Nature Notes

There are new Dipterocarp plants in the garden. Here are some information about them: Dipterocarpus rigidis is a large emergent tree to 50m tall; local name is keruing cogan, the shape of the leaf suggests the broad spear head (cogan) seen on Malay crests. It is found on the east coast of the peninsula, ...

Panagiotis Spiliotis (b.1991) is a Greek and Irish trained botanist and plant ecologist based in his hometown of Brussels. After graduating from his Master’s degree in plant taxonomy from the University of Edinburgh in 2015, took some time away from studies to pursue other interests and goals, and develop abilities ...

Yesterday, our staff found this dying Barred Eagle Owl on the ground near the front compound. "The barred eagle-owl (Bubo sumatranus), also called the Malay eagle-owl, is a species of owl in the family Strigidae. It is a member of the large genus Bubo which is distributed on most of the ...

Our staff found some lumps of kemian hitam, a type of aromatic resin that came from the rotting wood of Canarium littorale or kedondong bulan which had been struck by lightning a while ago. Half of the tree was killed and rotting on the ground.     The resin has a very nice fragrance when burned. According ...

Another species planted in the early 90s is Dryobalanops aromatica,  common name kapur, now old enough to present the typical shaggy purple-brown bark.    

In April, we had a massive flowering of Shorea materialis, commonly called "balau pasir", on one of several huge trees planted in the early 90s. Now we have a crop of tens of thousands of seedlings carpeting the ground. Norsham Yaakob has already taken over a thousand to grow on at ...

Rimbun Dahan can be paradise for snakes... or the last thing a snake ever sees. This month, one lucky python was hauled out of the hen house and taken away to a new home, but things didn't turn out so well for a cobra which strayed near the main house. ...

Photos coming soon.  

The Rimbun Dahan dogs cornered this small specimen in a drain and dispatched it, but not before it reared, displaying the diagnostic cobra's hood. The single circular marking on the back of the head identifies it as the Monocled Cobra, Naja naja kaouthia, a venomous snake which is fairly common, ...

Sometimes the garden gets away from us, and periodically we focus on different areas to clean up, prune and remove things. This was the objective in the front area, between the house and the front fence in October. Although we frequently lose trees, others are growing well and developing tall ...

We had to fell a 23-year old Hopea odorata in July as it was threatening to fall on either Kak Putih's house or the spare staff cottage: the main trunk had split into two leaders, neither strong enough to carry the weight of branches and wind. Soon after palnting these ...

This morning we had a snake alert: python in the hen house, again! This time three dead birds, one already consumed, two lined up ready to be eaten. When the snake was bagged, Lubis estimated its weight at 6 kilograms, including the eaten chook, as it didn't have the amazing ...

The otters are back, and they are bristling! Having been our occasional visitors for a few months, we are no longer surprised by the odd spraint by the side of the swimming pool, but so far direct contact between humans and otters at Rimbun Dahan has been rare. This morning ...

Over the new year, we restocked the reflective pool between the main house and the guest house with baby koi. At the time, the reflective pool was home to a vast hoard of black tilapia, as well as five or six mature koi over a foot long. Shortly after the introduction ...

With the La Ninya weather this year, we have had constant rain and virtually no rainy season, but a few things in the garden are flowering at the moment. Alstonia angustiloba, the common pulai tree (left), initiated this feature on current flowering as one of our trees was laden and the fragrance permeated the plaza, but ...

The louvred sculpture by Darwin artist Brian Ash was destroyed in early February by strong winds that broke a branch from one of the Shorea materialis trees near the front fence. Asialink resident artist Brian Ash created this untitled work in 1999 from aluminium and mirror louvres to reflect the ...

The 16th of December was a red-letter day for birdwatching at Rimbun Dahan -- we got our first good photographs of a barred eagle-owl. Our first sighting of this impressive predator had occurred at dusk several days before, when the alarm screeches of drongos alerted us to its presence in ...

The stormy season is in full sway in mid November with rain every day; often it's dark by 5 as the clouds close in and the dogs all go to ground. It's a wonderful time for the garden, although it has its dramatic moments. Lightening strike is something I have long ...

A Lime Butterfly, Papilio demoleus malayanus, was resting on the glass door of Rochelle and Monika's studio, and was much admired by all. Unfortunately for the butterfly, 5 minutes after it posed for photographs, a cheeky gecko came and ate it. This, a familiar butterfly of gardens and villages, is one of ...

According to Wikipedia, The Black-thighed Falconet (Microhierax fringillarius) is one of the smallest birds of prey. It is typically between 14 to 18 centimetres long. It can be found in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. It breeds in tree holes. It feeds on small birds and insects. The typical habitat ...

September 2009 BY ANGELA HIJJAS Shorea acuminata, meranti rambai daun, is in the red meranti group of Shoreas. It is a tree of the southern half of the peninsula, most common in Negeri Sembilan and Melaka. It prefers low lying well-drained land and is often the most abundant meranti in the forest. Although greatly ...

by Angela Hijjas We already have two species of primates at Rimbun Dahan, without counting humans -- the common, gregarious and inquisitive long-tailed macaques, Macaca fascicularis, and the shy and retiring langurs who frequent the treetops in smaller family groups. We have had occasional sightings recently of a pig-tailed macaque, Macaca nemestrina, ...

by Angela Hijjas No sooner did the pig tail macaque make an appearance than a real one pig came along -- a baby wild boar, Sus scrofa, separated from its mother. The dogs cornered it apparently but because it bites they didn't want to know much more about it. Sham, our handyman, ...

by Angela Hijjas May is nesting season, and we have sporadically heard and seen the Blue-winged Pittas that successfully bred two years ago in Rimbun Dahan. According to Jesmi the gardener, there are at least four individuals that call to each other from the depths of the garden. We hope to ...

by Angela Hijjas The only good Acacia… … is a dead Acacia? Not this time…. In the middle of a traffic interchange on the Guthrie Corridor just near Rimbun Dahan, a solitary Acacia is hosting about eight Baya Weaver nests (Ploceus philippinus). In a completely open space, surrounded by what Guthrie considers ...

by Angela Hijjas A small group of Oriental Pied Hornbills (Anthracoceros albirostris convexus) has recently been seen around Rimbun Dahan. Like all hornbills, they have large bills topped with a hollow casque. This species is resident up to 150m, where it frequents forests, the forest edge, plantations and beach scrub. Although ...

Our snake of the month is the Copperhead Ratsnake (Elaphe radiata Boie 1827), otherwise known as the Radiated Ratsnake. A fine specimen of this large non-venomous snake, over a meter long, was found this week in one of the artists' studios. Copperhead Ratsnake According to Klaus Dieter-Schulz, who has published a monograph ...

November has been wet. Last night we had 35 mm of rain in an hour, and over the month a total of 437 mm, and still one day to go. Since we started recording rainfall in 2005, the wettest month ever was in November 2006 with 446 mm, and November ...

BY ANGELA HIJJAS The main objective in the planting programme at Rimbun Dahan is to develop the highest canopy possible, not always easy when trees tend to branch out as soon as they reach clear light. To encourage monopodial structure for as long as possible, we prune side branches and force ...

Just when you thought we couldn't have more pictures of snakes eating things -- here's another scaly individual, possibly a rat snake or a bronzeback, gorging on a lizard, right near our front door! Photos by resident artist Oceu Apristawijaya. We are also raising a new clutch of chickens... just 15, ...

A critically endangered species, Shorea sumatrana was one of the first Dipterocarps planted at Rimbun Dahan, probably in 1992. It is now flowering for the first time, and although we have had Dipterocarps flower before, they have always been more common species like Hopea odorata or Shorea roxburgii, species that ...

BY ANGELA HIJJAS Oriental whip snake Ahaetulla prasina Mildly venomous The brilliant green of this snake drew my attention to it as I walked through a deeply shaded area of the garden; fortunately it stayed motionless for the camera and the dogs didn't disturb it.  They are mainly tree bound but can sometimes be ...

BY ANGELA HIJJAS The call of the blue-winged pitta can be heard all over the garden, and occasionally we catch the flash of its brilliant wings in the Taman Sari. Jesmi the gardener discovered their nest in an abandoned woodpile in the garden, and watched the birds fly in and out ...

BY ANGELA HIJJAS This specimen of Python reticulatus, about 3m long, was caught in the hen house, along with two dead chickens, one of which had been eaten. In an attempt to escape, the python then regurgitated the chicken it had eaten. Some time later, the python was still in the ...

Over the course of seventeen years, the constant planting, pruning, sun and rain have done their work in the garden at Rimbun Dahan. What was once hot bare expanse has become cool and crowded with greenery, as the before and after images below show. The view above, taken from the dining ...

BY BILQIS HIJJAS Over the last few weeks, four new bird species have been spotted in the garden at Rimbun Dahan. The first, and the one with the closest encounter, is the Rufous Woodpecker (Celeus brachyurus), pictured below. This specimen was found dead on the driveway and covered with ants -- an ...

BY BILQIS HIJJAS Within the last week, we have had a number of sightings of a Blue-winged Pitta, Pitta moluccensis, in the Taman Sari area next to the main house. We witnessed the pitta at midday and in the evening industriously hunting for worms which it found plentiful in the exposed earth of ...

BY ANGELA HIJJAS On 23 June, a Black-Crowned Night-Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, was seen roosting over the pond at Rimbun Dahan. According to A Field Guide to the Birds of West Malaysia and Singapore (Oxford), by Allen Jeyarajasingam and Alan Pearson, the night-heron inhabits mangroves, rice fields, inland freshwater swamps. It is largely nocturnal but also ...

BY ANGELA HIJJAS More than 10 butterflies were enjoying the nectar from a Hoya carnosa, which was flowering for the first time, in the Taman Sari on Tuesday. At least four species of butterfly were feeding on the plant, each butterfly staking out its own umbrel of the pink and white flowers. The butterflies ...

Cryptocoryne minima, an exceptionally rare water plant, was recently found in the Sungai Buloh Forest Reserve, and some of it has been moved to the water garden at Rimbun Dahan. The Curator of the Fresh Water Plant Collection at Zoo Negara, Mr Herman Bernard, retrieved the plant with volunteers from ...

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 ...

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, ...

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: ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

BY BILQIS HIJJAS Two water monitors (Varanus salvator) or biawak were witnessed mating in the reflective pool in the late afternoon on 10 January 2005. The pair were causing quite a ruckus, thrashing and rolling in the water, and were not at all disturbed by the barking dogs, or my mother and ...