The critically endangered Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni), with an estimated population of less than 200 individuals left in isolated rainforest habitats in Malaysia, is in an intermediate population crash leading to extinction in the next decade. The population has decreased significantly by illegal poaching, environmental perturbation, roadkill, and being captured during human-wildlife conflicts. Forty-five or more individuals were extracted from the wild (four animals captured due to conflict, one death due to canine distemper, one roadkilled, and 39 poached) in the 12 years between 2008-2019. The Malayan tigers are the first wildlife species to test positive for COVID-19 and are subject to the Canine Distemper Virus. These anthropogenic disturbances (poaching and human-tiger conflict) and environmental perturbation (decreasing habitat coverage and quality) have long been identified as impending extinction factors. Roadkill and infectious diseases have emerged recently as new confounding factors threatening Malayan tiger extinction in the near future. Peninsular Malaysia has an existing Malayan tiger conservation management plan; however, to enhance the protection and conservation of Malayan tigers from potential extinction, the authority should reassess the existing legislation, regulation, and management plan and realign them to prevent further population decline, and to better enable preparedness and readiness for the ongoing pandemic and future threats.
The need for conservation scientists to produce research of greater relevance to practitioners is now increasingly recognized. This study provides an example of scientists working alongside practitioners and policy makers to address a question of immediate relevance to elephant conservation in Malaysia and using the results to inform wildlife management policy and practice including the National Elephant Conservation Action Plan for Peninsular Malaysia. Since ensuring effective conservation of elephants in the Endau Rompin Landscape (ERL) in Peninsular Malaysia is difficult without data on population parameters we (1) conducted a survey to assess the size of the elephant population, (2) used that information to assess the viability of the population under different management scenarios including translocation of elephants out of the ERL (a technique long used in Malaysia to mitigate human-elephant conflict (HEC)), and (3) assessed a number of options for managing the elephant population and HEC in the future. Our dung-count based survey in the ERL produced an estimate of 135 (95% CI [80-225]) elephants in the 2,500 km2 area. The population is thus of national significance, containing possibly the second largest elephant population in Peninsular Malaysia, and with effective management elephant numbers could probably double. We used the data from our survey plus other sources to conduct a population viability analysis to assess relative extinction risk under different management scenarios. Our results demonstrate that the population cannot sustain even very low levels of removal for translocation or anything other than occasional poaching. We describe, therefore, an alternative approach, informed by this analysis, which focuses on in situ management and non-translocation-based methods for preventing or mitigating HEC. The recommended approach includes an increase in law enforcement to protect the elephants and their habitat, maintenance of habitat connectivity between the ERL and other elephant habitat, and a new focus on adaptive management.