KOTA KINABALU: A new study on the spatial behaviour and movement patterns of the elusive Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi) has reaffirmed calls for the protection and restoration of forest corridors within agricultural landscapes.
Dr Benoit Goossens, Director of Danau Girang Field Centre and Professor at Cardiff University, said that the study published in the journal Animal Biotelemetry challenges previous broad spatial models that artificially inflated clouded leopard home ranges into agricultural areas.
This proves that oil palm landscapes serve merely as temporary conduits, he said, stressing how this clearly demonstrates that while Sunda clouded leopards can cross human-modified habitats, their survival fundamentally depends on intact, connected forest networks.
"Protecting natural forest patches, riparian corridors, and distinct features like ridgelines is non-negotiable if we want to maintain landscape connectivity and social stability for this species," he said.
“The study echoes an urgent call for land managers and policymakers in Sabah and across Southeast Asia to prioritise the protection and restoration of forest corridors within agricultural landscapes,” said Goossens, who is one of the authors of the journal.
Speaking about the study conducted by an international team of researchers, he said fieldwork was done by combining high-resolution Global Positioning System (GPS) telemetry with long-term camera-trap surveys.
He said the research offers the first fine-scale look at how this threatened apex predator navigates a highly fragmented, human-modified landscape in the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain of Sabah.
The study monitored wild clouded leopards navigating a roughly 2,000 km² mosaic of protected riparian forests, commercial reserves, and sprawling commercial oil palm plantations, said Goossens.
First author of the paper, Dr Andrew Hearn, said they found that tracked adult males maintained home ranges of approximately 41 km², whereas an adult female occupied a significantly smaller, concentrated range of around 7 km².
“In terms of territorial partitioning, male clouded leopards showed strong spatial segregation with minimal territory overlap (about 8%), suggesting strict boundary enforcement. Conversely, the females' range overlapped substantially with multiple males,” he said.
He said when it comes to forest reliance, clouded leopards rely almost exclusively on native forests for resting and stationary periods of over 98% to 100%.
While individuals occasionally traversed oil palm plantations and crossed roads, they moved nearly twice as fast through these open areas (up to 1.49 km/h) compared to inside natural forests (0.37 to 0.53 km/h), Dr Hearn said
He said this shows the animals treating agricultural areas as high-risk transit zones rather than viable habitats.
He said the study also showed that the species exhibited cathemeral behaviour (active during both day and night), with prominent activity peaks at dawn and dusk.
“We identified critical topographies that act as social ‘communication hubs’ as well,” said Dr Hearn.
“A single, isolated limestone ridge measuring just 200 meters long - the Batangan Ridge - accounted for over 54% of all camera-trap detections across the entire 2,000 km² study area,” he concluded.
He said while most forest detections were solitary, this isolated ridge saw frequent visits from multiple individuals, overlapping male territories, and the vast majority of observed scent-marking behaviours, highlighting the disproportionate ecological importance of unique landscape features for species communication.
