The Occurrence of Fault Bars in Birds in the Harapan Rainforest and Bukit Duabelas National Park Landscapes, Jambi, Indonesia

Abstract

Birds react differently to adapt to land-use changes. One of the reactions is the formation of fault bars, which is a malformation during feather growth. Fault bars in birds’ feathers may be used as indicator of environmental quality. This study examines the occurrence of fault bars in four different land uses in Jambi Province, Sumatra: secondary forest, jungle rubber, rubber plantation and oil palm plantation. Mistnetting was conducted during April-June 2014 in regions near to the Harapan Rainforest Landscape and the Bukit Duabelas National Park. A total of 90 and 145 birds were caught and examined for fault bars in Harapan Rainforest Landscape and Bukit Duabelas National Park Landscape, respectively. In the Harapan Rainforest Landscape, the highest occurrence of fault bars (score 3) was found in the secondary forest (53.5%) and oil palm (50%), whereas in Bukit Duabelas National Park Landscape, the highest occurrence of fault bars (score 3) was found in rubber plantation (43.8%) and oil palm (39.2%). There was no significant difference in the number of fault bars score between Harapan Rainforest Landscape and Bukit Duabelas National Park landscape (df= 30; t = - 1.398; p>0.05), however there is difference between the numbers fault bars in birds in four habitat in Bukit Duabelas National Park Landscape (F = 2.67, p>0.05. Further research about the fault bars along with habitat analysis is needed to determine the effect of habitat to the birds in depth.