Reports

Program No.18-019-2

Basic information survey on Indonesian mammals in the Monash University

Rizaldi

13th July,2006 - 27th July,2006

I have been doing research on biodiversity and conservation of large mammals in the Sumatra island, Indonesia. Main goals of this study are to explain current population status and its historical changes and also to predict future population status relating with an impact by human interference to the natural habitat. This study is related to the study area of Prof. Ralph MacNally, Dep. of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Australia. He is an expert studying about biodiversity, habitat fragmentation, habitat loss and degradation of Indonesian fauna and flora. He is also an expert on ecological information studies.

I arrived at Tullamarine Airport, Melbourne on 14 July 2006. On July 15th, I visited Professor MacNally at his office. He welcomed me to do orientation at Monash University on that day. I had chances to visit University Library, Museum and student organization and other facilities. We started discussion about research activities and progress on the next days meeting at Lab of Ecology, Biological Science and Center for Biodiversity. I explained my ongoing study about mammal diversity in Sumatra, Indonesia. He appreciated my work and discussed some points concerning to the current issues and advanced studies on mammal diversity and their habitat as well as characteristics of native human communities. He introduced research methodology, equipment and facilities that he and his student currently use. He introduced statistical model to predict habitat and population changes relevant to my research goals. He recommended some references, reading papers and books. His valuable comments and suggestions are very helpful for me to achieve fruitful works in Indonesia and to write a scientific paper. Professor MacNally also introduced some ongoing researches of his graduate students, which are closely related to my own study. We also discussed possibility to conduct collaborative research in future. We exchanged information about Indonesian mammals and the ongoing research.

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