Naturalist Wallace’s Sarawak experience retraced

KUCHING: Most Sarawakians do not realise that in Kuching they are basically following the footsteps of Alfred Russel Wallace.

But who is Wallace?

Wallace is one of the two founders of the theory of evolution by natural selection. The other one being Charles Darwin.

Wallace is best remembered in the Wallace Line, a zoogeographic boundary separating Australia from South-East Asia.

Wallace’s independent discovery and publication of evolutionary theory in 1858 is said to be equal to Darwin’s.

On his travel as a free-lance collector of natural history specimens, Wallace first went to the forests in the Amazon and to the Malay Archipelago (Malaysia and Indonesia), including Sarawak.

An ecologist with the Sarawak Forestry, Rambli Ahmad recently shared his adventure in retracing Wallace’s actual footsteps in Sarawak and United Kingdom, the scientist’s home country.

Rambli’s talk entitled “Following the Footprints of the Great Naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace in Sarawak (1854-56), was to inspire listeners into appreciating Sarawak’s place in one of the most important events in the science.

Wallace spent 14 months in Sarawak (November 1, 1854 to January 25, 1856), a longer stay than at any other destination during his travels in the Malay Archipelago.

Rambli noted that Wallace’s insect collecting in Sarawak was extremely productive, amounting to some 25,000 specimens.

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Malaysia saves endangered pygmy elephant on Borneo

Malaysian wildlife authorities said they had rescued a pygmy elephant calf on Borneo island and expressed hope a planned sanctuary would provide protection for the endangered animals.

The male calf, which is less than a month old, was pulled out of a deep moat surrounding a palm oil plantation in remote Sabah state on Friday, said Sen Nathan, a senior official with the Sabah Wildlife Department.

It is the fifth calf rescued by wildlife officials since 2009. Three of those previously saved have died but a female has recovered and is now at a wildlife park.

There are fewer than 2,000 Borneo pygmy elephants left in the wild, according to authorities. A sub-species of the Asian elephant, the creatures have a rounded appearance and are smaller than mainland elephants.

The latest rescued calf, which weighed about 50 kilograms (110 pounds), was in a serious condition, Nathan told AFP.

"He suffered severe dehydration and cuts and abrasions, probably while trying to get out of the moat," he said.

The elephant's mother was probably forced to leave it behind after the pair fell into the moat, and the calf likely spent more than a day there before being spotted by plantation workers, he said.

Nathan said a planned elephant sanctuary on 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) of land within the 26,000-hectare Kinabatangan wildlife sanctuary in Sabah would help protect the animals.

Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: Malaysia saves endangered pygmy elephant on Borneo

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Where is Borneo?

Exactly where is Borneo?

I was asked that question repeatedly after visiting there in 2010 and sharing amazing photos of wildlife and outdoor adventures with friends.

Borneo is actually the third-largest island in the world, situated in the center of Southeast Asia just east of Singapore and southwest of the Philippines.

Technically known as Kalimantan, Indonesia owns a lion's share of Borneo. The northern edge, which is also the most visited and developed, is owned by Malaysia. Made up of two states, Sarawak and Sabah, Malaysian Borneo is an outdoor lover's dream.

Tiny Brunei -- an oil-rich, independent country -- separates Sarawak and Sabah in Malaysian Borneo. With a population of just over 400,000, Brunei is famous for being the most Islamic country in Southeast Asia, as well as for the fact that citizens do not pay taxes there. The government is funded by oil and natural gas, which makes up for 90% of the GDP.

Arguably one of the wildest places on Earth, Borneo is unfortunately also one of the most rapidly deforested places on the planet as well. Logging has dwindled down once-pristine rainforests to make way for sprawling palm oil plantations. Palm oil turns up in a wide range of products from chocolate to cosmetics.

Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: Where is Borneo?
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Tourist influx begins in Brunei

By Fadhil Yunus

Brunei received a significant tourism boost as a chartered flight carrying 284 tourists including a toddler and a six-year-old child touched down at the Brunei International Airport last night.

It is also the largest group of tourists from either Taiwan or China travelling to Brunei during the Chinese New Year 2012 celebrations.

The tourists, who will be separated into eight groups, will be staying at the Radisson Hotel while some will be at The Empire Hotel and Country Club, said one of the tour guides from PJ Majestic Tours.

When asked through an interpreter what the Taiwanese tourists are planning to do or see in Brunei, most of them said that they wanted to meet singer-turned-actor Wu Chun. They also said that he is extremely popular back in Taiwan.

The majority of the tourists also said that this was their first time in Brunei and are excited to learn more about the country.

Upon arrival, they were greeted by representatives from the Tourism Development Department. Eight tour guides from PJ Majestic Tours will be with the tourists for the entire duration of their stay.

More flights are scheduled to arrive in Brunei starting tonight until January 28 bringing in nearly 1,400 tourists.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin
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Extinct Dracula monkey found in Borneo

The humidity was oppressive and the leeches insufferable as an expedition led by Simon Fraser University PhD student Brent Loken waded into the jungles of the Wehea Forest in eastern Borneo.

Loken sought to document the forest's biodiversity and help the indigenous Dayak people advocate for its legal protection against Indonesian development for palm oil plantations, coal mines, or logging.

With remote cameras set up in the forest near two mineral licks, Loken had hoped to obtain photos of the elusive and littleknown clouded leopard.

What he got was a monkey--the Miller's grizzled langur--so rare that scientists consider it to be teetering on the edge of extinction. Even rarer, the discovery occurred where the monkey, which some say looks like Dracula, had not historically been documented.

"We knew we had something special," Loken, 40, recalled Thursday in an interview. "We knew it was unique because it is a very distinct-looking monkey."

The langur has a dark face, light front, grey back, and long tail. "The only descriptions came from museum specimens from the 1940s and '50s," he said. "Our pictures are some of the only ones we have."

Loken lives in Squamish and is finishing his PhD in resource and environmental management at SFU.

He is a former high school chemistry and physics teacher from Iowa who took an interest in Borneo during a visit in 2006.
Two years later, he co-founded Ethical Expeditions (ethicalexpeditions.ning.com), which integrates conservation, applied research and education with traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous peoples.

The non-profit organization led the almost 10-week expedition last summer involving 20 people, including a photographer, scientists, students, local people, even a tree-climber.

Between June and July, up to 11 of the langurs - a subspecies, under consideration for full species status - were observed in a single day at a single site. "It's one of those monkeys that when you walk through the forest you'll never know that it's there," Loken said.

The langur is at risk from loss and fragmentation of habitat and hunting in Indonesia. However, Loken said a few dozen Dayak people regularly patrol the 38,000-hectare Wehea Forest to help keep hunters out.

Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: Extinct Dracula monkey found in Borneo

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