Sun Bear Ecology and Conservation: Multiscale Habitat Associations in Southeast Asia

ABSTRACT Degraded tropical forests, defined here as logged, fragmented, and edge forests, constitute most of the remaining natural areas in Southeast Asia, potentially contributing to megafauna declines and extirpations. The sun bear ( Helarctos malayanus ) is a megafauna species native to Southeast Asian forests and is generally considered a forest specialist, and thus may be at risk from widespread forest degradation. To clarify the sun bear's responses to forest degradation, we assessed landscape‐ and local‐level occurrence and diel activity across 38 landscapes throughout its range. First, we assess among‐landscape variation in sun bear detections by comparing detection records from 185 camera studies. Second, we assess within‐landscape variation in abundance using 19 new camera surveys in eight landscapes and Royle–Nichols hierarchical modelling to account for imperfect detectability. Finally, we assessed diel activity in intact versus degraded forests. Across the region (among landscapes), sun bear detections were higher in larger forests, but unexpectedly also in forests that neighbour humans. Within landscapes (i.e., local‐scale), there were no significant responses to forest degradation but sun bears avoided oil palm plantations and had positive associations with elevation and humans. The diel activity analysis showed that sun bears are predominantly crepuscular and do not shift their activity patterns in degraded forests or near humans. These findings challenge prior work suggesting sun bears are specialists and suggest they are more tolerant of humans and forest degradation than previously realised. The sun bear's adaptability may be traced to its being a habitat generalist and omnivore, rather than to temporal partitioning to avoid humans. Our multi‐scale synthesis suggests that, where hunting is low, degraded forests contribute to sun bear conservation.