Risma Illa Maulany

Mangrove replantation is widely implemented as a rehabilitation-oriented response to coastal degradation, yet many replanted stands remain poorly assessed after plantation. This study provides a preliminary dry-season post-plantation habitat characterization of an eight-year-old replanted Rhizophora mucronata stand at Sungai Ujung River, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Its novelty lies in integrating vegetation structure, surface-active brachyuran taxonomic units, selected surface-water variables, and sediment texture within a single replanted stand where no baseline or long-term monitoring data were available. The final descriptive dataset included seven plots across three transects. Surface-active brachyurans and water-quality variables were recorded across five valid sampling occasions: three spring-tide and two neap-tide occasions. Because tidal period was a sampling-occasion-level condition and temporal replication was limited, spring–neap patterns were interpreted descriptively. Eight surface-active brachyuran taxonomic units comprising 676 individuals were recorded, dominated by Metopograpsus latifrons. Crab abundance, Shannon diversity, and water-quality profiles varied among occasions and plots. All 113 living mangrove individuals were R. mucronata, with established trees, visible seedlings, and scarce poles. Sediment texture ranged from sand-dominated to clay-rich substrates. These findings provide a structured reference point for future monitoring, but do not demonstrate replantation success, recovery trajectory, or functional recovery.

Gestures are one of the key components of primate communication and have been proposed to be important precursors of intentional communication and human language. Understanding how gestural communication varies across primate taxa is therefore important for reconstructing the evolutionary origins of intentional communication and making inferences about its socio-ecological drivers. In this study, we investigated gesture use in moor macaques ( Macaca maura ), a socially tolerant Sulawesi macaque species for which systematic studies of communication remain scarce. We conducted a 5-month observational study of a wild group of 27 individuals, in which we documented the gesture types and modalities (i.e., visual, auditory or tactile) used, the likelihood of accounting for recipients’ attentional states and receiving a response, and the effect of age and context of use on these variables. Moor macaques used a repertoire of 19 gesture types across affiliative, agonistic, play, and sexual contexts, producing gestures predominantly in the visual modality. Age did not significantly predict variation in gesture modality, sensitivity to recipients’ attention, or response probability. Instead, contexts strongly shaped patterns of gestural production. Visual gestures were more likely produced during resting than during activities related to group movement. Moreover, signalers were more likely to account for recipients’ visual attention in affiliative than other contexts, and gestures were more likely to elicit responses during affiliative and agonistic interactions than during sexual ones. These findings suggest that immediate social and ecological contexts may play a central role in shaping gestural production in this species. However, given the relatively limited sample size, these findings should be considered preliminary. Our study expands the comparative database on primate gestural communication and highlights macaques as valuable models for investigating how context might influence communication.

Nonhuman primates constitute an ideal model to study the evolutionary origins of human language, because of their close phylogenetic distance to humans and their reliance on complex communication systems that include different signal types. In this study, we investigated the vocal repertoire of Macaca maura (moor macaques), a highly tolerant primate species endemic to Sulawesi, Indonesia. We conducted detailed acoustic analyses on 1116 high‐quality vocalizations recorded from a well‐habituated wild group of 42 individuals. Using discriminant function and random forest analyses, we found that moor macaques show a graded vocal repertoire, with considerable acoustic overlap between several call types and a high number of acoustic parameters needed for accurate classification. These findings were supported by the failure of unsupervised clustering to detect robust categorical structures beyond a two‐cluster solution. Our findings provide novel insights into the vocal behavior of a yet understudied species, and provide preliminary evidence that moor macaques show graded communication systems.

There is a vast and ever‐accumulating amount of behavioural data on individually recognised animals, an incredible resource to shed light on the ecological and evolutionary drivers of variation in animal behaviour. Yet, the full potential of such data lies in comparative research across taxa with distinct life histories and ecologies. Substantial challenges impede systematic comparisons, one of which is the lack of persistent, accessible and standardised databases. Big‐team approaches to building standardised databases offer a solution to facilitating reliable cross‐species comparisons. By sharing both data and expertise among researchers, these approaches ensure that valuable data, which might otherwise go unused, become easier to discover, repurpose and synthesise. Additionally, such large‐scale collaborations promote a culture of sharing within the research community, incentivising researchers to contribute their data by ensuring their interests are considered through clear sharing guidelines. Active communication with the data contributors during the standardisation process also helps avoid misinterpretation of the data, ultimately improving the reliability of comparative databases. Here, we introduce MacaqueNet, a global collaboration of over 100 researchers (https://macaquenet.github.io/) aimed at unlocking the wealth of cross‐species data for research on macaque social behaviour. The MacaqueNet database encompasses data from 1981 to the present on 61 populations across 14 species and is the first publicly searchable and standardised database on affiliative and agonistic animal social behaviour. We describe the establishment of MacaqueNet, from the steps we took to start a large‐scale collective, to the creation of a cross‐species collaborative database and the implementation of data entry and retrieval protocols. We share MacaqueNet's component resources: an R package for data standardisation, website code, the relational database structure, a glossary and data sharing terms of use. With all these components openly accessible, MacaqueNet can act as a fully replicable template for future endeavours establishing large‐scale collaborative comparative databases.

Due to the absence of topsoil, low pH, and contamination by various heavy metals, revegetation of post-nickel mining land, which is generally carried out by planting economically valuable species, is usually unsuccessful. This study aims to identify tree species suitable for revegetation on post-nickel mining land in Kolaka Regency, Indonesia. Nine plots measuring 20 m x 20 m were distributed in the revegetated post-nickel mining land at three different age categories (1, 5, and 10 years) to observe the growth of revegetation trees, which are introduced species and native tree species that naturally invade the revegetation area. In total, there were 24 tree species found in the revegetated post-nickel mining land consisting of 9 introduced revegetation species and the other 15 tree species were native tree species that invaded the revegetated area. The older the age of the revegetation, the more native plant species are found. In line with the increasing age of revegetation, the density of revegetation plants decreases while the density of native plants increases. The population structure of revegetation trees does not indicate that the species can regenerate, while the inverted shape of the population structure of native plants indicates excellent regeneration potential. Thus, the results of this study recommend making native species, including Buchanania arborescens, Alstonia macrophylla, Ficus sp. Syzygium sp. Colona scabra, Litsea sp., and Metrosideros cf. petiolata as revegetation plants in former nickel mining areas.

Maros-Pangkep karst formation in South Sulawesi is one of the largest karst environments in the world. One cave located in the area is Leang Londrong and is a part of the management of Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park. The Leang Londrong area is known as tourism spot with water-based tourism as the main attraction and it is also known as the main ecosystem service provider in particular as water sources for many areas. This cave is inhabited by some species of bats. Even now the area is designated for water-based tourism, other potential tourism object such bats roosting inside the cave for tourism development has not been explored. Therefore, this study attempts to examine the perception of local community and tourists visiting the area towards nature, cave, bats and its conservation, as well as cave-bats tourism development. The study was conducted between January-April 2022 by distributing questionnaires to 86 respondents consisted of local community, tourists, and government’s representatives. The results indicated that in general the respondents had limited knowledge on nature, cave, bats and its conservation. In particular with bats, the majority of the respondents have not yet been familiar with bats, understood the roles of bats for the environment, and tended to ignore the existence of bats. However, in relation with nature and conservation, bat conservation, and the development of cave and bat tourism in Leang Londrong, all respondents from the tourist’s side agreed to support (>85%) and for the locals, the number was even higher (>90%). Therefore, from the perspectives of local community and tourists, the chance in developing cave and bat tourism in Leang Londrong can be considered possible.

Ismail T, Maulany RI, Ngakan PO. 2024. Abundance assessment of Sulawesi Banded Swallowtail Papilio gigon gigon and availability of resource plants in Bantimurung Bulusaraung National Park, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 25: 673-682. The Sulawesi Banded Swallowtail (Papilio gigon gigon Felder & Felder, 1864) is an endemic butterfly species of Sulawesi, Indonesia currently under threat from hunting and trade activities and habitat degradation. This study aims to examine the abundance of P. gigon gigon and resource plants' availability and to analyze the relationship between resource host and nectar plant density with the abundance of the butterfly species in Bantimurung Bulusaraung National Park, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Data were collected using the line transect method in two habitat types: settlement and forest located in three observation sites (Bantimurung, Leang-leang, and Pattunuang). The data were analyzed with Spearman's correlation test. The results showed a significant positive correlation in Bantimurung between the host plant densities (r = 0.258; p = 0.010) and nectar plants (r = 0.211; p = 0.036) with the abundance of P. gigon gigon. In Pattunuang, the host plants had indicated an insignificant correlation (r = 0.061; p = 0.548) with the abundance of P. gigon gigon, and in contrast, the nectar plants showed a significant positive correlation (r = 0.487; p = 0.000). Only in Leang-leang the correlation between the abundance of P. gigon gigon showed no significant correlation with both host (r = 0.152; p = 0.132) and nectar plants (r = 0.041; p = 0.686). Differences between the observation areas were suspected to be influenced by human activities such as tourism and hunting. Therefore, management interventions by the national park are required to support the conservation of P. gigon gigon in the area.

One of the issues that urban forests face is the low diversity of tree species planted for urban forest purposes, which typically consists of one to two species One of the issues that urban forests face is the low diversity of tree species planted for urban forest purposes, which typically consists of one to two species

Wildlife diversity is one of the essential assets of national development and has become major tourist attractions in Indonesia for nature-based tourism. South

Mas’ud W, Maulany RI, Putra PS, Ngakan PO. 2023. Impacts of edge effects on the invasion of alien plant species in Bantimurung Bulusaraung National Park, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 24: 6160-6168. Invasive Alien Plant Species (IAPS) are a threat to biodiversity and natural ecosystems. Factors influencing the IAPS distribution are well-known, but the impact of edge effects on the distribution is rarely discussed. This study aims to reveal the effect of differences in physical environmental factors along the edge effect gradient on the distribution of IAPS in Bantimurung Bulusaraung National Park, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Twenty-five line transects were established where 125 plots (20m x 20m) were systematically located to analyze the density, dominance, and distribution of IAPS on the edge bordering natural forest ecosystems and anthropogenically disturbed areas. Of the 21 IAPS found, 95.2% were distributed in clumps and 4.8% at random. As the light intensity decreases significantly (r = 0.042; p = 0.029) with the increasing distance from the edge to the forest interior, the IAPS density decreases significantly (r = -0.512; p = 0.0001). Species of IAPS that experienced a decrease in individuals were those with a habitus of herbs and shrubs. Considering that the seedlings were found to spread outside their mother tree stands, Swietenia macrophylla King. and Maesopsis eminii Engl. are suspected to be long-lived IAPS that have the potential to spread to natural karst forest ecosystems, so they need to be monitored continuously.