Flying foxes are threatened throughout their geographic range, and there are large gaps in the understanding of their landscape-scale habitat use. This study identified potential habitats in Limbang, Sarawak and informed potential distribution based on dispersal and interview surveys. Here, biological surveys were combined with interviews of local communities in Limbang Mangrove National Park (LMNP), Sarawak to illustrate distribution and the communities' perception on the protected flying fox (Pteropus vampyrus). Mangrove forest areas were surveyed for for the presence of flying foxes and villagers were interviewed regarding the use by flying foxes of agricultural areas and instances of conflict. Boat and questionnaire surveys were conducted for nine days from 18 to 27 February 2021. The surveys did not record any flying fox roosting sites within the national park and was instead observed to fly from Menunggul Island, Brunei into the national park in the evenings and back to Brunei in the mornings. A total of 27 flying foxes were recorded during the boat survey. Flying foxes were detected from 8/154 survey points and their spatial distribution appeared to be concentrated along Sungai Limpaku Pinang. Most respondents were aware of the species while some have directly observed them in fruit orchards, mangroves, rivers and mixed dipterocarp forests. Eleven perception-based questions were presented, and results showed that locality and income were the most influential parameters exhibiting conservation awareness through Boosted Regression Trees (BRT) analysis. Most respondents believe that flying foxes can uplift the local economy through ecotourism opportunities. However, these findings need to be carefully interpreted as the species has a large home range. Hence, long-term monitoring should be established to generate a larger dataset for stronger analysis to better represent the distribution and occurrence of this species in LMNP.
The past decade has witnessed a surge in epidemiological studies that have explored the relationship between the oral microbiome and oral cancer. Owing to the diversity of the published data, a comprehensive systematic overview of the currently available evidence is critical. This review summarises the current evidence on the metagenomic studies on the oral microbiome in oral cancer. A systematic search was conducted in Medline and Embase databases to identify original studies examining the differences in the oral microbiome of oral cancer cases and controls. A total of twenty-six studies were identified that reported differences in microbial abundance between oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and controls. Although almost all the studies identified microbial dysbiosis to be associated with oral cancer, the detailed qualitative analysis did not reveal the presence/abundance of any individual bacteria or a consortium to be consistently enriched in OSCC samples across the studies. Interestingly, few studies reported a surge of periodontopathogenic taxa, especially Fusobacteria, whereas others demonstrated a depletion of commensal taxa Streptococci. Considerable heterogeneity could be identified in the parameters used for designing the studies as well as reporting the microbial data. If microbiome data needs to be translated in the future, to complement the clinical parameters for diagnosis and prognosis of oral cancer, further studies with the integration of clinical variables, adequate statistical power, reproducible methods, and models are required.