188 B. Galea et al.


FIG. 1 Langkawi Island (Malay: Pulau Langkawi) on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, showing the transect locations along roads where primates frequently occur, with names of the road sections, the concentration of vertebrate roadkill recorded across the island and the recommended sites for the proposed canopy bridge network.


globally), together with a standardizedmethodology for instal- lation and post-installation monitoring, on Langkawi Island. This trans-island canopy bridge network would encompass a system of elevated structures organized to ensure an uninter- rupted connection between themajor forest fragments across the whole island, allowing primates and other wildlife to nav- igateand utilizethe landscapemoreeffectively. Langkawi Island (Malay: Pulau Langkawi; Fig. 1) is the


largest and most densely populated of the 99 islands in the Langkawi Archipelago. Located on the west coast of nor- thern Peninsular Malaysia, it has a diverse landscape of flat coastal plains, hilly terrain and rugged mountains. The vege- tation primarily comprises semi-evergreen rainforest, along with mangroves, shrubs, limestone structures, agricultural land and sandy beaches (Hussin et al., 2005). Mount Machinchang (Malay: Gunung Machinchang) is the oldest rock formation in Peninsular Malaysia, dating back to the Upper Cambrian period (Lee, 1983). Three primate species occur on Langkawi Island, all categorized as Endangered on the IUCN Red List: the Tarutao Island dusky langur Trachypithecus obscurus carbo (Boonratana et al., 2021), common long-tailed macaque Macaca fascicularis


fascicularis (Hansen et al., 2022) and greater slow loris Nycticebus coucang (Nekaris et al., 2020). The island experi- ences a climate pattern similar to the northern mainland, with a dry season during November–March and two wet seasons, during April–May and August–October (Kohira et al., 2001). Its natural assets have made Langkawi Island a leading holiday destination in Malaysia (Wahid et al., 2016). Tourism is the main economic activity and has trans- formed Langkawi Island from a rural island inhabited by farmers and fishers to an international tourist hotspot undergoing increasing development (Irwana Omar et al., 2014). To accommodate the growing human population on the island, road development began during the 1980s and intensified from 2001, with most parts of the island now being connected by roads (Marzuki, 2015; Jamil & Badaruddin, 2006). Although Langkawi Island was recog- nized as a Global Geopark by UNESCO in 2007, it has re- ceived multiple warnings about losing its status if the sustainability and conservation requirements of UNESCO cease to be met (Hashim & Abd Latif, 2015). Little is known about the impacts of roads and habitat fragmen- tation on the vertebrate wildlife of Langkawi Island other


Oryx, 2024, 58(2), 187–191 © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605323001333


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