ITBC's research discussion group: Lanjak-Entimau Expedition Seminar (part 2)

Dear all,

Dr Bakhtiar, Fiffy and Dr Homa will be presenting their LEWS results tomorrow, 4th Feb (Wednesday) at 3 pm, ITBC Meeting Room.

all are welcome. Teas and Coffees will be provided!

Monica
o/b 3Ts admin

Snails from Semporna

The first phase of Semporna Islands snail project have been completed (Mac 2007 – Dec 2007). We found 45 species of land snails and 2 species of freshwater snails in Tun Sakaran Marine Park (TSMP) which consists of 8 islands.

Now, we know the species that can be found in those island. However, we also want to know why these islands are differ in their land snail’s composition? Thus, we begin with the second phase of the project – the snail's ecology and evolutionary biology.

During the last fieldtrip (together with & thanks to boss Hamid, Dato Noramly and Niza), we have started to look at their ecology and behaviour of some species. Also, we brought back some living specimens for some experimental studies. Now, they are being kept in INSECTARIUM.

Amphidromus sp. and its eggs







Obba cf. marginata, In Sabah, this genus only can be found in TSMP. Obba is a very speciose genus in Philippines. How did they get to TSMP?













Look like marine species? But this is freshwater Neritina. Collected during the night - in a small......stream. Had visited the stream twice (Apr 2007 and May 2007) but never seen them.....but found them during this trip (Aug 2008)......strange.....



liew

Looking through the eye of a rhino

You wouldn't see anything great looking through one - just a simple eye that is dark in nature, a little bluish on the sides, more wrinkled skin around it.. then you start to see the rough eyebrow. The animal might've been seeing something else, that was so different, a large eye with another weird  bipedal animal behind it.. and it suddenly burst with a flash, and again!

"Neeeee!" it said.

"niiiih" I said.

Suddenly we were friends.

I visited the recently captured Sumatran rhino who decided to venture out of the smallish Kretam Forest Reserve into an oil palm plantation. Suddenly we became concerned and capture operation was launched - although it failed to create any surprise, not even a tiny bit. "Kretam" walked into the crate. Closed. Lifted onto a truck. Sent to a paddock. Released. No surprise at all.

Only, Kretam is a bloke, hardly capable of becoming pregnant!

Dedi Chandra, a Vet from Way Kambas (Indonesian captive rhino facility) is now with him and taking care of him. Dedi said, looking at his appearance, he might still be reproductively sound. We need a girl for him, obviously. Fiffy, why haven't you visit him?

Top right: Mr Rashid Saburi (Officer In Charge for Tabin WR and Kulamba WR), Dr Dedi Chandra and I, just before I left Tam's paddock Tuesday.

Lower left: Tam's begging eye. This is one of the rare time when people get to see the real color of a Sumatran rhino - otherwise he color will always be "muddy".

Hamid (Still with a little bit of that nostalgic smell)

Journey to Bodgaya

We left IBTP yesterday, about mid morning - late for an east coast destination. There were many stops: Indah Permai (for brunch), Telupid (another brunch - Telupid residents use free water from the hills), check Point (refuel only), Lahad Datu (to buy towels, as always, towels were left at home, just at the place you would have remember to put them into bags, and also to have a little bit of canai roti - I reckon Haruo Sensei speaks a little bit of Malay "Teh O kosong tanpa gula") and Semporna. To be exact, we went to Kalsom's family place.

Wanted to tell about the food we had at kalsom's. The order was done by Kalsom from a phone while driving out of Lahadatu.

Items for order includes:
Tehe tehe
Latok
Ba'at
... and several others.

We had them last night, mostly for the first time. Thanks, Som.

Hamid.

new members

I welcome Liew Thor Seng, May, Jan and Bunga. May is doing the taxonomic works on the climbing perch (Anabas testudineus). Jan and Bunga will work on the ecology of the Bornean wild cattle Bos javanicus lowii in the Maliau Basin - They will work outside of the basin because there is no tembadau in the basin. Both of them (now they are taking another friend with them) will go cattling in the third week of September.

Happy blogging!

Updates on giant reptiles

Dear wildlifers,

Ralf Sommerland (former Chair for Tomistoma Task Force SSC/CSG IUCN) sent us this website on giant crocodiles. I nice reading. Please follow link here http:/madrascrocbank.blogspot.com/.

This is interesting since all "giant crocs" that have been "seen" by people were dubbed as being more than 30 feet long. Paitan residents have seen even larger croc there - 100 feet!

So, how large does a croc get?

Camponotus gigas from Lanjak

Can you the bright yellow femur of this C. gigas from Lanjak Entimau? In many parts of Sabah and other places, femur of this species is normally dark brown.

Camponotus gigas from Lanjak

Dear all,

Camponotus gigas (the gigantic ants common in pristine forest) are different in Lanjak Entimau. They have bright yellow femur compared to the ones in Sabah.

New Specimens

Dear friends,
Petherine has just received 13 soecimens of wildlife (various species) from Wong Siew Te of Danum - who left for the us recently. they are either from roadkills of given to them in danum. The specimens are kept in a frezer in borneensis. We have a problem to identify which freezer to store them - most of them are full of dead animals.

If some of you would need to anything to them, please do and it is good if we will some space in the freezer for future specimens.

Specimens are legal and we have notified SWD for their arrival here.

Hamid.

Featured on BBC

Dear everyone,
just a quick post. There's an article being featured on BBC news at 10, BBC World and BBC 24 about Danum Valley (10th Dec). It was being aired in Malaysia BBC World Channel at 5pm last monday and a longer footage on afternoon news yesterday. Deforestation, logging, rainforests, canopies, global warming and climate change was the main discussion. There's a snippet of me being interviewed while working on top of the tree as well. :D
this is the link to the video Video.

and link to the article
Timber today or climate tomorrow.

Yangtze river dolphin (the Baiji)

The Baiji (Lipotes vexillifer)

Facts:
-estimated 75-150 in the wild.
-endemic to the Yangtze
-Declined from 500 in 20 years
-no captive population
-hard to find/assess

Probs:
-10% of the world's human population lives on the banks of the Yangtze
-pollution from factories
-collision with boat propellers
-fishing
-hard to locate

Proposed solution:
-100 km impounded stretch of th river where fishing would be banned and pollution from the banks controlled
-a 25 km oxbow lake with nets at each end
-captive breeding including 3 pools and a 1 km artificial river has been constructed.


erm...Any other solution??

Ant wet specimens moved to Wet Collection Room

Hassan and I have moved most of the ant wet specimens from Bilik Belajar 3 to the Wet Specimen Collection room, just next to the Isoptera cabinet. All what we need now is to sort and document them. In some cases, we need to identify them too to genera. Thanks Hassan for the help.

News from CPS BORNEO

Hi all...
just to let everybody know that Ms. Milena Salgado-Lynn, a PhD candidate from Cardiff University is here with us for the next few years. Shes going to work in Kinabatangan on primates genetics. If you are anywhere near the CPS BORNEO office, please drop by and said hi.. she very nice and friendly.

Also, I would like to wish 'Selamat Hari Raya and maaf zahir batin' to everybody.

Cheers

Fairus

Which is the specimen?

I went to Sipadan to come face-to-face for the first time with the cooconut crab (Birgus latro). It was first described by Bazin (1970) - Bazin, F., 1970. Étude comparée de l''organe deutocérébral des macroures reptantia et des anomoures (Crustacés Décapodes). Arch. Zool. exp. gén. 111: 245–264.

If you're collecting this one for BORNEENSIS - what is going to happen to the Dynamo washing liquid bottle cap? He looks gorgeous in there, don't you thing so? Furthermore, you don't have to fix the cap with formalin and it goes well with alcohol 75%, too!

WELCOMING NEW MEMBERS

Guys, this is the captain speaking, please welcome our new members:

Pethrine, Buck, Fairus and Dato Noramly.

I hope you guys are comfortable, sit back, relax, enjoy the valley and contribute. This is BV797 operating to somewhere.

Amid

The midget's access to specimens

Guys,
I received some updates from our friends in KL-based unis on the questions of how outsiders had access to specimens from Malaysia.

One of them is like so:

Provide some huge fund.
Use local vendors to buy specimens from locals.
Vendors collect specimens and pay locals.
After some times of accumulation, guys or their worms enter Malaysia using tourist visa.
They acquire the specimens and quickly fly back as quickly as quick tourist will be and...
BINGO!

People would think it will be difficult for midgets to get things out from Malaysia - because the checks at airports are sooooo intimidating. Believe you me, the real problem is actually to collect the bloody specimens.

Just a note to you guys, be a little more vigilant - for all you know, the specimens they are getting are of your own interests.

Hamid.

butterflies

Dear all,

we just received about 600 butterflies specimens from Japan, which were arrived here in kk this morning (4th September - 2.00 am at KKIA).. thank to bak and pak zainal coz willing to help me to pick up the specimens.

to butteflies people... cantikkk tau tak percaya tanya fairus..kan fairus?

The Bambangan

Info:

The bambangan, Mangifera pajang was described by Kosterm in 1849 (previously M. odorata). I have never seen the tree but have certainly seen the fruit. It is now in season. Last time I checked out in Putra Jaya (Telipok), the larger fruit was RM1.50 per fruit and it was large. Bought 2 fruits.

Resepi Jeruk Bambangan

Buka kulit dia. Ko buli jaruk dia sama-sama kulit atau buka kulit juga. Buli main tarik atau main hiris macam kita kupas kulit mangga. Kalau main tarik, kita buat garisan membujur, kemudian tarik tu kulit macam kita buka kulit pisang.

Kemudian hiris isi dia ikut kemahuan kita naaanti bila mau makan tu jaruk. Kalau mau jual, buat nipis-nipis siikit dan jangan buka kulit main tarik. Biar main hiris saja supaya banyak dapat tu jaruk.

Kemudian balah biji dia. Jangan pandai-pandai cuba buka macam kita buka biji mangga sebab biji bambangan ni padat, tiada ruang kosong di celak perikarp biji tu. Balah saja pakai parang basar. Kemudian parut dia punya biji.

Kemudian, ya puan2, tabur garam dan tabur biji yang sudah diparut itu dan gaul. Kalau kita tinggi darah, simpanlah garam tu banyak-banyak, baru kita tau dia punya pukulan.

Simpanlah sampai dia jadi jaruk dan makanlah. Tiada polis mau tangkap.

Centre for Primate Studies BORNEO

Hi guys... just to let everybody knows that I'm hiring both Julia and Sheena as our new research assistants effective on 1st of September. The centre office (the old ID room 4) will be operational on the 3rd of September. The facilities still not complete but everyone is invited to drop by even for a chat. See you there!

Fairus

How do you preserve a slug?

How?

I think I've seen quite a bit of them and indeed are quite diverse in colours, size, forms, at different altitudes.

How do we preserve them?

This is one which I saw in the forest of Danum - didn't take it.

Hamid.