Biodiversitas Journal of Biological Diversity
Vol. 17 No. 1 (2016)

The population of spotted cuscus (Spilocuscus maculatus) and its habitat carrying capacity in Numfor Island, Papua, Indonesia

ANTON SILAS SINERY (Faculty of Forestry, State University of Papua. Jl. Gunung Salju, Amban, Manokwari Barat, Manokwari)
WARTIKA ROSA FARIDA (Zoology Division, Research Center for Biology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Cibinong, Bogor)
JACOB MANUSA WAI (Faculty of Forestry, State University of Papua. Jl. Gunung Salju, Amban, Manokwari Barat, Manokwari)



Article Info

Publish Date
01 Jan 2016

Abstract

Sinery AS, Farida WR, Manusawai J. 2016. The population of spotted cuscus (Spilocuscus maculatus) and its habitat carrying capacity in Numfor Island, Papua, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 17: 315-321. The purpose of this research was to study the population of spotted cuscus (Spilocuscus maculatus) and the carrying capacity of its habitat. The result showed that the cuscus population size in 105 ha research area was 17 individuals, with population density of 0.41 individuals/ha or each individual occupied 2.44 ha. Cuscus is the first consumer in a food chain system that consumes a variety of plants and plays an important role in the spread of plant seeds. Its birth rate is higher than its death rate despite its low reproduction rate. Fruit-bearing trees with diameter > 10 cm as source of food for cuscus consisted of 13 species of 10 families with a diversity index of 2.43 (categorized as moderate). The productivity of cuscus food was 0.75 kg/season/ ha which indicated the limitations of the carrying capacity of cuscus’ habitat so that the need of food was fulfilled from secondary forests and community gardens.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

biodiv

Publisher

Subject

Agriculture, Biological Sciences & Forestry Biochemistry, Genetics & Molecular Biology

Description

The Biodiversitas Journal was first published in 2000 by the Department of Biology, FMNS, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia, then in 2006 it was co-published by the Society for Indonesian Biodiversity and that department; since 2017 it was also hosted by Smujo. From 2003-2012 it was ...