Data from: Measuring the surrogacy potential of charismatic megafauna species across taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity on a megadiverse island

1. Conservation organisations and governments often use charismatic
megafauna as surrogates for representing broader biodiversity. While these
species are primarily selected as “flagships” for marketing campaign, it
is important to evaluate their surrogacy potential, i.e., the extent to
which their protection benefits other biodiversity elements. Four
charismatic megafauna species are used as surrogates in the megadiverse
island of Sumatra: the Sumatran tiger Panthera tigris sumatrae, Sumatran
elephant Elephas maximus sumatranus, Sumatran orangutan Pongo abelii and
Sumatran rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis. We examined how well each of
these species performed in representing the distribution of all
co-occurring terrestrial mammal species on the island, and the priority
areas for the conservation of three facets of mammalian biodiversity
(taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional). 2. We used habitat suitability
models to represent the distribution of 184 terrestrial mammal species,
160 phylogenetic groups and 74 functional trait groups. We then identified
priority conservation areas using the spatial prioritisation software
Zonation. 3. We found that the habitat overlaps between each of the four
charismatic species and the other mammal species varied, ranging from a
mean of 52% (SD = 27%) for the tiger to 2% (SD = 2%) for the rhino.
Combining the four species together only improved the representation
levels marginally compared to only using the tiger. Among the four
charismatic megafauna species, the extent of suitable habitat of Sumatran
tiger covered the highest proportion of priority conservation areas. The
Sumatran tiger also outperformed most of other mammal species with similar
range sizes. 4. We found that some of the top-ranked conservation areas
for taxonomic (28%), phylogenetic (8%) and functional diversity (19%) did
not overlap with any of the charismatic species’ suitable habitat. 5.
Synthesis and applications. Wide-ranging charismatic species can represent
broader mammalian biodiversity, but they may miss some key areas with high
biodiversity importance. We suggest that a combination of systematic
spatial prioritisation and surrogacy analyses are important in order to
determine the allocation of conservation resources in biodiversity-rich
areas such as Sumatra, where an expansion of the protected area network is
required.