January Update - Malaysia Tropical Forest Project
Added to website: 22 January 2005
Project Brief
Aim
The Malaysia Tropical Forest Conservation Project is a collaborative project between Coral Cay Conservation and the Department of Wildlife and National Parks. The aim of the project is to conduct rapid biodiversity assessments of different habitats within Setiu Wetlands, in order to compile a detailed species list and highlight the species distributions within this area.
Location
The project moved from the Perhentian Islands to Kampung Betang Lintang, Terengganu, on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, in October.
CCC Partners
CCC is working in partnership with the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Peninsular Malaysia) and Wild Asia.
Terrestrial Science Programme
Baseline Surveys
The third week of January was spent surveying Bukit Dendong (Dendong hill), a nice area of lowland forest situated 6km along the coast, North of Beting Lintang, which had been tempting us for weeks. Although not hugely diverse in terms of bird life, we spotted a couple of new species, which are limited to forest edge and hence had not been encountered at previous sites. Mist netting proved reasonably eventful, notably with the capture of a Stripe-throated Bulbul. There are a couple of great bat caves at the foot of the hill, absolutely teeming with fruit bats - all of whom taunted us by flying around, over and into (but bouncing off of) our nets!
Mammal trapping was rather successful, with a several Common Tree Shrews and Plantain Squirrels being caught (although we are suspicious that the vast number of Tree Shrews caught were in fact one very trap-happy individual which had developed a taste for our peanut butter/porridge oat bait concoction!).
We saw loads of butterfly lizards, which are now absolutely huge and very bright in their breeding colours. Post-Dendong, much bat mist netting was carried out in some nearby scrubland, where anything from 1 to 6 bats have been caught at a time (very cute little fruit bats, which were kept occupied with pieces of orange whilst they were untangled from the nets). We also managed to catch a Large-tailed Nightjar, which was mucho exciting (except for those of us who were stuck at home in bed with a stomach upset!! I’m not bitter).
We completed a new survey site in the mangroves - a very muddy and damp affair! Our boots will never smell the same again. We saw several interesting species including what we suspect were some type of lungfish (which hopped around on the mud flats in a very un-fishlike manner!).
Interesting / Unusual Sightings
We have added 10 new birds to the Species list this month, including a Mangrove Blue Flycatcher, which very obligingly flew into our mist net and allowed us to confirm its existence in the mangroves (it had been flitting about above our heads for days!). We made friends with a pair of Green-billed Malkohas, who sat in a tree right next to us during a point count, (a rare treat for those of us who do not have super amazing zooms on their cameras to actually get a photograph of an animal!). The most unusual looking new bird this month would have to be the very large (especially in the beak department!) and very colourful Stork-billed Kingfisher, which looks rather a lot like it should be in a Disney cartoon!
An Oriental Whip Snake made a rare appearance this week, in honour of our new volunteer, along with a multitude of Changeable Lizards, Sun Skinks and Common Butterfly Lizards - it seems the sudden end to the monsoon season has brought the reptiles out in force.
Environmental Awareness
Capacity Building/Training of Local Counterparts
The local children have continued paying us visits on Saturday afternoons, and have had great fun not only making cardboard butterflies, but also dressing up as them (our ever-entertaining EL joined in and, I suspect, had even more fun than the kids!). They have learnt about the different parts of the butterfly and also the different stages of their life cycle (this time actually acted out by our shy and retiring EL). Great fun was had by all.
Now that the schools are open again, a visit has been arranged for next week to the local primary school (to the huge excitement of all the local 9 year olds), which will involve building on their English (and our Malay!) vocabulary and teaching them about the animals in the local area.
