Gaya Island is big. If you walk inside its forest, you would not believe that you are on an island.
Below are photos of what I saw along the jungle trail there. The cup fungi is so cute. I am quite curious what function its hair has.
You can find many snails on the forest floor. They seems to be more sensitive than normal garden snails, probably they smell the insect repellent on my skin. It is so warm and humid in the forest. No wonder people call it rainforest, I sweat like rain.
Mangrove forest near the beach area, with some rubbish trapped between their root.
This hermit crab as big as my fist. When I held its shell, it slipped its body out of its shell
and ran away nakedly.
Very often you will hear red skink lizard running on the dry leaves when you approach. They are not only commonly found here, you can see many of them in inland forest too. They have beautiful red skin.
There were about a dozen of bats roosted under a big rock. They kept an eye (or an ear?) on me. The photo below shows them in an alert and ready-to-fly-away mode.
The ranger at Padang Point showed me an antique they dug out from the ground during site construction. It looks like an old machine left behind by British and its function is unclear. Do you know there is another “Gaya Island” in Semporna? Note its mountain looks like the face of an old man.
I had seen proboscis monkeys in Klias Wetland, Kinabatangan and Lokkawi Wildlife Park. The Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary in Sandakan is one of the best spots to see them. During the feeding time at 11:30am and 4:30pm, you can a few families (about 30) of them come for the food.
BTW, you also can see many Silver Leaf Monkeys around that area. The people here also call them “Beckham” monkey (probably Beckham looks like them). Proboscis Monkey has nicknames such as “Long-Nosed Monkey” and the “Dutch Man” (Monyet Belanda). The male has bigger nose than the female, and they use their big and long noses as a sex tool to… to… to attract the female. I wonder how do they kiss huh.
Like many other primates, the proboscis monkey family is formed by a few wives and a dominant alpha male. Proboscis monkey is one of the biggest monkeys in the world. Besides their big noses, another thing that makes them very unique is their digestive system. The stomach of Proboscis monkey contains the special bacteria that can digest the cellulose and detoxify the harmful chemicals in the leaves. Proboscis monkey can’t eat banana. Anything with sugar will make the bacteria works very fast, causing fermentation that produces too much gas in their stomach, which can make them very sick. In serious case, the excessive gas will pressure the organs surrounding the stomach, the consequence can be fatal. So the park feeds them with bean, cucumber and sugar-free pancake. In the wild, they eat young mangrove leaves, which can be toxic to other species.
For diet of wild proboscis monkey, 66% are young leaves, 26% are fruit and 8% are flowers, a total of 188 plant species from 127 genera, 55 families. They also eat termites.
After the meal, they will become horny and have some “fun.” By looking at the expression of the female monkey below, you can tell that she is really enjoying.
Another thing that amazes me is the “lipstick” between the legs of fully grown male proboscis monkey. It is red hot and pointing at 12’O clock, always in ready mode to serve his wives. Basically, the male is having a lifestyle and penis that every man on earth dreams of. Proboscis monkey is endemic to Borneo, currently there are only 6,000 proboscis monkey left in Sabah, less than 1,000 in Sarawak, less than 300 in Brunei and about 5,000 (need further study) in Kalimantan.
There were some lonely male proboscis monkeys, which don’t have any wife, tried to share the food with other groups. They usually ended up being chased away by the alpha male of other groups. According to the guards, those bachelor proboscis monkeys would form a “gay group“. They don’t really do those gay stuffs. They just group together temporarily for food and protection. One day, they may challenge the alpha male in other group, win the fight, take over all his wives and start his own family.
FYI, based on the observation by Dr. Ikki Matsuda, the following is how proboscis monkey spends its time: Resting: 76.4% (wow! what a life) Feeding: 19.5% Moving: 3.5%
Don’t forget to check out the high quality photos of proboscis monkey in my photo gallery.
Not really a forest. I just took a walk in nearby jungle of Mai Aman, a Papar homestay centre, which is located 35KM away from KK city (you can see the sign at the left when you drive from KK to Papar town). Most visitors would be attracted by the fish ponds there, but I was very curious about the strange tall trees at the far end of this centre.
Actually those are mangrove trees. They also can grow in water or wetland, but they look very different from the mangrove trees that live in swampy area between sea and river. According to Uncle Robert, these are the more “inland” type of mangrove trees. The weird shape of their root helps them anchor firmly in the water. Odd but beautiful…
When I got closer to check them out, I found a nice pitcher plant grew next to one of the trees. I am not a botanist, so I don’t know its species. It looks like Nepenthes mirabilis.
Mai Aman is also a place where we can relax and enjoy the freshwater fishes caught from the pond. I tried the Tilapia fish. Usually freshwater fishes got a bit of smell of mud, but surprisingly, I could not taste that. According to Uncle Robert, this is because the water of the fish ponds is from the fresh and clean stream from the hill nearby.
After lunch, I continued my jungle trekking at the hill. I was told that if you find fern in the hill, you could also find pitcher plant grew among (or under) them, but you had to be very observant. After nearly an hour of searching, finally I spot it. It got easier when I learnt where it grew, and I found 2 species of them.
For me, it is far more exciting to see pitcher plant, than seeing them in the garden. There are 2 main types of pitcher plant, i.e. “Upper” and “Lower”.
Below is an example of “upper” pictehr plant. It grows on higher spot and usually slimmer. It feels like paper when held in hand (Note: I didn’t pluck any of them for photo-taking). I tried to look for its species name in the book but couldn’t find it. It could be a hybrid of two species. I am guessing only.
Another picther plant species I find is Nepenthes hirsuta, an example of “Lower” picther plant. It grows under other vegetation so it is even harder to spot. Lower pitcher plant uses ground to support its body (with bigger capacity), unlike upper pitcher plant which hang from the leaf. Lower pitcher plant has 2 hairy lines (called wings) along its body.
Not bad huh… I find 3 species of pitcher plant in a day. Mountain and beach forest also got very different types of pitcher plant. I will find to photograph them and share the photos in future. There are only 20 species of pitcher plant in Sabah, but it is not easy to see all of them.
This was the only day people were so happy to see garbage. I would say it is the dirtiest race in Sabah. To win, you have to walk in the smelly mud and pick up all the rubbish. The rubbish hunting is just one of the programme of World Wetland Days at KK Wetland Centre (formerly KK City Bird Sanctuary).
Wetlands means the area covered by water, for example, rivers, lake, mangrove forest, peat swamp forest, flood plain… World Wetlands Day, which falls in Feb every year, is one of the biggest international events for environmental organisations, to remind people to protect wetlands. Before you think that wetland conservation is not important and none of your business, let me tell you that wetlands are the sources of our drinking water, fishes, food and even tourism income (FYI, the long-nosed proboscis monkeys need mangrove forest to survive). Well, the rivers might flow as usual, but we can’t see there would be a ecology “desert” under the water, caused by pollution.
There were 47 teams, each with 4 persons, from 13 secondary schools joined the garbage collection competition. Like Amazing Race, they were given an envelop, which states the assignment they need to complete to move on to next round. Besides solving puzzle, each individual needs to collect a minimum 1.5kg of garbage.
At the end, everyone was “overquota”. In an hour, nearly 300kg (47 teams x 4 pax x 1.5kg = 282kg) of garbage was collected. (Leaves, branches and stone are not considered as garbage in this race). I was so touched to see the students didn’t mind getting themselves dirty to clean up the
place. There are still hopes…
Do good to nature, and it will do good to us. Do bad to nature, and it will take revenge, if not now, it will do it to our future generation. We don’t need to take a training to learn how to keep our environment clean. The secondary textbooks already told us not to litter, so throwing junk everywhere is just a pure act of irresponsibility and selfishness as they won’t do this to their house. I had seen so many times the rubbish was dumped out of the window of *expensive* cars. I will be very pleased to see those riches and “educated” people are penalised to do social service, wearing the litter bug costume and sweep garbage on the street. I am seriously thinking of starting a new web site, which displays the car plate numbers of those litter bugs.
The collection is impressive… We found shoes, slippers, grass bottles, broken bulbs, plastic bags, foam… and WOW… we also got gas tank and refrigerator (see photos below). Ini memang “Sabah Boleh” lah!
Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
Finally, after month of waiting, I got a new telephoto len (EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, roughly equal to 14x optical zoom) for my Canon 400D. Happily I tried to take some pictures of bird-bird. In fact, it is better to have at least a 400mm++ len (something that can cost more than my whole year salary) to photograph birds. The photos below are after big cropping, only good for identification and web graphic. I might be better off using digiscoping…
If you go to KK Wetland Centre (formerly KK City Bird Sanctuary), you have almost 100% chance seeing the bird-bird below. Unlike the friendly sparrows and pigeons who like to shit on your cars, these wild birds flee before we can get close enough to ask them to say cheese.
1. White Collared Kingfisher (Halcyon chloris)
Don’t know why. Kingfisher is always the favourite subject of photographers. This one was about 25 feet away from me, so the shot is quite ok.
2. Ashy Tailorbird (Orthotomus cuculatus)
Sometimes I feel like throwing stone at this bird (just kidding). I have been trying very hard to take its picture, but it was almost impossible with my compact camera that needs 2, 3 seconds to focus. Ashy Tailorbird never stops. They fly from one tree to another, jump from branch to branch quickly.
3. Great Egret (Egretta alba)
This is not the egret you always see in longkang. It is bigger and has a distinct “S” neck. Too bad the detail of its feather is lost in the highlight area. Probably this is caused by what they call dispersion, a common problem of a cheap telephoto len at high zoom.
4. Green Imperial Pigeon (Ducula aenea)
Not sure if I got its name right coz it was 100 feet away from me. It is 2 to 3 times bigger than normal pigeon. I was using maximum zoom. Without a tripod, IS (Image Stabilizer) also cannot help much to prevent blur image.
5. Common Greenshank (Tringa nebularia)
According to book, Common Greenshank is migratory bird. We only can see them between Sep and Apr. But I see them in the park all year around. Probably some of them have become the permanent resident of Sabah.
6. Common Iora (Aegithina tiphia)
Beautiful bird… They are quiet and hide among the leaves. Not common to see them in open space. I got this shot from the observatory tower.
Overall, the performance of my new len is so-so. Canon claims its IS (Image Stabilizer) works as good as other models, but I think a monopod or tripod is highly recommended for use in higher zoom. The len got a plastic look. Without USM (UltraSonic Motor), the focusing is slightly noisy. Due to its small aperture, it only performs under good lighting condition. It costs me RM900, which is considered very cheap if compare with another model that I wanted to get earlier (300mm f/4.5-5.6 zoom len with IS, RM2,300+). Well, with a price tag lower than RM1K, it does an adequate job, though not impressive but not too bad either.
Photos taken in KK Wetland Centre, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
This creature is commonly mistaken as a crocodile when it is fully grown to 3 Metres long. Local Chinese calls them “4-leg” snake and Malay calls them Biawak. In Sabah, we can see Monitor Lizard (species name: Varanus salvator) everywhere, mangrove forest, wetlands, rivers, forest, sea and even longkang (drain) in the city.
They are good swimmer, climber and runner. Monitor Lizard is so alert and timid that they run before we have a chance to look at them clearly (many tourists thought they saw a croc). I spot them everytime I went to the mangrove forest. I consider the two photos below are something really need some luck to get.
This 6-feet lizard was less than 10 feet away from me, in an open space and under sunlight. The body, curved claws, skin texture are so clear. It was so cooperative that I doubt it was posing for my camera.
The juvenile Monitor Lizard has small and bright yellow spots all over its body, like the photo shown below. These beautiful spots will disappear once they grow up, and their skin will turn to grey or dark brown colors. They seem to eat anything, so they can live happily in urban area and become a city scavenger. Such strong adaptability makes them hard to enter the list of extinction.
In wetlands, they are the second predator next to crocodiles. They are luckier than the nearly-extinct crocodiles, maybe most people do not appreciate their meat. Yes, monitor lizard is edible. I tried the “lizard soup” once but never learn to love it, though it didn’t taste bad at all. I once had a neighbour who liked to eat lizard so much. At that time, to “fish” a monitor lizard was so easy. Just use fresh chicken intestines as bait on fishing hooks, put it on a styrofoam (so the fishes and crabs can’t reach it) and let it floats on the water, very soon a lizard soup will be served on your table.
Monitor Lizard never attacks human unless threaten. Once caught by fishing hook, it will become very fierce, hiss loudly like a giant snake. The big one can reach 25kg in weight, so you have to use the strongest fishing line and be prepared to wrestle with it for a while. Its teeth are also very sharp. Some lost their fingers while catching them. If you lock it in a normal chicken cage, it would bite a big hole and run away. Probably that’s why I haven’t seen anyone keeps monitor lizard as a pet.
Biawak is not a Buaya lah.
Many are still confused…
Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
I took a lot of photos of fiddler crabs. During the photography, I also saw other interesting crabs. One of them posted on the Digital Camera Malaysia magazine. Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure. But none of them seems to be edible.
The first one is a mud crab commonly found in mangrove forest. You can see them easily on the mangrove roots of muddy area. Sometimes, they may come to your drain after the flood. The pattern on its shell looks like a face.
The one below found at the river bank of a mangrove forest. Its “robotic” look may remind you of the combat robots in Japanese anime.
Mud crabs eating mangrove fruit. I never tried the mangrove fruit, but it looks tasty to the crab.
Everyone in KK has seen this crab. The tiny sand balls on Tanjung Aru beach are made by this small crabs. It is soldier crab if I am not mistaken.
This crab is beautiful. Note its red claws and yellow eyes that look light bulb.
Tree climbing crab (probably Cardisoma carnifex)? I saw it on a mangrove tree once. It is the ugliest crab that I’ve ever seen. Most crabs have flat body and distinct edge. This one looks more like a hard bun. If you ask a small kid to draw a crab, his drawing will look like the crab below. It is quite big and you can “see” that its shell is very hard.
Where is the BEST place to spot Borneo wildlife? I would say it is the Lower Kinabatangan area, Sabah’s “Gift to the Earth”. Kinabatangan River, with a length of 560KM, is the longest river of Sabah and also the home of many wildlife such as Borneo pygmy elephants, proboscis monkeys, orang utans, hornbills and probably thousands of flora and fauna yet to be named. It is a paradise for nature lovers.
Uncle Tan’s Wildlife Camp, situated in Lower Kinabatangan Flood Plains, provides budget and basic accommodation for those (especially backpackers) who love to experience the wilderness of Borneo. Officially, the Camp area is called “Danau Girang”, which means “Happy Lake” in local language. Many just call it Uncle Tan’s place. To get there, check out Uncle’s Tan web site for more info. In early Sep, I joined this 3-day-2-night trip with a group of press and environmental NGOs. We took a bus to Sandakan and stopped at Kampung Batu Putih, where we took a 1-hour boat ride to Uncle Tan’s Wildlife Camp.
The cruise to the camp is in itself a afternoon river safari. We were impressed by number of long-nosed Proboscis monkeys, hornbills and birds that we spotted along the river. According to a birdwatcher on the same boat, some of the birds we saw are rare species. Hundreds of macaque monkeys were found gathering along the river bank, hmmm… having a picnic?
Proboscis monkeys are so common here. They are very shy and timid. When our boat came nearer, they would run away or hide behind leaves and branches. The guide told us that Proboscis monkey cannot eat banana coz their digestion system is different. We also discovered a few young crocodiles resting on the muddy river bank.
The weather was good, and we arrived the jetty of Uncle Tan’s place at 5:10 PM. Once landed, we were led by their friendly staffs for a 10-minute walk on the jungle trail to the camp. Later what we saw in front of us was not chalets or lodges, but some wooden raised huts. I think they really mean it when they say they only provide very basic accommodation.
Our “bedroom” has no window, no door, no fan. Haha… It looks more like a big chicken cage to me. What we got is a light mattress and mosquito net. Power supply is only available from 6PM to 12AM, mainly for lighting. It was warm and humid in the afternoon, but quite cooling at night. The first night I really couldn’t sleep well, as I heard all sort of noise such as animal’s cry, stuff crawling on the roof, something scratching the wall… But all my roomates slept soundly…
Later there are more fun surprises awaiting me. You will hear more in my next blog. Since there are quite a lot of experience to be shared, I divide the blog into 9 parts. But all the photos are posted first. To speed up page loading, all the photos in my blog are in low quality, to see the high quality photos, please check out the photo gallery.
Photos taken in Lower Kinabatangan, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
