Natural licks are required for large terrestrial mammals in a degraded riparian forest, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Ikki Matsuda, Marc Ancrenaz, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Augustine Tuuga, Noreen Majalap, Henry Bernard

Although the importance of natural licks for terrestrial mammals is widely acknowledged, we report here for the first time its importance for large terrestrial mammals in a degraded riverine forest in Borneo. Our results clearly demonstrated that various mammals, including bearded pig, sambar deer, and endangered orangutans, were using the natural lick, though large arboreal/avian herbivore/omnivore animals were not attracted to the natural lick. In addition, the diversity of mammal species recorded in this study was lower than those recorded in the dry lowland forest. Possible reasons for this difference between the different forest types are discussed. 

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11284-014-1219-1

Ecological Research 10.1007/s11284-014-1219-1

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