Data from: Megafaunal rodents – behaviour and ecological roles of Southeast Asian forest porcupines
Data files
Dec 05, 2025 version files 99.01 KB
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Porcupine_burrow_videos.xlsx
30.83 KB
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Porcupine_burrows_other_animals.xlsx
20.51 KB
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Porcupine_fruit_species_consumed.xlsx
27.59 KB
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README.md
3.79 KB
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Seedlings_porcupine_burrows.xlsx
16.29 KB
Abstract
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.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.fbg79cp8h
Description of the data and file structure
GENERAL INFORMATION
Megafaunal rodents — behaviour and ecological roles of Southeast Asian forest porcupines
Four datasets are included documenting information gathered on Malayan (Hystrix brachyura) and Asiatic brush-tailed (Atherurus macrourus) porcupines from a field study in the Belum-Temenggor forest of Peninsular Malaysia.
Dataset 1: Porcupine_burrow_videos.xlsx
Contains information on all recordings of the two porcupine species at the burrow entrances during the study period.
Description of data columns:
Camera_ID: Code for location and camera number
Date: Date porcupine was observed
Start_time: Start time of video sequence for observation
End_time: End time of video sequence for observation
Video_count: Number of videos within the independent observation
Indiv_count: Total number of porcupine individuals observed
Adult_count: Total number of full-sized, or almost full-sized, porcupines observed
Young_count: Total number of small porcupines observed
Dataset 2: Porcupine_burrows_other_animals.xlsx
Contains information on non-porcupine species visiting the porcupine burrows during the study period.
Description of data columns:
Camera_ID: Code for the camera location
Porcupine_Taxa: Porcupine species at which the burrow camera was set at
Animal_name: Common name of animal observed at burrow
Scientific name: Scientific name for animal observed at burrow, if identified to at least family level.
Date: Date of visit
Start_time: Time of first video the animal was observed in
End_time: End time at which the animal was observed; if animal was observed in one video this is recorded as NA
Individual_count: Number of individuals observed visiting
Notes: General behaviour observed
Dataset 3: Porcupine_fruit_species_consumed.xlsx
Contains information gathered during LEK (Local Ecological Knowledge) interviews and describes details on the plant species consumed by porcupines, their handling behaviour and the other animal species consuming the same plant species.
Description of data columns:
Porcupine consumed species: Lists all consumed plant species
Family: Plant family
Genus Species: Genus and Species names
Fruit Type: Description of fruit type
Fruit width: Fruit width in mm
Seed width: Seed width in mm
Fruit piercing: Subjective scale of how easily the outer layer of the fruit can be broken
Seed hardness: Subjective scale of how hard the seed is
Final Seed Treatment: Handling behaviour of the porcupine
Other animal dispersers: Lists other animals that disperse the seeds of plant species consumed by porcupines
Animal: Name of animal taxa (species, or group of similar animals)
Family: Family name of the plant species dispersed
Genus Species: Genus and Species names of the plant species dispersed
Dataset 4: Seedlings_porcupine_burrows.xlsx
Contains information on the seedlings found on burrows of the Malayan porcupine and at the control site. Names are in Temiar.
Column descriptions:
Temiar_name: Name used by Temiar group of Orang Asli
Burrow_or_control: Whether the seedling was found on top of the porcupine burrow or a control site 10 m away from burrow.
Porcupine_diet: 1 indicates the plant fruit or seeds are consumed by porcupines, as noted by the people identifying the species. Blank indicates it is not known to be consumed by porcupines.
Day_3; Day_2; Day_1; Pla_1; Cad_1; Hal_1: Columns D to I are the codes for each burrow; listed here are the number of seedlings found of each species.