Nature Notes

BY ANGELA HIJJAS

I spent last weekend at the trustees’ retreat for WWF Malaysia in the rainforest of Belum. Despite many hours spent in meetings, we managed some brief expeditions into the jungle. The Lantern Bug, pictured right, was spotted during one such walk.

Lantern bug seen during a walk in Belum rainforest.

The elaborately patterned Lantern Bug (Fulgora spinolae) uses its strange elongated forehead as a sense organ and for balance. It is one of a small group of brightly coloured insects, the lantern bugs, that are particularly diverse in the Belum-Temengor rainforest.

A few days after my return from Belum, on the morning of 17 August, a large python was found stuck in the well at Rimbun Dahan. On placing an escape route of a wooden stake in the well, the snake had escaped by the afternoon. Just goes to show that to see some large wildlife, you don’t have to be in the jungle!

“Reticulated python, Python reticulatus, the longest of all snakes, attains a maximum length of between 10 and 15 m. Its normal prey consists of warm blooded animals from chickens, pigs, goats and monkeys to small deer which it can subdue. The prey is swallowed whole; the snakes’ jaws are not rigidly joined and thus can be stretched wide to accommodate bulky food items. Normally found in the jungle, especially close to water, also in rural and urban settlements. Small pythons can easily be captured and tamed, but adults are dangerous as they can deliver vicious bites, and their powerful coils may be too much for a man to handle. The female python lays from 20 to 50 eggs, rarely up to 100. The eggs adhere together in a mass, which the female coils around and incubates for a period of between 75 and 90 days. Baby pythons look similar to adults and measure about 60 cm in length.”

— Fascinating Snakes of Southeast Asia – An Introduction, by Francis Lim Leong Keng and Monty Lee Tat-Mong.

A new camera with a zoom lens brings us Rimbun Dahan’s very own peanut gallery – a selection of intimate portraits of the local troupe of leaf monkeys.

Dusky or Spectacled Leaf Monkey
Cengkong, lotong bercelak
Trachypithecus obscurus or Presbytis obscura.

Burma and Thailand to Malaya, widespread in forest at all elevations. Coloration is rather variable, most individuals have back and shoulders grey or dark grey, legs and the crest of longhairs on top of the head paler grey, the breast and belly usually appear pale grey or whitish, with a sharp line of demarcation between this shade and the darker back. Distinguishing feature on adults is the bold white interrupted rings around the eyes and a white patch over the mouth, including both lips. In new-born young the fur is pale orange or reddish buff, and the skin of the face entirely pink.

Arboreal in groups of 5 to 20 (the group at Rimbun Dahan is estimated at about 12 adults). Home range of a group is 5 to 17 hectares. When traveling troops usually move in extended line, each monkey following the same general route through the treetops running quadripedally along branches, climbing creepers, or leaping from one tree across to the canopy of the next.

At rest, the long tail hangs straight down and is often conspicuous when the monkeys’s body is hidden. In motion the tail although not prehensile is important in maintaining balance. Natural diet consists of young leaves and shoots; these may be plucked by hand (see image of mother with clasped fist holding leaf), but more often the monkey pulls down leafy branches and browses directly on the terminal shoots (hence the defoliation of the assam gelugor trees at Rimbun Dahan). Oestrus every three weeks, gestation 20 weeks.

The Wild Mammals of Malaya and Singapore,
by Lord Medway, Oxford University Press, 1969.

BY ANGELA HIJJAS

The last month has been stormy at Rimbun Dahan, with rain almost every day.

This Stink Horn fungus was found mid March under a clump of palms. A
saprophytic (parasitic) fungus, it emits an odour that attracts flies that
visit the messy decaying flesh, subsequently helping to disperse the spores.

Order: Pallales
Family: Pallaceae
Genus: Dictyophora (Stink Horn fungi)

(‘A Guide to Tropical Fungi’, Dr. Tan Teck Hoon, Singapore Science Centre,
1990.)

BY ANGELA HIJJAS

Greetings to all for Christmas and the New Year. Our rambutan trees are in fruit and are just the right colour for the season. We have had plenty monkeys around to enjoy the fruit, and interestingly, if not surprising, is the fact that the long tailed macaques eat the fruit weeks before it is ripe, therefore securing an evolutionary advantage over humans who must wait, and most likely miss out. But apparently rambutans are adapted to this predation as well, as I noticed as I weeded lots of quite mature seedlings this morning: they obviously germinate from immature fruit. The fruit is green, but the seed is viable.

As well as the ubiquitous macaques, we have what I thought is the Banded Langur. However I’m not clear on the species differentiation, as this one was photographed on 17th December fits the description of the Dusky Langur. It could be that we have both species visiting occasionally.

Dusky Langur, Trachypithecus obscurus, TL 110 – 115 cm.

Most individuals are dark grey, with paler grey on hindlegs and crown and a pale grey or whitish belly patch, sharply demarcated from darker back. The bare skin on the face is dark grey with bold white interrupted rings around the eyes and a white patch over the mouth. Newborn young are bright golden-yellow, like other Trachypethecus. Call is a loud, double snort or grunt, rendered as ‘chengkong’ in Malay. Occurs in a wide range of habitats from montane to coastal forests including some offshore islands. Feed mainly on leaves, nuts and fruits. In peninsular Malaysia, tends to feed higher and in larger trees than Banded langur, Presbytis femoralis, when both species occur together. Found in troops of about 15 individuals with a single male. Gives birth to a single young after a gestation period of about five months. Range includes southern Myanmar and Thailand, peninsular Malaysia and some adjacent islands.

Photographic Guide to Mammals of South-East Asia, by Charles M. Francis

BY ANGELA HIJJAS

Until the 18th September, the predominant dry, hazy weather prevailed at Rimbun Dahan. Since the coming of the Equinox on about the 22nd September, we have had 309 mm rain in the last 35 days and clear blue skies are once more the norm. The Equinox, when the sun is directly above the Equator, usually brings unsettled weather that could have contributed to the prevalence of the American hurricanes in the last month.

In the last week of October, with the rainy season well under way, we decided to lop branches in the orchard, to give more light to smaller trees and thus encourage them to grow taller. As we dragged branches to a heap, a jungle fowl flew off from under our feet, revealing this nest with five eggs. We immediately moved away, except for a quick photograph, but didn’t see her return to the nest.

The species name is Gallus gallus, the evolutionary ancestor of all domestic breeds of chicken. Unmistakable with long, slender body. The male has bare red facial skin, comb and lappets below throat distinctive. Bright yellow hackles cover neck, breast and upper back; lower back maroon contrasting with reddish orange rump; secondaries largely chestnut; primates blackish. The female crown, head and neck reddish chestnut with dark brown and buff streaks on neck; upperparts dark olive brown, breast chestnut brown merging into olive brown belly; bare facial skin and superficial comb red. Both sexes have dark greyish legs and distinctive white ear patches. Readily intra-breeds with domestic chickens (that are the same species) but progeny usually lack these last characteristics. domestic varieties generally have more prominent combs and lappets. Strong flyers over short distances.

The long dry spell has finally broken: there was no rain at all from 26th July until 18th August, a period of 22 days without rain. Hopefully Sumatra had rain too, to quell the peat fires.

The impressive speciment on the right was seen on a web suspended between two nutmeg trees in Taman Sari, Rimbun Dahan. It is possibly Tetragnatha sp, a large genus containing many long spiders. Tends to be light coloured with a pale yellowish carapace, slightly darker legs, and the abdomen covered dorsally with small closely packed gold or silver coloured plates.

BY ANGELA HIJJAS

Concerns about climate change persuaded me to get a rain gauge and I have been tracking precipitation since March. June is always a dry month and this was no exception with a total rainfall of only 59mm. Rain fell on just 6 days, compared with 14, 15 and 16 of the previous three months, and it was concentrated in two of those days when we had 16mm and 37mm. The garden dried out, many trees shed their leaves, but they did not all respond in sync with others of the same species. Only one of the ten Intsia palembanica, a merbau timber tree of the Dipterocarpaceae family, shed its leaves, and the photo on the right shows the new red growth.

Reasons for this typical coloration of new leaves in the tropics vary, but it is plausible that because red leaves have a higher surface temperature than green, the rate of evapo-transpiration and the deposition of nutrients in the new growth is faster, thus ensuring more rapid growth when the leaves are most vulnerable.

The nesting season is well underway in the heronry at Bandar Tasek Putri to the north of Rimbun Dahan, and west of Rawang. The photo below shows a nest of the black-crowned night heron, one of 39 species identified at the swamp to the left of the access road to the Bandar Tasek Putri housing estate. The developers have built a viewing platform at the roadside for the public to view the birds just meters away, but Selayang Council continues to dump rubbish on the opposite side of this unprotected wetland. Damage to the pandans by the huge numbers of birds is considerable compared with last year, and ultimately the birds will have to move.

The Selangor State government needs to protect similar wetlands to ensure that the birds have alternative sites where they can nest en masse. Birds that nest in isolation, rather than with the huge numbers and species mix at Bandar Tasek Putri, are more vulnerable to predators, hence this preference to nest together. This heronry is believed to be the largest in Peninsula Malaysia and is well worth a visit.

BY ANGELA HIJJAS

We have a large colony of long-tailed macaques in the compound, and they have an interesting social structure. While the adults forage around the trees further afield, they leave the babies in a ‘nursery’ with one or two adults to keep an eye on them. These are not the really tiny ones, but are large enough to play with each other and practice the many skills they will need as adults. One favored location for the nursery is on the ‘assam gelugor’, Garcinia atroviridis, trees outside my bathroom. I think this is because the foliage and branching are dense enough to allow many ready handholds in case of falling. A favorite game is King of the Castle on top of the tree, and as a result the lead shoot is constantly pruned…

Macaca fascicularis or long-tailed macaques, can be distinguished from the langurs by distinctive head shape, more pinkish faces and more muscular bodies. Long-tailed Macaque has the longest tail of any Asian macaque, similar in length to its head and body. Body fur varies from grayish-brown to reddish. In Thailand, these macaques are most common in coastal areas and along large rivers, but farther south they are found in a range of habitats including hill forest, lowland forest, plantations and secondary forest. Diet is omnivorous, including invertebrates such as shellfish or crabs, as well as nestlings, small mammals, fruits and leaves. May become a pest, raiding rice crops, fruit orchards or vegetable gardens and entering towns or houses to scrounge for food. Highly gregarious, being found in troops of up to 70 individuals. Gives birth to a single young after gestation of five or six months. Range is generally south of Rhesus macaque, M. mulatta, in southern Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Philippines.

BY ANGELA HIJJAS

On the morning of 6th April, I took my coffee to my balcony where the sunscreen was down. Just as I went to raise it, I realised monkeys were in the tree immediately outside. They were Banded Langurs, Presbytis femoralis, and thanks to the screen I was able to collect my camera without them seeing me. They are extremely shy and flee at the slightest disturbance. I counted eight, but there could have been more, feeding on the seeds of Terminalia calamansanai, a tall pagoda-shaped tree heavily laden with fruit.

Soon after, I was called outside and noticed our youngest dog Santan carrying an animal that turned out to be a young civet. To be a naturalist and a dog lover is hard sometimes….

This particular specimen was a juvenile female, measuring 63 cm from tail end to ear tip, 9cm from nose to back of skull, with a 32cm long tail.

Common Palm Civet, Paradoxurus hermaphroditus

A widespread civet, varying from olive-grey to cream, with three dark stripes on back and additional dark spots on flanks, sometimes forming indistinct lines. Usually has a dark ‘mask’ highlighted by paler fur on forehead and behind cheeks, and sometimes with a pale spot below eye. Nocturnal and usually solitary, often seen on the ground, but feeds mainly in trees, where it eats fruits and animals. May be an important seed disperser of various forest tree species. Litter size three, born in a den in a hollow tree or under a boulder. Found from India through southern China, throughout mainland South-east Asia, Sumatra, Java and Borneo. Also occurs on the Philipines, Sulawesi and many eastern Indonesian islands where it may have been introduced.

From Mammals of South East Asia by Charles M. Francis.

BY ANGELA HIJJAS

For the first half of February, the weather seemed unusually hot, dry and hazy. Temperatures in KL reached as high as 38C. In the middle of the month the weather broke with windy storms in the late afternoons and night. This morning I walked around the garden looking at broken branches and just relishing the damp again, when I noticed fallen seeds, since identified as Dryobalanops aromatica, known in Malay as kapor. These canopy trees were planted about 12 years ago, and I am delighted to find that they are fruiting so soon, although I have lost several of the original row planted along the length of the front fence to white ants. Ironically, kapor has a strong camphor frangrance and is preferred for making storage boxes that deter insect attack, but the tree itself seems particularly vulnerable. The fruits have five wings that enable the heavy seed to resist falling straight to the ground under the shade of the parent tree. As happened last night, they were dislodged from the tree by the wind and carried at least several meters, although I am unsure which tree produced the fruit. The fruit commences spinning like a helicopter about 1 meter into the drop, and then falls more slowly, carried away by the wind.

The Grammatophyllum speciosa is flowering in its pot in full sun. This is the world’s largest orchid plant, seen in high canopy positions in the forest. The flowers are yellow and brown, so not outstandingly colourful, but a total of 20 infloresences (stalks) makes up for any deficiency. Seed pods are forming, so hopefully the wind will deliver them eventually to new sites for them to colonize naturally. This plant has flowered once before over the 10 years it has been cultivated, but never so prolifically.

The new planting at the back near the tennis court is settling in, but the previous planting done about two years ago is really starting to go ahead. I have planted three Gondstylus bancanus, known in Malay as ramin melawis, in a low-lying position, and they are now about 5m tall. Native to peatswamps from Perak to west Johor, and in seasonal swamps in Selangor, southeast Sumatra, and Borneo, ramin timber is the main variety that has been illegally logged in Sumatra over recent years and exported through Malaysian ports, although there is now some effort to contain this trade.