More mammals in Brunei than whole of Borneo

By Azlan Othman

Brunei Darussalam is known for its pristine environment, rich natural resources and a high percentage of forest cover. A recent study conducted by Universiti Brunei Darussalam 'The Faunal Biodiversity Survey of Sg Ingei Protection Forest' has confirmed that mammals found in the forest are high in number compared to the rest of Borneo. This shows that the wildlife protection in Brunei Darussalam is still comparatively intact.

Minister of Industry and Primary Resources, Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Awg Hj Yahya bin Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Hj Bakar said this at the National Planning Workshop on Wildlife Management in Brunei Darussalam yesterday.

"I believe that if the wildlife management in Brunei Darussalam is improved, the total number of wildlife could be sustained and our forest can be a safe sanctuary for the wildlife.

"Our management capabilities, as far as natural resources management is concerned, continue to develop at par with our regional and international counterparts. Our long-term development plan, Brunei Vision 2035, clearly provides for continuous efforts to conserve our country's remarkable biodiversity, rainforests and natural habitat.

"Thus, the formulation and development of an effective wildlife strategic framework would consolidate all wildlife management initiatives in the country giving specific focus on policy, institutional, research and development, and socio-economic concerns of wildlife resources management," Pehin Yahya said.

The minister also said, towards that end, His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam has consented to the transfer of wildlife matters to the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources in order to strengthen wildlife management and law enforcement considering that the natural habitats of this wildlife are already under the purview of the ministry.

"In view of this new development, it is very important to start with the right steps by inviting participation of our wildlife stakeholders in laying down constructive actions and initiatives needed.

"This workshop needs your constructive input, because the expected output of this workshop is expected to provide cross-cutting initiatives and concerns among development sectors of the country. Your technical and institutional knowledge will certainly guide us in the formulation of effective approaches at the national level and complement our own sectoral initiatives in attaining common objectives and admiration.

"Let us ensure that the output of this workshop would provide us more collaboration to further our research and development activities, economic opportunities and at the same time strengthen our wildlife law enforcement in view of the increasing wildlife crime in the region."

The minister also said that this workshop is very important to realise another milestone in the sustainable management of the natural resources of Brunei Darussalam. The Sultanate represents less than one per cent of the whole island of Borneo and yet its forests are among the richest in the world. This smallness at the same time exceptionally exposes us to environmental and ecological changes. Therefore we need careful and considered policy on wildlife.

Also present at the workshop was YAM Pengiran Muda Omar Ali, Curator of Natural History; Hjh Normah Suria Hayati bte Pehin Jawatan Dalam Seri Maharaja Dato Seri Utama (Dr) Hj Awg Mohd Jamil Al-Sufri, Permanent Secretary at the MIPR; Dyg Hjh Hasnah bte Ibrahim, Deputy Permanent Secretary at the MIPR; Hj Saidin Salleh, Director of Forestry; and other senior officials.

At the conclusion of the workshop, the participants are expected to come up with recommendations for an integrated and holistic management approach for the conservation and protection of the country's wildlife resources that address legal and policy concerns, administration and enforcement, research and development, human resource development needs and socio economic opportunities.

The MIPR through the Forestry Department, Agriculture & Agrifood Department, Museums Department under the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports with the support of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia is organising the national planning workshop.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin
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RM470,000 facelift project for Matang Wildlife Centre

KUCHING: Upgrading project amounting to RM470,000 is in progress at Matang Wildlife Centre as part of an ongoing effort to upgrade the facilities there.

According to conservation manager Abg Abdul Mutalib Abg Tajudin, the main scopes of works for this project are upgrading of the customer service centre, which include the park shop, interpretation centre, audio visual room and meeting room, upgrading of the camping sites and picnic spots and also external works on the trails and walkways.

“Proposed scope of works under the 9th Malaysia Plan in ‘Package A’ for 2011 include the maintenance and upgrade of one unit of hornbill cage, two units of deer enclosure, one unit of mixed bird cage, one unit of stork, owl and eagle cage and also one unit of pig-tailed macaque enclosure,” he explained.

He shared this information during a product visit and briefing organised by Tourism and Heritage Ministry at the Centre here yesterday.

A total of 40 members of Sarawak Tourism Federation and representatives of various travel agencies were in attendance.

They were joined by permanent secretary Datu Ik Pahon Joyik for a tour of the jungle trail there.

Mutalib also informed in the briefing that there is more to come for proposed scope of works for Package B (2012) under the 10th Malaysia Plan.

Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: RM470,000 facelift project for Matang Wildlife Centre

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Capturing carnivores in Kinabatangan on camera

KINABATANGAN: Sabah Wildlife Department, Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), the NGO HUTAN and WildCRU recently launched the “Kinabatangan Carnivore Programme” with funding from four American zoos, Houston, Columbus, Cincinnati and Phoenix, and private donors in New York.

“The Kinabatangan Carnivore Programme, initiated by our Department, will intend to advance understanding, and the conservation, of the diverse carnivores of the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain,” explained Dr Laurentius Ambu, Director of the Sabah Wildlife Department.

“For this, we are collaborating with Andrew Hearn from WildCRU (University of Oxford, UK) who spent the last four years studying clouded leopards and other carnivores in Danum Valley and Tabin Wildlife Reserve. His experience with camera trapping is primordial for the success of this project,” added Ambu.

“It will be a long-term programme which aims to provide insights into Bornean carnivore ecology and density and develop Bornean carnivore species distribution and habitat suitability models,” said Dr Benoit Goossens, Director of the Danau Girang Field Centre.

“It is crucial for us, wildlife conservationists and managers, to find out about what dispersal opportunities exist for these carnivores and other mammals within the fragmented landscape of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, and how might dispersal corridors be protected, enhanced and restored,” added Goossens.

“Last November, we were extremely pleased to find a sequence of 12 pictures showing a clouded leopard female and her cub walking along a trail. These two individuals were also recorded in December on most of our cameras along a thin corridor of forest between the river and a plantation,” explained Rob Colgan and Rodi Tenquist, two undergraduates from Cardiff University, who are spending a year at DGFC during their professional training year and are providing field assistance to the project.

Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: Capturing carnivores in Kinabatangan on camera
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Tiny Borneo bats use carnivorous pitcher plants as living toilets

Birds may bomb cars with airborne droppings, but bats apparently use living toilets made of carnivorous plants, gracing them with their fecal matter, scientists find.

Pitcher plants get their name from the long juglike structures they form from rolled-up leaves. These pitchers serve as pitfall traps, with digestive fluids to liquefy any hapless victims (typically insects) that fall in.

Scientists recently discovered that small mammals known as tree shrews on the Southeast Asian island of Borneo don't end up as doomed victims of the carnivorous plant — instead, they sit on the rims of one such pitcher plant, Nepenthes lowii, and then poop inside.

As ignoble as this might seem, this is a win-win situation for both the pitchers and tree shrews. The plants cover the pitcher lids with nectar that the critters readily lick for nourishment, while the excrement serves as much-needed fertilizer. (This is why carnivorous plantsnormally trap insects — to get valuable nutrients.)

Now it turns out pitcher plantsare not exclusive bathrooms. Scientists have discovered the small woolly bat Kerivoula hardwickii uses a different type of pitcher in Borneo, Nepenthes rafflesiana elongata, as a lavatory and home as well.

Bat roosts

Tropical ecologist Ulmar Grafe at the University of Brunei Darussalam in Brunei first started working on the island of Borneo investigating how tadpoles can survive within the fluid of pitcher plants.

"It was a hot and humid day in the peat swamp forest and a student calls out, 'Ulmar, have a look at this — there's a bat in this pitcher,'" Grafe recalled. "We squeezed it out the top, and it was alive and well, obviously using the pitcher as a daytime roost."

Other people had seen bats roostingin the pitchers but they put it off as coincidental. "We were seeing it too often, however," Grafe said.

The pitchers of N. rafflesiana elongata are actually poor insect traps, capturing up to seven times fewer insects than typical varieties and possessing relatively little in the way of insect-attracting scents and digestive fluid. As such, "maybe the pitchers are modified in a way that attracts bats," Grafe said. "Bat roosting may not be coincidental."

Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: Tiny Borneo bats use carnivorous pitcher plants as living toilets
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Semenggoh Wildlife Centre expects 190,000 visitors this year

THE number of visitors to the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre (SWC) in Jalan Puncak Borneo near Kuching is increasing rapidly and is expected to reach more than 190,000 this year.

SWC manager Jen Sangel said: "In 2008, there were 77,220 visitors and last year we recorded 89,226."

The increase may be due to air fares that were affordable for travel to Sarawak, he said.

Local visitors comprised 60%, including those from Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia, while foreigners made up the remaining 40%.

The foreigners were mainly from Europe, Britain, Australia and the Middle East.

Entry to the centre costs RM3 for adults and RM1.50 for schoolchildren, Jen told StarMetro after briefing Danish Ambassador to Malaysia Svend Waever and his wife Karin Gunilla Waever who visited the centre on Wednesday.

Most of the visitors want to catch a glimpse of orang utans, which are found in the rainforests of Borneo.

Jen said there were 27 orang utans at SWC and two other centres in the state.

The orang utans had names like Aman, Manap, Saddam, Selina, Annuar, Nora, Ritchie, Doris, Delima, Murray, Angku, Sedudu, Baka, Mamu and Ting San, he added.

He said that Aman was blind, but regained her sight after successfully undergoing an operation last year.

Other activities at SWC include jungle trekking (three trails) and bird watching.

Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: Semenggoh Wildlife Centre expects 190,000 visitors this year
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Close encounters with orang utan

Mother and child feeding on the platform

Visitors watching the antics of orang utans from the viewing platform

Visitors being briefed on the rules and regulations by forest ranger Abdul Rahman

A male orang utan on top of a tree

Photos courtesy of and Copyright to NYL and Brunei Press Sdn Bhd.

By NYL

The orang utan was once a common forest dweller in Sumatra and Borneo, but wildlife preservation authorities estimate that only a few thousand survive in the wild today. An adult orang utan requires at least 1,000 acres of virgin forest to subsist; as the habitat dwindles, the orang utan population declines.

Semenggoh Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre (SORC), about 30km south of Kuching, was set up to rescue and rehabilitate orang utan. They were orphaned at a young age or caught by local villagers as pets. Rangers from SORC search areas about to be developed, and respond to tip-offs by locals to rescue endangered or captured orang utan. These orang utan are then brought back to the centre to be rehabilitated.

Rehabilitation is a long and arduous process. At the centre, the orang utans undergo a medical check-up before being quarantined for 90 days to undergo observation.

They are then introduced to the rest of the troupe in large outdoor socialising cages. Swings and ropes are placed in cages for the orang utans to build up their strength and stamina in preparation for their return to the forest. Once they are about five to six years old, they will slowly be weaned off human care and contact, and brought back into the forest in stages.

The orang utans are gradually led to different feeding platforms, where they are fed less and less as they go deeper into the forest. This is to encourage them to learn how to search for their own food, until they can be completely independent of human care.

Being 97 per cent genetically similar to humans, these men of the forest are mischievous creatures and highly intelligent to boot.

Visitors to SORC get to observe orang utan at the feeding stations twice a day.

A 20-minute walk into the centre goes past some excellent landscaped gardens with wildlife in their natural habitat.

Visitors are briefed on the rules and regulations at the reserve by forest ranger Abdul Rahman, who also cautioned them against getting too near the orang utan.

"They look tame and adorable, but orang utan can be mischievous and sometimes aggressive. Hide your food and drinks, and anything that might attract their attention because they will grab things from you," he said.

The ranger also warned visitors from having any physical contact with the apes, and using flash when taking their photographs because it can damage their eyesight.

We walked a short distance through the jungle before we got our first glimpse of them. Orang utan are good timekeepers and as feeding time approaches they start to make an appearance.

Ever so gracefully and without making a sound, a female orang utan slowly started making her way towards us, swinging along the vines about 10 metres above the ground. Soon it became apparent that she had a baby orang utan with her.

She was joined by another female with a baby, descending from a different direction. Both the babies had fuzzy hair and looked very young.

They quietly made their way to the platform where a ranger had left some bananas.

Orang utan are omnivores. They eat both plants and animals like birds and small mammals as well as insects.

At one point the first female walked passed us on the viewing platform and I was within five metres of her. It was a sight I will never forget.

Orang utan are a worldwide endangered species, and SORC plays a crucial role in helping these tree-dwellers survive and return to their natural habitat. However, this cannot be just a one-sided effort, and everyone should take an active interest in this important task.

In addition to the orang utan, visitors will be able to see other endangered species at SORC. The centre has housed a wide range of wildlife, including rescued gibbons, porcupines, crocodiles and river terrapins.

In the surrounding forest, cries of rehabilitated gibbons, as well as the songs of a host of wild bird species can be heard. Brightly coloured lizards and various species of squirrel are also frequently encountered.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin
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