Identifying gaps in the conservation of small wild cats of Southeast Asia

Abstract Southeast Asia hosts more felid species than any other region and, although smaller (< 30 kg) felids have important ecological roles, regional conservation has mainly focused on a few charismatic big cats. Information on the ecology and conservation status of small felids is often lacking or geographically limited. We used empirically derived scale-optimized models for seven species in three regions of Southeast Asia (mainland, Borneo and Sumatra) to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing protected areas network in preserving suitable habitats, and to map suitable areas lacking protection. Finally, we assessed whether small felids are good proxies of broader regional terrestrial biodiversity. On the mainland, the largest and most suitable habitats occurred in the Northern Forest Complex of Myanmar and in the region between Eastern Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. In these areas we also highlighted the most important protected areas. In Borneo, the most suitable habitats occurred in the central highlands and in the protected areas of Sabah. In Sumatra, the strongholds of habitat suitability were the Barisan Mountains, in the western extent of the island, and were highly concentrated within existing protected areas. We also found that the aggregated habitat suitability for small felids was correlated more strongly to terrestrial vertebrate biodiversity than was any single felid species individually, suggesting that areas that are suitable for multiple felid species have an association with high overall biodiversity. Overall, our assessment of the distribution of small felids in Southeast Asia highlights the fundamental importance of protected areas for biodiversity conservation, given that most species were highly associated with protected areas and regions with large extents of forest. Our results are a clarion call to expand the extent, and improve the conservation management, of protected areas in the remaining core habitat areas for multiple species in Southeast Asia, and to work to enhance and protect connectivity between them to ensure long-term demographic and genetic exchange among the region’s remaining wildlife populations.