Bornean clouded leopard minimum home range analysis, Indonesian Borneo

Little is known about the spatial ecology of the Bornean clouded leopard Neofelis diardi borneensis in peat-swamp forests, which account for 32% of the island of Borneo. This study uses data from 10 years of camera trapping to provide preliminary estimates of minimum home range size and overlap in a tropical peat swamp forest in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. Home ranges were estimated using minimum convex polygons MCPs and fixed kernel utilisation densities KUDs. Since May 2008, we identified a minimum of 12 individual Bornean clouded leopards (male n = 9, female n = 1, unknown n = 2) from a total of 157 independent photo-captures. Estimates of minimum home range could only be calculated for six males that had been recaptured at a minimum of five different camera trap stations. For these males, we obtained an average of MCP 50% = 0.7 km2, MCP 95% = 2.2 km2, MCP 100% = 6.2 km2, KUD 50% = 7.7 km2 and KUD 95% = 35.3 km2. All home ranges overlapped significantly with each other. Spatial organisation provides valuable information on the species’ behavioural ecology, and to inform extrapolations of viable Bornean clouded leopard population size. The use of camera trap data to estimate home range size merits further investigation.