Tommaso Savini

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi

The globally Vulnerable Bristled Grassbird Schoenicola striatus, which inhabits tall wet grassland in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, is facing habitat loss and population decline. We explored morphological differences between the sexes, breeding behaviour and territory characteristics in Bristled Grassbirds inhabiting floodplain grasslands of Bangladesh....

The Critically Endangered Delacour's langur (Trachypithecus delacouri) is presently found only in a few isolated karst areas in northern Vietnam, where conducting field surveys has proven challenging due to the difficult terrain. Accurate population estimates from a scientifically sound method are needed to inform management of the species. From Oc...

Human-elephant conflict (HEC) poses serious threats to humans and to elephants, and while HEC in Southeast Asia is increasing, mitigation effectiveness data are lacking. Previous assessments of available mitigation options have not compared relative benefits and impacts of each on a practical level to identify which factors should be considered by...

Domestic dogs, numbering over 900 million worldwide, are commonly kept as service animals and companions. However, their interactions with wildlife have become a growing concern for conservation biologists studying human–wildlife conflicts. It has been reported that domestic dogs pose threats to at least 188 wildlife species, a figure that is likel...

The continuing loss and degradation of their natural habitats forces some wildlife species to increasingly extend their habitats into farmlands, thereby intensifying conflicts with people as resources diminish. Despite massive expansion in rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) plantations in recent decades, little is known about the diversity and distributio...

Climate-only species distribution models are commonly used to evaluate a species' vulnerability to future climate change. However, these models may overestimate a species' vulnerability when occurrence data comes from only a subset of the species' historical range due to anthropogenic range contractions. This study investigated the impacts of using...

Wet grassland birds world-wide face mounting threats due to habitat destruction especially in the Indo-Gangetic floodplains, where in addition to intense human use, primarily for agriculture, there is a paucity of baseline information to inform conservation and management. We examined the response of two co-occurring floodplain grassland specialist...

Imawbum National Park is a biodiversity hotspot, supporting habitat of the Endangered red panda. The National Park is part of the Northern Forest Complex in Kachin State, Myanmar, the Eastern Himalayan Region. Forest degradation and habitat loss resulting from illegal logging are the primary threats to red pandas in the area. Assessments of the spe...

Human−elephant conflict (HEC) is a major conservation challenge negatively impacting elephant populations and local agricultural livelihoods. Studies of drivers and spatiotemporal patterns of HEC have potential to indicate where mitigation actions should be prioritized with the goal of achieving long‐term coexistence. We examined temporal and spati...

Domestic dogs have been predicted to be a high risk to 10 % of mammal and 11 % of bird species across mainland Southeast Asia. Within Thailand their population is estimated at over 12 million and 80 % live in rural areas where they adopt a free-ranging lifestyle. This lifestyle enables them to enter protected forests without restrictions. To access...

Wetland grassland birds world-wide face mounting threats due to habitat destruction especially in the Indo-Gangetic floodplains, where in addition to intense human use, primarily for agriculture, there is a paucity of baseline information to inform conservation and management. We examined the response of two co-occurring floodplain grassland specia...

Wet grassland birds world-wide face mounting threats due to habitat destruction especially in the Indo-Gangetic foodplains, where in addition to intense human use, primarily for agriculture, there is a paucity of baseline information to inform conservation and management. We examined the response of two co-occurring foodplain grassland specialists,...

Context With the ongoing biodiversity crisis and the continued loss of species, it becomes crucial to find practical solutions to monitor threatened animal populations for wildlife conservation and management. However, in practice, monitoring is especially challenging for elusive, rare, and wide-ranging species, where estimating abundance is often...

Wildlife in Southeast Asia is greatly affected by agricultural expansion. While intensive farming causes biodiversity decline, low-intensive farming can support some adapted wildlife. In Thailand, the rapid transformation of forests to agricultural landscapes over three decades has resulted in large forest and biodiversity loss, with several Endang...

Imawbum National Park is a biodiversity hotspot, supporting habitat of the Endangered red panda. The National Park is part of the Northern Forest Complex in Kachin State, Myanmar, in the Eastern Himalayan Region. Forest degradation and habitat loss resulting from illegal logging is the primary threat to red pandas in the area. Assessments of the sp...

How did rhythm originate in humans, and other species? One cross-cultural universal, frequently found in human music, is isochrony: when note onsets repeat regularly like the ticking of a clock. Another universal consists in synchrony (e.g. when individuals coordinate their notes so that they are sung at the same time). An approach to biomusicology...

Habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation following intensive agricultural expansion, and both legal and illegal logging, have contributed to the rapid decline of the Green Peafowl (Pavo muticus) over mainland Southeast Asia. Dry forest habitat in the Bago Yoma range (Myanmar) is considered one of the region’s last remaining strongholds for the s...

The Tanintharyi Region in southern Myanmar is rich in biodiversity yet is facing threats from varying degrees of anthropogenic pressure. In this research we examine how anthropogenic pressures are influencing large carnivores (tiger Panthera tigris , leopard Panthera pardus and dhole Cuon alpinus ) and their major prey species (wild pig Sus scrofa...

Southeast Asia is a conservation priority region due to its high biodiversity—including megafauna—and high rates of defaunation, which has negative impacts on key ecological processes such as seed dispersal. Yet, seed dispersal interactions at the community level have rarely been described in this region. This is a major knowledge gap because mediu...

Abstract Dhole (Cuon alpinus) is threatened with extinction across its range due to habitat loss and prey depletion. Despite this, no previous study has investigated the distribution and threat of the species at a regional scale. This lack of knowledge continues to impede conservation planning for the species. Here we modeled suitable habitat using...

The suitable habitats of the Endangered Green Peafowl Pavo muticus have declined by 80% over the past century due to extensive anthropogenic degradation. Currently, only six strongholds remain in mainland South-east Asia. While there are estimates of the species’ presence and status in five of these, the sixth one, defined as an “expected stronghol...

Natural habitats have been destroyed by anthropogenic factors for several decades, exacerbated by climate change. This study investigated the impact of climate change on natural habitats by using 55 Phasianidaes species. We predicted current and future species distribution based on three climate change scenarios. We then (1) determined the effect o...

Severe habitat loss has been widely suggested as the main cause for the near disappearance of Gurney’s Pitta across its range, with the species having been functionally extirpated from Thailand, and heavily reduced in Myanmar. Here we provide an overview of the decline in available habitat in the Thai portion of the range and the species prospects...

Aim Identifying appropriate conservation measures requires a reasonable understanding of a species' population status, distribution and vulnerability. However, for many species, these variables may not be understood under the context of current conditions alone. Here, we assess the potential role historical changes in climate, sea level and anthrop...

Grassland bird communities are likely declining in all major grassland ecosystems globally due to habitat loss and modification, yet knowledge of the status of many tropical grassland bird communities is relatively poor. This study investigated the bird community structure and its associations with vegetation characteristics and potential human imp...

Protected areas are an important tool for conserving biodiversity, if they are managed appropriately. The effectiveness of protected area management can be evaluated by understanding the conservation status of indicator species. Here, we investigate the Vulnerable eastern hoolock gibbon Hoolock leuconedys in forest blocks in Indawgyi Biosphere Rese...

Southeast Asia is rich in small carnivore species, but baseline information on these species is frequently lacking. Many of the region's remaining forests are degraded, which can drastically change ecosystem function and structure. The Javan mongoose is a small generalist carnivore with a wide distribution across Southeast Asia, whose population, h...

The global population of domestic dogs is estimated at 900 million, making them the world’s most abundant carnivore. Southeast Asia is considered extremely vulnerable to wildlife declines linked to free-ranging dogs, yet few studies report specific cases of dog-wildlife interactions in this region. To overcome this lack of data, the perceived risk...

The globally endangered green peafowl (Pavo muticus) has dramatically declined over recent decades. Deforestation, land-use modification, hunting and increasing encroachment levels continue to threaten remaining populations. Northern and eastern Cambodia represent one of the species' remaining strongholds. However, only a few robust population esti...

Examining ecosystem functioning of logged-over forests requires a quantitative trait-based monitoring approach, in addition to a taxonomic approach, which allows for evaluation of the accompanying shifts in species traits and functional composition. Our study evaluated forest regrowth after different logging and thinning techniques applied to 60 on...

Habitat degradation due to hydropower development within protected areas has a marked negative effect on resident wildlife species. However, efforts to develop appropriate conservation and management plans are hampered by a general lack of quantitative information and a poor understanding of relevant ecological constraints. Great Argus Argusianus a...

Spatial and temporal partitioning often facilitates species coexistence. We used camera traps to study habitat use and spatio-temporal interactions among three large carnivores—tiger, leopard, and dhole—in two national parks in Thailand where key prey species (sambar, gaur) were scarce from overhunting. The availability of remnant sambar was the st...

Landscape‐scale strategies for conserving wild tigers emphasize the role of core breeding populations (source sites) to replenish surrounding areas which have lost tigers. In Southeast Asia, a few potential source sites remain, particularly Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand (HKK). We investigated tiger density in two reserves (Mae Wong,...

Identifying conservation priorities for an understudied species can be challenging, as the amount and type of data available to work with are often limited. Here, we demonstrate a flexible workflow for identifying priorities for such data-limited species, focusing on the little-studied Asian golden cat (Catopuma temminckii) in mainland Tropical Asi...

From 1999 onwards, level, lowland forests (altitude < 150 m, slopes < 10°) in the Tanintharyi Region of southern Myanmar have been cleared on a large scale and replaced by oil palm plantations. This has resulted in a drastic decline in suitable habitat for several species, including Gurney's pitta Hydrornis gurneyi (Passeriformes, Pittidae). The ha...

Southeast Asia has arguably the highest biodiversity loss due to the high deforestation rate and hunting pressure. In the region, 55 species of the family Phasianidae can be found in all available land habitats from lowland plains up to high-elevation mountainous areas. As ground-dwelling birds, these species are sensitive to habitat disturbance an...

Habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation are major threats to all gibbon species, contributing to the dramatic decline of gibbons over the last 30-40 years. The Hoolock gibbon (genus Hoolock) in South and Southeast Asia, particularly those occurring between the Thanlwin River in the east and Brahmaputra River in the west, have been particularly...

Green Peafowl have declined significantly across much of their historical range mostly due to habitat loss and degradation following intensive agricultural expansion, logging and infrastructure development. In Thailand, two strongholds remain, in the west and the north. While the western stronghold has been extensively investigated and is well prot...

Roads are expanding at an extremely high rate, and have a significant direct impact on biodiversity through wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC). This threat is well documented for the temperate regions of North America and Europe, but the information from the remaining countries is limited or scattered. To evaluate reproducibility and conservation va...

The Giant Nuthatch Sitta magna is a globally endangered species presumed to be declining, for which basic parameters of population and habitat associations remain largely unquantified. We focused on Myanmar, which potentially constitutes ~30% of the Giant Nuthatch global range and yet lacks recently published records. Our objectives were to survey...

Zoonosis-based epidemics are inevitable unless we revisit our relationship with the natural world, protect habitats and regulate wildlife trade, including live animals and non-sustenance products. To prevent future zoonoses, governments must establish effective legislation addressing wildlife trade, protection of habitats and reduction of the wildl...

To mitigate the ongoing biodiversity crisis in Tropical Asia, caused by extensive deforestation and wildlife poaching, we will need to take more strategic approaches towards identifying and prioritizing meaningful conservation interventions. This, however, can prove difficult for data-limited species. Focusing on the little-studied mainland clouded...

Research Highlights: Frugivores able to disperse large seeds over large distances are indispensable for seedling recruitment, colonization and regeneration of tropical forests. Understanding their effectiveness as seed dispersal agents in degraded habitat is becoming a pressing issue because of escalating anthropogenic disturbance. Although of para...

Logged-over forests comprise a large proportion of tropical forest landscapes, but questions remain on how to fully describe and understand the regeneration of these forests and which selective logging and silvicultural interventions are best for maintaining biological diversity. We used a phylogenetic approach to capture changes on the evolutionar...

Longitudinal studies of wildlife are urgently needed in South‐East Asia to understand population responses to the high poaching pressure that characterizes this region. We monitored population trends and habitat use of five heavily poached ungulate species (gaur, sambar, wild pig, red muntjac, and Fea's muntjac) over five years in two protected are...

Habituation allows an observer to closely approach and follow free-ranging animals, as they no longer respond to the observer presence (e.g., through flight, avoidance, display, curiosity). While habituation is implicitly acknowledged as a necessary step before any direct observational studies of primates, there is very little published data on the...

Small apes are often characterized as inhabiting small home ranges and being dependent on evergreen forest due to their dietary specialization on ripe fruits. Yet few primate studies, particularly those with gibbons, have considered intraspecific variations in ranging behaviors in response to local ecological conditions. This study examines Endange...

Despite containing extraordinary levels of biodiversity, lowland (<200 m asl) tropical forests are extremely threatened globally. Southeast Asia is an area of high species richness and endemicity under considerable anthropogenic threat with, unfortunately, scant focus on its lowland forests. We estimated extent of lowland forest loss from 1998 to 2...

Primates must select sleeping sites carefully to maximize fitness. In habitats with diminished quality and availability of resources, sleeping site selection becomes an even more crucial aspect of primate survival. We investigated sleeping site selection patterns in northern pigtailed macaques (Macaca leonina) living in a degraded habitat by testin...

Understanding the diurnal and nocturnal habitat requirements of Galliformes is important for gauging their conservation needs. To examine these requirements, we measured microhabitat usage at daytime foraging and roost sites of the green-legged partridge Tropicoperdix chloropus located by radio telemetry at Khao Yai National Park in 2009-2010 and d...

In many parts of South and Southeast Asia, rural farmers living at the borders of protected areas frequently encounter Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) raiding their crops and threatening farmers lives and livelihoods. Traditional deterrent methods often have limited success as elephants become habituated or alternate their movement and behavior....

How animals use space may vary according to species, presence of conspecifics and heterospecifics, and resource availability. Similar species may be sympatric by sharing resources at different spatial and temporal scales. Thus, identifying causes of variability in habitat use and home range size may increase our understanding of the functional aspe...

Space-use and foraging strategies are important facets to consider in regard to the ecology and conservation of primates. For this study, we documented movement, ranging, and foraging patterns of northern pigtailed macaques (Macaca leonina) for 14 months in a degraded habitat with old growth Acacia and Eucalyptus plantations at the Sakaerat Biosphe...

Low intensity subsistence agriculture is generally believed to be less damaging to wildlife than intensive farming. As Myanmar is undergoing rapid modernization, subsistence farming may shift to intensive agriculture, resulting in increased threats to species of conservation concern such as the green peafowl Pavo muticus . Here we investigate habit...

The Spotted Greenshank (Tringa guttifer) is one of the most threated shorebird species in the world, but key environmental characteristics associated with its presence are still not well understood. Here we summarised historical records and recent survey results of wintering Spotted Greenshanks in Thailand, a country of particular importance for ov...

Road networks are increasing globally, and as such incur increased pressure on wildlife communities. Large‐scale road expansion and infrastructure development occurring throughout Asia (i.e. Belt and Road Initiative) will affect hundreds of threatened species, leading to an increase in wildlife‐vehicle collisions. However, only a limited number of...

Context Estimates of a species abundance and habitat preferences provide vital information on their status and the appropriate conservation management. For nocturnal arboreal primates, obtaining reliable estimates of these parameters is particularly challenging because of their cryptic behaviour, often resulting in a small number of detections. Alt...

Roost-site quality can significantly affect the individual fitness of shorebirds, but roost sites remain poorly described for many threatened species on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. We studied roost-site selection of the globally endangered Spotted Greenshank (Tringa guttifer) in the Inner Gulf of Thailand, an area which supports approximate...

Galliformes are one of the most threatened groups of birds in South-East Asia, with 27% of the species threatened with extinction. Long term population viability and extinction probability studies, at different levels of threat and management, are lacking due to weak life history data. This study aimed to define the long-term viability and extincti...

The green peafowl Pavo muticus is a highly threatened galliform species that was historically distributed widely across South-east Asia. Evidence shows a recent population decline and range contraction for this species, linked with habitat degradation and over-exploitation. This study aimed to determine the current known distribution across mainlan...

The remaining large patches of lowland forest in Tanintharyi, southern Myanmar, are the last global stronghold for the Endangered Gurney's pitta Hydrornis gurneyi . Except for a few individuals, the remaining population is now restricted to this forest, below 150 m altitude, mostly within the Nga Wun, Lenya, and Parchan Reserved Forests. However, a...

All gibbon species are declining throughout South and South-east Asia because of habitat loss and human activities such as hunting. Lao still contains a relatively large area of forest habitat suitable for gibbons, but their status in the country remains poorly known. Here we present the first density estimate of the Critically Endangered northern...

The Leopard Cat Prionailurus bengalensis is thought to be Asia’s most abundant wild cat. Yet, the species’ status is poorly known due to a lack of rigorous population estimates. Based on the few studies available, Leopard Cats appear to be more abundant in degraded forests, potentially due to increased prey availability. We conducted camera trap su...

Small, isolated, and disturbed forest fragments potentially offer valuable habitats for small carnivore conservation. Yet the influence of resource availability—critical for survival and reproduction—on small carnivore habitat use within these modified environments is poorly understood. We conducted camera-trap surveys within a seasonally dry tropi...

Leopards are known to prey on livestock throughout their range. Depredation of livestock makes leopards vulnerable to retaliatory killings and reduces public support for conservation. We examined spatiotemporal patterns, correlates, as well as economic losses and compensation paid for livestock depredation by leopards in buffer zone of Chitwan Nati...

Primate survival in disturbed forests can be governed by a complex of forest variables. For nocturnal arboreal primates, determining these ecological features is notoriously difficult but is critically important for their conservation. Here we assessed the effects of forest type, food availability, human disturbance, and forest structure on the noc...

Road edges in the temperate zone often negatively affect reproductive success, post-fledging survival, and dispersal of forest birds through processes associated with edge habitats. This pattern is less clear in the tropics due to a lack of studies using natural nests and radio-tagged fledglings as well as an almost complete absence of information...

Includes supplemental materials for Petersen et al. (2019); including data on the mammals of Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve.

Deciduous dipterocarp forests throughout Asia provide crucial habitat for several globally threatened species. During the dry season water availability in these forests is primarily limited to perennial rivers and waterholes. Such water sources form an essential part of these dry forests and are used by multiple species, including large mammals and...

Background: The destruction and fragmentation of forest in Southeast Asia is accelerating biodiversity loss, resulting in a range of management and conservation actions. For some species, a detailed understanding of microhabitat selection is critical for this, especially in the breeding season. Methods: To understand the factors that explain how sp...

Background: Edge effects cause changes in bird community richness, abundance, and/or distribution within a landscape, but the avian guilds most influenced can vary among regions. Although Southeast Asia has the highest rates of deforestation and projected species loss, and is currently undergoing an explosive growth in road infrastructure, there ha...

Thirty-two percent of bird species in SouthEast Asia are likely to become extinct by the end of this century. However, due to a lack of data this number may be an underestimate. The Chestnut-headed Partridge Arborophila cambodiana found in southwest Cambodia's Cardamom Mountain range is a largely unknown potentially at-risk species. We used line tr...

Hydroelectricity is the world's largest source of ‘renewable’ energy, and deployment will expand considerably in the coming decade, with Asian countries installing the bulk of new generating capacity. Before construction of large hydropower projects, empirical evidence can be utilised to inform public involvement and to realistically ground decisio...

Bird egg predation is widespread in non-human primates. Although nest predation is often described as opportunistic, little is known about foraging strategies and nest detection in primates. Since it is the prevalent cause of nest failure in the tropics, birds select nest sites within specific microhabitats and use different nest types to increase...

Many animal-dispersed seeds are subject to post-dispersal removal by vertebrate and invertebrate organisms resulting in further dispersal or predation. A field experiment was carried out to study seed removal of six gibbon dispersed seed species in a tropical dry forest in central Thailand during the wet season of 2016 and early dry season of 2017....

Siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus) and agile gibbon (Hylobates agilis) were censused and mapped in Bala Forest, part of the Hala-Bala Wildlife Sanctuary, Narathiwat Province, South Thailand. Nineteen groups of siamangs and 136 groups of agile gibbons were found in this 168-km² area. This is the northernmost population of the siamang in Asia. Densit...

Local and regional extirpations of individual species, typically high profile cases, are now well documented, leading to calls for urgent action for particular species in specific locations. There is a need to broaden our assessments of extinction to identify landscapes that contain high proportions of threatened species and therefore, how more hol...

The Sundarbans Forest (~10,000 km²) represents the only mangrove ecosystem inhabited by tigers Panthera tigris. However, in the Bangladesh portion of the Sundarbans (~6,000 km²) tigers appear to have declined. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of a range of environmental and landscape variables in possible changes in the relative a...

.— It is often assumed that passerine birds conceal nests to reduce predation because nest predation is usually the primary cause of reproductive failure. We hypothesized that nesting success would be higher in nest cavities with more concealed entrances and therefore more likely chosen over less concealed cavities. We set 200 nest boxes in ∼100 te...

Seed dispersers, like white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar), can display wide inter-group variability in response to distribution and abundance of resources in their habitat. In different home ranges, they can modify their movement patterns along with the shape and scale of seed shadow produced. However, the effect of inter-group variability on the...

Some of the species that are believed to have the highest probability of extinction are also amongst the most poorly known, and this makes it extremely difficult to decide how to spend scarce resources. Assessments of conservation status made on the basis of loss or degradation of habitat and lack of records may provide compelling indications of a...

The “Building Capacity for Conservation in Southeast Asia” symposium was held at the 2015 Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Asia-Pacific Chapter meeting. The range of programs discussed fell into three categories: career development, project-specific activities and outreach, and delivering conservation information to diverse audien...

Urbanization often has negative impacts on wildlife, nevertheless many species can persist in heavily modified habitats. Understanding factors that promote species persistence in urbanizing landscapes is therefore important for maintaining biodiversity in changing landscapes and may inform more biodiversity-friendly development. We investigated eff...

The South-East Asian ranges of two narrow-geographical range species, Germain’s Peacock Pheasant Polyplectron germaini (GPP) and Orange-necked Partridge Arborophila davidi (ONP) have been shrinking due to pressures from anthropogenic activities. To improve our knowledge of population densities of Germain’s Peacock Pheasant and the Orange-necked Par...

Bird nest predation is frequent and widespread in non-human primates. Yet, very few studies focus on this specific feeding behaviour. Although nest predation is often describes as an opportunistic behaviour, little is known on foraging strategies and nest detection in primates. Being the prevalent cause of nest failure, nest predation influences bo...

The Saola Pseudoryx nghetinhensis (Mammalia; Bovidae) is IUCN Critically Endangered, but its ecology remains almost entirely unknown. Here we present the first characterization of Saola habitat use. We assessed Saola macrohabitat and microhabitat characteristics using Saola sighting location data obtained from local people. The study focused on the...

Human–tiger conflict arises when tigers Panthera tigris attack people or their livestock, and poses a significant threat to both tigers and people. To gain a greater understanding of such conflict we examined spatio-temporal patterns, correlates, causes and contexts of conflict in Chitwan National Park, Nepal, and its buffer zone, during 2007–2014....

In Thailand, as for most of South-East Asia, large vertebrates are declining rapidly due to habitat degradation and increasing hunting pressure. Once relatively common in the evergreen forest of Southern Thailand, the Great Argus Argusianus argus is currently limited to a few populations, whose status is currently unknown. In this study we investig...

Similar species may co-occur in sympatry because of the partitioning of habitat use and resources at different spatial and temporal scales. Understanding co-occurrence patterns of species may assist in explaining patterns of habitat selection, which is important when planning conservation actions for threatened species. Little is known about the ec...