Evans Meaghan N, Guerrero-Sanchez Sergio, Kille Peter, Müller Carsten T, Bakar Mohd Soffian Abu, Goossens Benoit
School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AX, UK.
Danau Girang Field Centre, Kota Kinabalu 88100, Malaysia.
Conserv Physiol. 2020 Dec 30;8(1):coaa127. doi: 10.1093/conphys/coaa127. eCollection 2020.
Agricultural development is a major threat to global biodiversity, and effective conservation actions are crucial. Physiological repercussions of life alongside human-modified landscapes can undermine adaptable species' health and population viability; however, baseline data are lacking for many wildlife species. We assessed the physiological status of a generalist carnivore, the Malay civet (), persisting within an extensively human-modified system in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. We characterized hematology and serum biochemistry panels from civets sampled across a mosaic landscape comprising tropical forest fragments and oil palm plantations. Intra-population variation in certain blood parameters were explained by expected biological drivers such as sex, age category and sampling season. Furthermore, we determined several erythrocyte measures, immune cell counts and dietary biochemistry markers significantly varied with proximity to oil palm plantation boundaries. These findings were supported by a case study, whereby blood profiles of GPS collared male civets were contrasted based on their exclusive use of forests or use of oil palm plantations. These data provide robust and valuable first insights into this species' physiological status and suggest agricultural landscapes are impacting the persisting population.
农业发展是全球生物多样性的主要威胁，有效的保护行动至关重要。与人类改造后的景观共存的生理影响可能会损害适应性物种的健康和种群生存能力；然而，许多野生动物物种缺乏基线数据。我们评估了一种广食性食肉动物——马来麝猫（Viverra tangalunga）在马来西亚婆罗洲沙巴州一个广泛人类改造系统中的生理状况。我们对在由热带森林碎片和油棕种植园组成的镶嵌景观中采样的麝猫的血液学和血清生化指标进行了特征描述。某些血液参数的种群内变异可以由预期的生物学驱动因素来解释，如性别、年龄类别和采样季节。此外，我们确定了几种红细胞指标、免疫细胞计数和饮食生化标志物会随着与油棕种植园边界的接近程度而显著变化。这些发现得到了一个案例研究的支持，在该案例中，对佩戴GPS项圈的雄性麝猫的血液特征进行了对比，这些麝猫分别只使用森林或使用油棕种植园。这些数据为该物种的生理状况提供了有力且有价值的初步见解，并表明农业景观正在影响现存种群。
