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Monday, February 18, 2013

Sabah: Borneo Pygmy Elephants

The origins of the elephants of Borneo seem to be the subject of debate. Variously described as an endemic species, a subspecies of the Asian Elephant or as feral animals derived from some unwanted gifts released by the Sultan of Sulu in the 18th century.

Recent genetic studies seem to have quashed the 'released pets' theory, suggesting that the Borneo population has been isolated for around 300,000 years.

Whatever their origin or taxonomy, they are certainly charismatic beasts, and well worth the extra time spent on the river to find them.






Friday, February 15, 2013

Sabah: Kinabatangan River

My final stop in Sabah was a three day stay at the wonderful Kinabatangan Jungle Camp. The Kinabatangan River is well known as offering the best chances of seeing the increasingly uncommon Bornean Pygmy Elephant, as well as Orang Utan, Proboscis Monkey and a couple of slighty esoteric specialities: Flat-headed Cat and Bornean Ground Cuckoo.

There are a number of camps and lodges along the Kinabatangan River, around the villages of Bilit and Sukau, all of which offer excursions on the river by boat. KJC has a particularly good reputation as THE place to stay to see the Cuckoo and the Cat, with the guides knowing the right creeks up the river to try for these two highly sought after and, apparently, very shy species. Judging by what little I saw of the other lodges and their boats, we definitely chose the right place: no where else seemed to have quite as good a position, in terms of being right in the forest, and ours was one of only two boats I saw with just two passengers: our excursions were entirely based on our priorities, rather than being standard general tourist trips.

The rooms were pretty basic, but any shortcomings were more than made up for by the location of the camp: surrounded by floodplain forest, with some of the best sightings right on the doorstep.

We arrived late morning and were greeted by the manager, Fida, who showed us around and mentioned that 'we've heard the cuckoo calling not far away this week'. With a couple of hours before lunch, having dumped bags in the room, we decided to have a quick explore of the camp surroundings.

Just by the main lodge dining room, we stepped onto the trail. I thought we should check to see what the mythical Ground Cuckoo sounded like, so span the ipod to the appropriate call (thanks to xenocanto) and pressed play... 5 seconds of the 'cooing' song, and amazingly a long, dark bird immediately jumped up onto a low branch about 5 metres in front of us: a large-bodied, almost pheasant-like bird, with a sturdy bill and pale skin around the eye on an otherwise black head, dark body with barring underneath: a Bornean Ground Cuckoo. A squawk, an odd shrug of the shoulders, and as quickly he dropped back down out of sight. People come to Kinabatangan and spend days out in the boats, exploring the muddy creeks for a glimpse of a Bornean Ground Cuckoo, and we'd found it virtually within sight of our cabin, within 10 minutes of arriving. Amazing. We walked the trail, hearing a pair of cuckoos calling all the time. Back at the camp, sitting on the steps to our cabin, and we could still hear the cuckoo's cooing. So I walked back to the start of the trail, and there he was, stood out in the open, on the trail: a purple sheen to his greeny-grey back shining in the sunlight. A beautifully awkward looking bird, with a spooked look on his face, reminding me totally of Kevin, the bird from the Pixar movie Up! He ran along the trail, stopping mid-run to look over his shoulder, made that odd shoulder shrug again, squawked his squawk and ducked down to run behind a tree, and out of sight.

On the same trail, we had a female Orang Utan in a tree. A group of Long-tailed Macaques moved past, something she wasn't at all keen on, and then she continued to take her bad mood out on us, taking exception to our presence on the trail: lip smacking, grunting, tearing at ferns and throwing big chunks down at us. While we stood quietly, a little bit in awe of the display, she shifted her position, grabbed at a nearby tree top and, with a twist of the wrist, sent a massive chunk of trunk smashing down towards us: enough falling wood to do serious damage if we'd been a few metres further along the trail. We backed off...

Over the three days we were here, we saw Orang Utan near the camp every day. One day, as we ate lunch with a rain shower going on, a big female joined us in a nearby tree, snacking on the wet vegetation.



As well as the Orang Utan and a regular troop of Macaques, constant visitors to the camp were several families of Bearded Pigs, and some impressively large Water Monitors. The regular Bornean Gibbon unfortunately didn't put in an appearance, and we were out on the boats on the occasions when the semi-resident Storm's Stork and Malay Civet each came to visit.


Along the river, troops of Proboscis Monkeys were a common sight, feeding in the riverside trees or huddling up for the night. The biggest group we came across was 36 animals, all hunkered down for the night in a single tree, glowing orange in the late afternoon light: Proboscis Monkeys go to bed early, presumably to digest the toxic leaves that are their primary diet.



At the other end of the day, Storm's Stork (below) were a regular sight at dawn, in the tops of some of the taller trees. We also found a pair of Lesser Adjutant one morning, as well as a calling Hooded Pitta, Chestnut-necklaced Partridge, Malaysian Blue Flycatcher and White-breasted Babbler. Our night trip wasn't a great success: no cats, unfortunately, but a Reticulated Python and four or five Buffy Fish Owls were good to see.



Black Hornbill

Black-and-Red Broadbill, a riverine forest specialist


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Sabah: Sepilok

After Danum, it was back to Kota Kinabalu for a night, and then a flight to Sandakan and on to Sepilok for a couple of nights. Sepilok is famous for two things: the Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre (of which more later) and the Rainforest Discovery Centre with its canopy walkway, renowned as the best place in the world to see Bornean Bristlehead. I'm afraid I chose a lie in rather than dawn on the canopy walkway, so didn't find any Bristleheads... but it was a nice place to sit and watch the world go by, with Giant Squirrel, Rhinoceros Hornbill and a pair of displaying Crested Goshawks overhead.

Bumped into a few nice reptiles, starting with a Sumatran Cobra on the track as I arrived at my guesthouse, and a couple of cool lizards: the colourful Green Crested Lizard, and a handsome, stripey and, as it turns out, endemic Bornean Striped Tree Skink.



Walking between the RDC and the Orang Utan centre, I passed a small group of weaver nests, four in total, all containing chicks and being visited by adults carrying food. Nice enough... except, according to Susan Myers' field guide to the birds of Borneo, there are no weavers on Borneo. Well... there are now. A population of Baya Weaver was first noticed in neary Sandakan in 2007, and they are obviously doing well: as well as this population, I also noticed nests at a couple of places along the roadside between Sepilok and Sandakan airport.


And so to the main attraction, the Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre. Here, rescued orang utans, often rescued pets or animals orphaned or dispossessed through land clearance for palm oil plantation, are soft-released back into the wild, with regular feedings in the morning and the afternoon each day.

I chose to visit for the afternoon feeding, having been warned that the morning was 'busier'. I'm sure the centre does great work, but the handful of animals who came in for food left me feeling rather sad. One young(ish) male took exception to the presence of a male Long-tailed Macaque and the two had a noisy, violent stand off, coming to blows several times. Meanwhile, a rather depressed looking little female sat quietly munching through over-ripe bananas on the food platform. Back in the carpark, another young female was, most incongrous of all, drinking from the gutters on the roof of the visitor centre. Obviously, for some animals, the return to the wild isn't as easy as for others.

On the up side, there are estimated to be around 80 orang utans now living at liberty in the Kabili Sepilok Forest Reserve, most of whom don't come in for the feeding anymore, who would otherwise have been leading very sorry lives as domestic pets, or worse.





Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Sabah: Danum Valley

A couple of weeks of radio silence, as I've been happily enconced in the rainforests of Borneo (or Sabah, to be precise), one of the world's real biodiversity hotspots.

When asking around, I was told that February was not the best time of year to be visiting Sabah. The rainy season was likely to be in full flood (literally), the birds would all be silently sitting on their eggs and impossible to find, and the leeches would be out in full force.

Well, it did rain, but only very occasionally, and only once was it properly torrential. And true, some of the birds (notably the pittas and pheasants) were pretty hard to find. But I only saw three leeches in 8 days of rainforest-ing, and none of them got a bite. And otherwise, the trip was a great success. Definitely one of the best wildlife weeks I've had...

And so, to the beasts.

The first three nights were spent at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge, in the Danum Valley, famous as probably the single best surviving area of lowland rainforest left in south east Asia. Not a cheap destination by any means, but on this occasion well worth splashing out...

Getting any photos at all in the rainforest is a hard task, what with most things either being in the shade of the forest or high up in the canopy against a bright sky, and I'm amazingly impressed by the people who come back from Borneo with frame filling shots of some of the specialities: I pretty much gave up after the first afternoon. Although, as it happens, one of the real standout highlights of my stay here, and indeed of my time on Borneo, was on that first afternoon, in the form of Abu, a big adult male Orang Utan who was hanging out (literally) just around the corner from my cabin. 14 years after I first visited Asia with the specific intention of seeing Orang Utans and somehow got sidetracked along the way. 


Other highlights were a group of Bornean Bristleheads making their way noisily through the canopy, a bizarre bird that is the only member of a family endemic to Borneo; my first pittas in the form of two Black-and-Crimson Pittas, again endemic to Borneo, at opposite sides of the road, calling to each other; a family group of Maroon Langurs, a handsome, brightly-coloured monkey that is, again, only found on Borneo; a decent crop of trogons, broadbills and hornbills; and some eventful night drives, with two Slow Loris and a Binturong being the cream of the crop, two strange animals that, for some reason, I have long wanted to see.

The Canopy Walkway, a good place to spend a morning or two...

Scarlet-rumped Trogon

Black-and-Yellow Broadbill

My first view of a Rhinoceros Hornbill, one of a pair making a racket as they called from the canopy.

The male, with a dark red eye

and his mate, with a white eye, wondering what all the fuss is about. Unfortunately, the nearby pair of Helmeted Hornbills didn't pose for photos: one of the most weirdly beautiful/hideously ugly birds I've ever seen!