A constant difficulty faced by biodiversity practitioners is the lack of information available on the distribution of the species they study. This then limits our ability to develop meaningful species conservation plans, particularly for regions such as Southeast Asia.
It is therefore particularly pleasing to see researchers from 3 Malaysian universities pooling their expertise and sharing their findings on bat diversity and distribution over Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Sarawak is one of 7 territories on Borneo, an island World-renowned for hosting high species diversity. This paper led by Jayaraj Vijaya Kumaran is titled “Comparative distribution and diversity of bats from selected areas in Sarawak” and has been published in the first issue of the Borneo Journal of Resource Science and Technology.
Jayaraj and colleagues documented bat diversity at 8 localities in Sarawak ranging from disturbed and undisturbed lowland forests to montane forests in Borneo’s interior. As well as providing much needed species distribution information for Malaysia, they also show that bat community composition is distinct between these habitat types.
Jayaraj Vijaya Kumaran, Besar Ketol, Wahap Marni, Isa Sait, Mohd. Jalani Mortada, Faisal Ali Anwarali Khan, Fong Pooi Har, Leslie S. Hall & M. T. Abdullah (2011) Comparative distribution and diversity of bats from selected localities in Sarawak. Borneo Journal of Resource Science and Technology, 1(1): 1-13.
Email Jayaraj jayaraj_vijayakumaran@yahoo.com or Tajuddin tabdulla@frst.unimas.my for a copy
