Data from: Megafaunal rodents – behaviour and ecological roles of Southeast Asian forest porcupines

Porcupines are the megafauna of Southeast Asia’s rodent community and, as
such, potentially perform important ecological roles in the rainforest
habitats they are common in. We investigated four ecological roles of
Malayan porcupines (Hystrix brachyura) and brush-tailed porcupines
(Atherurus macrourus) within the Belum-Temenggor rainforest complex of
Peninsular Malaysia. First, camera-traps placed at four Malayan porcupine
and one brush-tailed porcupine burrow showed that the burrows were used in
varying ways by at least 22 other animal species. These animals shared the
burrow, or fed on insects at the entrance, or possibly investigated the
burrows as predators. Second, seedling surveys on top of the burrows,
suggested that burrows might also be good microsites for seedling
establishment and growth (as found previously in arid and semi-arid
habitats), with a higher species richness and density on the burrows than
at control sites. Third, porcupines consumed 80 plant species (identified
through Local Ecological Knowledge, or LEK, from the Indigenous
community), 65% of which they acted as seed predators for. Fourth, they
were seed dispersers of 33% of consumed species – mainly by hoarding – but
also dispersing a few species by endozoochory or consuming only the pulp.
The dispersed species (identified through LEK) included many
megafaunal-syndrome species, and porcupines also showed high dispersal
overlap with elephants (and rats). Hence, as common, megafaunal rodents,
porcupines are performing important ecological roles within rainforests.
These findings highlight the important, yet overlooked, role of porcupines
in maintaining tropical rainforest function, underscoring that their
conservation is essential for sustaining tropical biodiversity.