Rare Animals Are Being Spotted More Frequently in Various Regions; IPB Expert Identifies Three Causes
Recently, the public has been hearing more and more reports of rare animals appearing in various regions. This phenomenon is often seen as a sign that environmental conditions are beginning to improve. However, conservation experts caution that the appearance of rare animals does not necessarily mean that ecosystems have recovered.
Prof Ani Mardiastuti, a wildlife conservation expert from IPB University, explains that the increasingly frequent sightings of rare animals do not always indicate a population increase. There are at least three main causes behind this phenomenon.
One of the main causes, according to Prof Ani, is actually habitat fragmentation and loss, which leads to animals encountering humans more frequently.
“These animals actually still exist, but their numbers are small, so the chances of encountering them are low. However, because their forest habitats are now shrinking, becoming fewer, and fragmented, and humans are increasingly encroaching on their habitats, these animals end up encountering humans more frequently,” she said.
Second, in addition to habitat factors, the detection of rare wildlife is also influenced by advances in detection technology, which make it increasingly easier for researchers to locate animals in the wild. Various technologies are now used in wildlife monitoring, such as camera traps capable of recording animal activity at night using infrared, as well as bioacoustics to detect nocturnal animals like owls through sound recordings.
“Artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to be applied in both of these technologies to accelerate identification, for example, in recognizing individual tigers by their stripes or distinguishing bird calls by matching recordings with international sound libraries like Xeno-canto,” she added.
Additionally, drone technology is utilized to monitor the nests of large birds such as the Javan hawk-eagle, raptors, or herons in hard-to-reach locations like high cliffs or mangrove forests.
Prof Ani also explained that the reappearance of long-unseen wildlife is often linked to special expeditions conducted by researchers. These efforts aim to locate species believed to be extinct, known as “Lazarus Species.”
When a rare species is discovered, researchers then assist the government in determining its conservation status and level of rarity based on International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) standards, as well as in compiling the National Red List for the Indonesian context.
She added that conservation challenges are also linked to social and economic factors. One example is the use of parts of the bird of paradise’s body for traditional decorations in Papua.
According to her, indigenous communities actually possess conservation awareness, but are often driven by economic necessity, so law enforcement remains necessary.
Prof Ani hopes that the discovery of rare species will inspire researchers to continue exploring Indonesia’s biodiversity, even though funding for species discovery research remains a challenge domestically. (dh) (IAAS/PRO)
