore often overlooked unless spotlighting or arboreal camera-trapping is undertaken. It is at least locally numerous in Borneo and occurs over a wide altitudinal range, well above the heavy deforestation of the lowlands. Its arboreal habits are likely to insulate it from trapping. Its use of monoculture plantations is unclear, but if it does not use these, its total Bornean population is likely to have declined roughly in proportion to the level of forest conversion in the last few decades. However, its survival on Singapore even a century after forest cover was reduced to small, degraded isolates indicates high adaptability to forest encroachment, provided some native forest survives, although such tolerance cannot yet be confirmed for Borneo. Even if oil palm, rubber and acacia plantations are unsuitable for small-toothed palm civet, current plans across Borneo for native forest retention through protected areas and low-impact logging appear sufficient to ensure its long-term survival.

AimAdvancement in ecological methods predicting species distributions is a crucial precondition for deriving sound management actions. Maximum entropy (MaxEnt) models are a popular tool to predict species distributions, as they are considered able to cope well with sparse, irregularly sampled data and minor location errors. Although a fundamental assumption of MaxEnt is that the entire area of interest has been systematically sampled, in practice, MaxEnt models are usually built from occurrence records that are spatially biased towards better-surveyed areas. Two common, yet not compared, strategies to cope with uneven sampling effort are spatial filtering of occurrence data and background manipulation using environmental data with the same spatial bias as occurrence data. We tested these strategies using simulated data and a recently collated dataset on Malay civet Viverra tangalunga in Borneo.LocationBorneo, Southeast Asia.MethodsWe collated 504 occurrence records of Malay civets from Borneo of which 291 records were from 2001 to 2011 and used them in the MaxEnt analysis (baseline scenario) together with 25 environmental input variables. We simulated datasets for two virtual species (similar to a range-restricted highland and a lowland species) using the same number of records for model building. As occurrence records were biased towards north-eastern Borneo, we investigated the efficacy of spatial filtering versus background manipulation to reduce overprediction or underprediction in specific areas.ResultsSpatial filtering minimized omission errors (false negatives) and commission errors (false positives). We recommend that when sample size is insufficient to allow spatial filtering, manipulation of the background dataset is preferable to not correcting for sampling bias, although predictions were comparatively weak and commission errors increased.Main ConclusionsWe conclude that a substantial improvement in the quality of model predictions can be achieved if uneven sampling effort is taken into account, thereby improving the efficacy of species conservation planning.