Summer Research Project at the TEE Lab: Charmaine's Experience

I'm Charmaine Ng, a Year 1 student at ASE. From June to July 2026, I had the opportunity to join the TEE Lab and work on my project titled "Effects of Habitat Disturbance on Mammal Diversity and Community Composition in Sabah, Borneo". My project is about analysing mammal camera trap data to find out how mammal species richness, species diversity, and community composition differs across a disturbance gradient of Sabah forests. It is part of the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) Project.

One of my main tasks was to review the camera trap photographs to identify the species captured. Although it was rather tedious to go through so many photographs, I enjoyed the process as it was so exciting to see all the different animals up close and up to their various antics – such as playing in the mud!

Sun bear soaking in a mud puddle

Sambar deer playing with the mud puddle

Here are some of my favourite photographs that were captured:

Yellow-throated marten

Malay civet

Pig-tailed macaque

There was also this photo where the Sambar deer looked exactly as it was shown in a field guide!

Sambar deer

After the camera trap photographs were catalogued, it was time to analyse the data. As it was my first time working with such data, my supervisor, Dr Chiew Li Yuen, very kindly guided me through the process. I learned about R Studio and some statistical analysis methods such as the Chao Estimator, Unbiased Simpson's Diversity Index, and Analysis of Variance. Here's a sneak peek of the community composition plot!

I really enjoyed working on the project and have learnt so much about research – from literature review to report writing and presentation. I would like to thank Professor Eleanor and Dr Li Yuen who have supported and guided me throughout the process. This has undoubtedly been a fulfilling and enriching experience, and I am truly grateful for the opportunity.