Journal article
Habitat suitability model for identifying human-wildlife interface and implications for wildlife trade of Sunda pangolin in Borneo
- Abstract:
- Pangolins are the most trafficked mammals in the world. Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica), in particular, are critically endangered due to their proximity to consumption hotspots, and the scale of the globalized illegal trade network. Data on their ecological drivers can inform targeted strategies to cauterise supply lines. We used data from 1,455 camera-stations deployed between 2008-2024 across a heterogenous mix of landscapes in Sabah, northern Borneo, to model the geomorphological and anthropogenic drivers of Sunda pangolin distribution. Our most parsimonious logistic regression model included six variables: accessibility to human population (ß=0.597, p=0.004), soil cation exchange capacity (ß= -0.665, p=0.003), soil clay content (ß= -0.311, p=0.051), soil nitrogen concentration (ß=0.9862, p=0.0001), soil bulk density (ß=0.43, p=0.143) and topographic position index (ß=-0.61, p=0.005). The model performed well as evaluated using an out-of-sample test dataset (sensitivity =0.89, specificity =0.57 and AUC=0.73). A high proportion (~43%) of rural, human-dominated areas were identified as highly suitable pangolin habitat, but only ~15% of these areas are protected. We further confirmed the overlap in highly suitable pangolin habitat and human-occupied land using an independent citizen science dataset of pangolin detections collected between 2019-2024 (Boyce index=0.75). Our results illustrate that Sunda pangolins often live in high-risk areas but also suggest an opportunity to develop community centered conservation strategies to curb poaching and cauterize supply lines fueling the trade of Sunda pangolins in Southeast Asia.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 1.6MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1007/s10661-025-14922-6
Authors
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Journal:
- Environmental Monitoring and Assessment More from this journal
- Volume:
- 198
- Issue:
- 2
- Article number:
- 108
- Publication date:
- 2026-01-08
- Acceptance date:
- 2025-12-11
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1573-2959
- ISSN:
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0167-6369
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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2353838
- Local pid:
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pubs:2353838
- Deposit date:
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2025-12-23
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Gomez et al
- Copyright date:
- 2026
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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