ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION OF LOWLAND ANOA,

Bubalus depressicornis IN SULAWESI, INDONESIA

Abdul Haris Mustari

Department of Forest Resources Conservation, Bogor Agricultural University

Kampus IPB Dramaga, Bogor (haris.anoa@yahoo.com)

A thesis submitted for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy of the University of New England, Australia, October 2003

SUMMARY

This thesis describes the ecology of lowland anoa in their natural habitat
based on 30 months of fieldwork from 2000 to 2002 in Tanjung Peropa and
Tanjung Amolengo Wildlife Reserves in Southeast Sulawesi. The study aimed to
reveal some aspects of the ecology of lowland anoa, including their habitat
characteristics, population density, distribution, and resources use, and some
aspects of their behaviour and sociality. Dietary ecology of anoa was also studied
to investigate the food plants eaten by anoas, the proportions of food plants in
their diets, seasonal changes in their diets and the availability of the food plants
that were potentially eaten by the animals. Diets of the sympatric ruminant, the
introduced Rusa deer Cervus timorensis, and the endemic suid of the island,
Sulawesi warty pig Sus celebensis, were also assessed, and similarity and/or
dissimilarity of the forest ungulates’ diets were compared.
Anoas occur widely within the forests but at low densities. Overall
population densities were estimated to be 0.9 and 1.1 anoas/km2 in Tanjung
Peropa and Tanjung Amolengo Wildlife Reserves respectively. Based on these
densities, populations of anoa in these reserves were estimated to be 350 anoas
and 7 anoas in Tanjung Peropa and Tanjung Amolengo respectively. The animals
occurred in a wide range of habitat types including riverine forest, bamboo forest,
lowland forest, rocky-lowland forest and forests at higher altitude of up to 900 m
above sea level in Tanjung Peropa reserve, and in Tanjung Amolengo were also
found in beach forest and foraging in mangrove forest at low tide feeding on
mangrove trees and apparently searching for minerals. Habitat occupancies of
anoas were very similar in all forest types; in the study sites, anoas appear not to
be confined to or markedly more abundant in any single forest type. However,
their estimated occupancy values were slightly higher in riverine forest, bamboo
forest and lowland forests than in rocky-cliffs forest. The availability of water
sources (springs, water holes and rivers), known food plants and fruit-bearing
trees in the riverine and lowland forests were probably the main reasons why the
animals slightly preferred those habitat types.
Habitat occupancy of the animals showed a small increase at the beginning
of the rainy season, which was the fruiting season of most of the fruit-bearing
trees in the reserves. Like anoas, Sulawesi warty pigs were recorded in all of the
habitat types; but Rusa deer strongly preferred the relatively open habitats,
grassland, forest edges, disturbed forests and abandoned plantations. Rusa deer
coexist with anoa and Sulawesi warty pig in Tanjung Amolengo Wildlife Reserve,
but are absent from the rugged terrain and mountainous areas of Tanjung Peropa
Wildlife Reserve. Thus anoas in these study sites are almost entirely separated
from Rusa deer by distribution and habitat preferences, but are largely sympatric
with Sulawesi warty pigs.
Anoa showed a trend towards being seen more than 1 km from settlement
and roads in Tanjung Amolengo indicating that settlement on the boundary of a
conserved area will reduce the capacity of that reserve to support anoas. Thus,
settlement, especially of transmigrants, on the boundary of reserves should be
avoided.
Like other species in the genus Bubalus, lowland anoas are water-
dependent animals; they need water for drinking every day and they were
frequently observed wallowing. Distribution of anoas is significantly associated
with water sources during the dry season.
Anoas adopt more solitary behaviour than all other Bovini. In 38 sightings
the average group size was 1.2 animals/group, (S.D. 0.41); they were mostly
found singly (84% of groups in Tanjung Peropa and 60% in Tanjung Amolengo),
some in pairs (16% of groups in Tanjung Peropa and 40% in Tanjung Amolengo),
and very rarely as three animals in a group. Each pair sighted was usually an adult
male and an adult female, but a few pairs were an adult female with her young or
juvenile. Unlike anoa, Rusa deer and Sulawesi warty pig formed groups of 3-6
animals; and larger aggregations of Rusa deer and wild pigs have been observed
feeding in a small, natural, grassy feeding ground in Tanjung Amolengo.
Signs of browsing by anoa were recorded on a total of 146 species of food
plants in the four study sites, Kalobo, Lawio and Tambeanga (all of which are in
Tanjung Peropa Wildlife Reserve) and Tanjung Amolengo Wildlife Reserve
combined. Parts of the plants consumed by anoas included leaves, shoots and
growing tips of branches and young twigs of the plants. A total of 81 species of
food plants was identified microscopically in faecal samples from anoas,
indicating that the animals eat a wide variety of food plants in their natural
habitats. The chief food items of the anoa were dicotyledonous plants,
representing more than 70% of their diets. Thus, lowland anoas are browsers,
unlike most other species of Bovini, which are grazers. Plant parts eaten by anoas
were predominantly leaf, constituting more than 79% of their diets.
The predominant food plant in the analysed diet of anoas was Merremia
peltata, a liana mainly found in forest gaps and forest edges. This liana dominated
the anoas’ diets at all investigated sites. Other frequent anoa food plants included
young leaves of bamboos Schizostachyum spp., sedges Scleria spp. and ferns
Microlepia spp. The anoa’s diets also included many species of fruits, which
between them represented 22% of the diet. Intact seeds of fruits that were found
in the anoa dung samples included seeds of Artocarpus dasyphyllus, Artocarpus
sp., Parkia roxburghii, Dillenia ochreata, and Ficus spp. indicating that anoa
might play an important role in dispersing the seeds of these plants in the rain
forest. An increased proportion of fruits in the diet of anoas was recorded during
the mass fruiting season, which occurred during the first half of the rainy season,
from January to March.
 A study of the feeding habits of captive lowland anoas revealed that the
average daily food intake (fresh weight with a moisture content of 79%) was 7.1
kg per animal per day (24 hrs), which was 8.0% of the body weight.
In contrast to anoas’, the Rusa deer’s diet was predominantly
monocotyledonous plants (grasses and sedges), which formed 82% of the diet.
Monocot fragments also formed a high proportion (74%) of the analysed faeces of
Sulawesi warty pig. However, parts of food plants eaten by the wild pigs included
roots and bulbs of grasses, which deer and anoa did not eat. Wild pig were also
observed avidly feeding on fruits of the native trees Ficus spp., Corypha sp.,
Parkia roxburghii, Dillenia ochreata, Eugenia sp., and of the crops Cocos
nucifera, Mangifera indica, Anacardium occidentale and Theobroma cacao. The
three forest ungulates use different proportions and parts of food plants in their
diets, as well as having different foraging behaviours. Thus they show substantial
separation in feeding ecology.
Despite anoas being formally protected, the animals are still hunted
throughout Sulawesi by people using traditional methods such as leg snares,
hunting with spears with the assistance of dogs or setting sharp-tipped bamboo
stakes along the natural paths of the animals. Some anoas are also at risk of being
shot. Loss of suitable habitat for anoas through illegal and/or legal logging by
forest concession holders, and encroachment of settlements into forest, is
continuing to reduce both quality and quantity of habitat for this endangered
species.
Habitat and population management for anoas should be undertaken with
the aim of conserving the animals in their natural habitats; such in-situ
conservation would benefit anoas and all wildlife species that share habitat and
resources with the anoa. My management recommendations include stricter law
enforcement, gazettal of remaining suitable habitats of anoas, conducting an
island-wide survey of distribution and population abundance of anoas, and
increasing people’s awareness of the need to conserve the rain forest upon which
anoas and other wildlife species rely.