The Majestic Mt. Kinabalu: Fourth Highest in Southeast Asia

Mount Kinabalu The tallest mountain in Malaysia is Mt Kinabalu. It is located in Sabah, also famously known as "The Land Below the Wind" as geographically, it is located below the typhoon belt, and it also is part of the Borneo islands. Standing at 4,095 Meters, Mt Kinabalu is not only the highest mountain in the country but also the 4th highest in Southeast Asia. It is home to a rich and diversified flora and fauna which are unique and cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Climbing Mount Kinabalu is one of the most fulfilling activities....

Leisure Walking at Poring's Treetop Canopy Walkway

I've heard about my friends' and other people's experiences at Poring canopy walkway, how they said it's an experience not for the faint-hearted and height-phobia people. One friend even told me how once a weak hearted lady almost suffered a heart-attack when a squirrel jumped on her head while she was concentrating on crossing the walkway. Before, I tried to imagine and picture myself, tried to feel what it would be like  walking on a walkway that is about 421 meters above sea-level and could feel my hair rising and my goosebumps getting goosebumps. At the time everything...

Borneo Pygmy Elephant

Borneon Pygmy Elephant When the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) carried out a DNA analysis in the year 2003 on the pygmy elephants, it was proven that pygmy elephants are distinct from elephants in other parts of Asia and therefore was recognized as a subspecies. However, scientists are still doubting if the Borneo Pygmy elephant is an animal endemic to Borneo island. They made a speculation that these elephants could originate from Java which they believed was abandoned by the Sultan Sulu in the seventeen century. The Javan elephants has long been extinct on the island of Java. Borneo...

Tarsier, the Unique Nocturnal Primate

Lad, seen here eating insects - picture via Bernama

A palm sized male tarsier (Tarsius Syrichta), a nocturnal primate, was rescued early last month, (March 7). It was found in a new oil palm plantation, on the land owned by villagers who live in the Gomantong (Sandakan district) area.

Saroto Payar, who is the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) field research assistant brought the tarsier to the centre. In order to learn about its home range, it was fitted with a radio collar.

Cardiff University student Alice Miles, who is the head of a project on the ecology of tarsier and slow loris at the DGFC, said the rescued animal was placed in a cage for a day and was given insects before it was set free into the jungle.

“We fitted him with a radio-collar and put him back into the wild. We call him Lad which is short for “ladang” or plantation in Bahasa Melayu, and which also means male in English."

“The next night, we returned to the forest and searched for him with the help of our telemetry equipment."

“Lad was seen at about 150 to 200 metres from where he was freed, looking for food on the ground”, Miles said."

Dr Benoit Goossens, the director of DGFC, said knowing the habitat needs, diet and social organisation of tarsiers is critical to developing conservation policies for tarsiers.

“We have so far, besides Lad, collared another four tarsiers in the area of the field centre in Lot 6 of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary."

“A short while ago, two females were fitted with radio collars allowing us to discover their sleeping sites and map their home range. We hope that Lad will meet one of these two females in the near future,” Goossens said.

He said the nocturnal primate project at DGFC is funded by three American zoos — Columbus, Cleveland and Phoenix.

Source: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/03/12/rescued-tarsier-to-provide-info-on-home-range/#ixzz1sMdynITQ

Sabah More Than 50percent Forested

The State Forestry Department Director, Datuk Sam Mannan said that after the introduction of agriculture to counter the over-reliance on timber, Sabah is still about 60 percent forested.  Between 1970 and 2010, the percentage of deforestation was about 0.5 per cent a year. The height of deforestation happened between 1990 and 2000 during the booming of oil palm industry and this also saw the increase in the number of Orang Utans sent to the rehabilitation centre in Sepilok.  Speaking at the Rainforest Discovery Centre (RDC) in Sepilok, also during the time of Sultan Brunei's visit to Sandakan early...