The Non-Volant Terrestrial Small Mammals at Ulu Muda Forest Reserve, Kedah, Malaysia

Abstract

An eight days survey of non-volant small mammals was conducted at the Ulu Muda Forest Reserve in the state of Kedah, Malaysia. To sample the small mammals, we placed 100 cage traps and 50 bucket pitfall traps randomly along the existing man-made trails in four sampling sites within the study area. Total trapping effort for the cage traps was 796 trap nights, while the total trapping effort for the bucket pitfall traps was 400 trap nights. Overall, 24 non-volant small mammal individuals represented by seven species from the Family Muridae were captured. The Red spiny rat, Maxomys surifer, was the most dominant species accounting for 42% of the total individuals captured. We also caught the Chestnut white-bellied rat (Niviventer fulvescens) which is a new record for the study area. Although sampling was conducted only briefly, our study has demonstrated that Ulu Muda Forest Reserve still holds a high diversity of forest rat species, some of which are of international or regional conservation concern. Increasing the sampling effort, i.e., by surveying more areas over a longer period, would likely increase the possibility of capturing more small mammal species in this area.