Individual-level movement and space use of Sunda clouded leopards revealed by GPS telemetry and camera traps in a human-modified Bornean landscape

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Abstract High-resolution telemetry can reveal how elusive carnivores move and use space in fragmented, human-modified landscapes. The Sunda clouded leopard ( Neofelis diardi ), a forest-dependent felid endemic to Borneo and Sumatra, remains among the least-studied large tropical carnivores, with very limited individual-level movement data. We present the first high-resolution GPS telemetry dataset for the species, using 20-min GPS fixes from four collared adults, integrated with concurrent long-term camera-trap surveys to examine individual space use, movement, diel activity, and patterns of site sharing in a multiple-use landscape in Malaysian Borneo. Home-range estimates, based on three individuals monitored for 39–103 days and derived using multiple estimators, showed that two adult males occupied similar (~ 41 km² each; 100% k-LoCoH) and largely exclusive (~ 8% intra-male overlap) ranges that were constrained to forest, whereas kernel density estimation (KDE) and 95% minimum convex polygons (MCP) estimates were several-fold larger and extended beyond forest boundaries. A tracked female occupied a smaller range (~ 7 km²; k-LoCoH) that overlapped extensively with one male (68.5%) and to a lesser extent with another (20.9%). Camera trap surveys yielded 264 independent detections of nine individuals (four males, five females), with detections across camera stations predominantly solitary (> 85% of 30–60-day station-windows). However, a single forested ridgeline in an otherwise largely flat floodplain emerged as a marked hotspot (> 50% of detections), repeatedly visited by multiple individuals and containing most observed scent-marking events, indicating that this ridgeline functions as a communication site. Telemetry revealed cathemeral movement characterised by short travel bouts interspersed with prolonged stationary periods concentrated in forest; males moved up to 13 km day⁻¹ and travelled faster through oil palm and along roads (0.68–1.49 km h⁻¹) than in forest (0.37–0.53 km h⁻¹). Camera-trap data indicated dawn activity peaks in both sexes and a dusk peak in females (Δ₄ = 0.74). These results provide a descriptive, individual-level account of movement and space use, and demonstrate how integrating GPS telemetry with camera-trap detections can inform movement ecology for rare carnivores in complex, human-modified landscapes.

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