DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6n0b28n
title: Data from: Measuring the surrogacy potential of charismatic megafauna species across taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity on a megadiverse island

description: 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.
description: Suitable habitat
 overlapsThis spreadsheet
 contains data of the suitable habitat overlaps between the four
 charismatic megafauna species with the co-occurring terrestrial mammal
 species in Sumatra.Suitable_habitat_overlaps.xlsxZonation performance curvesZonation performance curve data resulted from spatial prioritisation analyses based on taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional-trait scenario.Zonation_performance_curves.xlsxMaps of conservation priority ranksThis zip file contains three maps (in .TIF) of conservation priority ranks based on taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional-trait scenarios.Priority maps.zip