Effect of Longhouse Communities on Species Diversity and Diet of Bulbul (Aves: Pycnonotidae) in Pelagus, Kapit, Sarawak

Khatijah, Ismail (2020) Effect of Longhouse Communities on Species Diversity and Diet of Bulbul (Aves: Pycnonotidae) in Pelagus, Kapit, Sarawak. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS).

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Abstract

Longhouse communities can be a significant source of disturbance to local fauna by their presence in the vicinity and through their activities such as farming, hunting and gathering of forest produce. The level of disturbance is likely to be highest at sites that are closest to the longhouse and lesser at sites further away from the longhouse. Whether different levels of anthropogenic disturbance affect avifauna community have not been studied in isolated longhouse communities in Sarawak. Hence a study was conducted in the forests behind three longhouses (Rumah Laja, Rumah Bujah and Rumah John) and in Pelagus National Park (PNP) to determine the effect of anthropogenic disturbance on the diversity and diet of bulbul. Sampling stations were located at 100 m, 500 m and 1000 m away from the longhouse, and inside PNP at location which is more than 1000 m from the longhouse and protected against anthropogenic disturbance by law. Eight sets of double-stacked mist nets were deployed at each station and checked every two hours from 8am to 6.30pm for four days. Insect and fruit traps were also set at the same station to sample the potential diet of bulbuls. These locations were sampled four times over a period of 12 months between December 2014 and November 2015. Captured bulbuls were identified, ringed, measured, and administered with emetic solution to obtain regurgitation samples for dietary studies and then released back to the forest. A total of 240 individuals comprising 12 species of bulbul was captured in this study. The dominant species caught was Spectacled bulbul (Pycnonotus erythrophthalmos) with 19% relative abundance and followed by Puff-backed bulbul (Pycnonotus eutilotus) with 16% relative abundance. Based on high diversity (Simpson index = 0.862; Shannon index = 2.145) and abundance (91 individuals), the site 500 m from the longhouse is the most preferred by bulbul and this site have a high similarity to 1000 m station and Pelagus National Park site based on Morista-horn index. A total of 24 families of plant and 494 fruit sample weighing 1.4963 kg was collected from all stations. Distance from longhouses does not seem to affect yield of fruits collected but fruit yield was highest in March/April 2015. The total number of invertebrates collected was 20,037 individuals comprising four classes of potential preys, which are arachnida, chilopoda, gastropoda and insecta. Ivlev’s electivity index (E) was used to measure a degree of selection of prey by the predator. Orthoptera with E value of +0.90 and hemiptera with E value of +0.80 are the main prey selected by bulbul. Bulbuls also selected other insect orders which are coleoptera (E = +0.60), dictyoptera (E = +0.68) and isoptera (E = +0.68). The diet of bulbuls has a positive relationship with fruit weight and invertebrates in environment based on linear regression. Different habitat also offered different types of food based on food resources collection conducted in this study. This study concluded that longhouse community have a significant effect on bulbul diversity, species evenness, number of species and abundance up to 100 m from longhouses. This supported the hypothesis of this study that the impact of anthropogenic disturbances is greatest in areas closest to human settlement and less in areas that are further away.

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