Wildlife Response To Phenology Pattern Of Keystone Tree Species In Natural And Urban Area

Abstract

Long-term study on the relationship of wildlife and their habitat is very lacking in Indonesia, and thus we have been very lucky to have a research project on the the long-term study on the wildlife species and their habitat. Of many groups of trees that has been known to be a keystone food resources in the tropics are Ficus spp. Through this project, we want to show that fig trees are actually ‘everywhere’ – in the natural forest, in peri-urban, even in residential urban area - and whenever the Ficus are, they have a big role for wildlife. To be specific, we would like to know the phenological pattern of the fig trees and the wildlife species associated with them. Many friends, colleagues and students have been assisted us during preparation of the study, data collection, data analysis and report writing. We would like acknowledge and thank the National Institute of Ecology (Korea) for providing funding to carry out this project, of which without it would not be possible. Special thanks also to the staffs of National institute of Ecology Korea for their valuable assistances and advice, especially to Dr. Gilsang Jeong, Dr. Yena Kim and Ms. Hye Jin-Kang. We also would like to thank the research site managers: Sentul City Management Team who have given us permission to work in the residential areas, Darmaga Campus IPB University, and Mount Halimun Salak National Park Management Team especially the Head of National Park (Mr. Ahmad Munawir) who have given permission to work in the Cikaniki Resort areas. Three-year research seemed long, but actually very short to understand the phenological cycles of the fig trees, and how wildlife response to it. The change of climate pattern and cycles actually demand a longer and more intensive study. Despite the climatic challenge, we managed to finish our research presented in this report. Some of the topics related to ficus and wildlife has been presented in international conference and published in the international proceedeings. Surely more papers would be written in the future, based on the data we collected though this project. We do hope that this report will be useful for anybody who need it. We would be more than happy when many researchers would use our data and information presented in this report.