Semenggoh Wildlife Centre Kuching

Semenggoh Wildlife Centre as established in 1975 for the rehabilitation of confiscated and surrendered wild animals. It is located about 20 km south of Kuching and is situated within the beautiful Semengoh Nature Reserve. This is a temporary home for various endangered wildlife of Sarawak, especially orangutans that were rescued from captivity. The orangutans are currently found only in rainforests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. The Bornean Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), is a species of orangutan native to the island of Borneo. Sharing some of the photos taken there....

Orchid Garden Kuching

Orchid Garden in Kuching is located behind Dewan Bandaraya Kuching Utara (DBKU), next to Astana, opposite Kuching Waterfront. The orchid garden occupies 2.7ha inside a park. The orchid garden boasts a magnificent collection of thousands of orchid plants, comprising many rare hybrids of orchids.

Operation Hours:
9.30am to 6.00pm (Tuesday to Sunday)

Monday Holiday

Entrance to the park is free.

A small note about Orchids...

Orchids are classified under the family of Orchidaceae, which can be further divided into 6 main sub-families: Apostasioideae, Cypripedioideae, Neottioideae, Orchidoideae, Epidendroideae and Vandoideae. Generally when orchid blooms, inflorescence is formed that may produce single to many flowers, sequentially or in mass.  Orchids can be terrestrial (grow on soil), epiphyte (grow on tree host without parasitizing it), lithophyte (grow on rock) and saprophyte (grow by feeding decomposing organic matter). Some orchid flowers are so small that they are not properly visible with naked eyes. Borneo's orchids are also endangered, a result of the loss of natural habitat from fire, forest damage, and illegal logging.

Bird-Watching my new hobby

After seeing plenty of beautiful bird photos in forum's made me to move into this new hobby of birdwatching. It is a healthy, cherished and positive hobby. A pastime that enhances your life in so many ways. It give you a sense of fulfillment by watching the birds move around you singing, dancing and search for food. Its not an easy for birds to get food...some even wait for hours or days to get a good catch.

I had many opportunities to go for a bird watching walk during my MCC (College) days but I never participated as I need to get up early in the morning. My recent participation in Borneo mini bird watching competition really excited me to go for this hobby. I like to share some of my photos of colourful Kingfisher recently taken in Kuching. I will share more photos in this blog as I move deeper into this hobby.

Stock Billed Kingfisher

Vedanthangal Birds Sanctuary Chennai

Vedanthangal Birds Sanctuary is about 90 Minutes from Chennai (Off the GST road between Chingelput and Madurantagam). Ideal for bird watchers and Photographers. The sanctuary comprises of a grove of Barringtonia Acacia nilotica trees in a large tank.

Once you enter the santury the sight of numerous trees flocked by birds busy in their chirping and chatting catches your attention. The birds here are accustomed to the visitors and are not afraid to venture quite close to them and give you a good pose for your photos.

Prominent among the birds found in the sanctuary are Painted Stork, Cormorant, Egret, Spoonbill, Oriental Darter, White Ibis, Grey Pelican, Grebe, Sandpiper, Shoveller, Tern, Open Billed Stork and Pin Tailed Duck. The migratory birds which include Brahminy Kite, Booted and Short Toed Snake Eagle, Montagu's and Eurasian Marsh Harriers.

Proboscis Monkey Bako n.p.

Bako is probably the best place in Sarawak for wildlife experiences and a place to find proboscis monkey. Quite lucky to see few Proboscis monkey during my recent visit to Bako. The Proboscis Monkey is evaluated as Endangerd on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. This monkey is only found on the islands of Borneo and South East Asia. It is really a funny-looking monkey with big nose and belly. It is thought that the oversized nose on this male monkey may have something to do with a mating ritual. It may be a form of sexual selection with females preferring males with large noses which enhance their vocalizations. However, the nose does more than attract potential mates; it also swells with blood when the animal is angry or upset and makes warning calls louder and much more intense than other species. (Rakow, 2007)

Best place to see the monkey is Bako National Park. It is a home to approximately 150 rare proboscis monkey, found only in Borneo. Ulu Assam is the good place to find this monkey as they come to eat leaves during early morning or afternoon.

An Indonesian nickname for this monkey is “monyet belanda” which means “Dutch monkey.” The reason: the Dutch were among the first to colonize Indonesia and many of the Dutch plantation owners were large men with large red noses and big potbellies.

Mini Bird Race 2009 Borneo Highlands Kuching

A bird race is a “fun race” where teams of two or more compete against each other in searching, identifying, and recording as many species of birds within a stipulated time. This event is jointly organized by Malaysian Nature Society(MNS) and Borneo Highlands Resort(BHR) aiming to promote the love and appreciation of nature amongst the community.

It was really great experience to visit Penrissen Range inside Borneo Highlands Resort. We meet few other bird watchers of kuching and they mentioned that they have seen some of rare rainforest birds. We really want to watch Hornbill in wild so we started to go to Kalimantan border which is considered as the best place to look out for birds. We took a short bus journey to border and surprised to see a beautiful view of the rainforest. But we could not identify/watch any birds but enjoyed the scenery there. We walked all the way to the base camp (2.2km). Enjoyed the beuty of rainforest....Maybe we need to learn more about birds before we take another bird watching trip. We really enjoyed the Penrissen range and love to visit again..hopefully will see the HORNBILL in wild.

4th Oct 2009

1

Kalimantan Border

Borneo - Unexplored World

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and still largely unexplored. It is really great opportunity to work in this part of the world to explore its beauty.I will cover some of the animals of Borneo in this blog.

Pic 1 and 2
The Orangutan is a great ape with reddish brown fur. Orangutans are presently found only in rainforests on Borneo and Sumatra, highly endangered in the wild due to habitat loss (the destruction of rainforests for logging and agriculture) and the illegal trapping of baby orangutans for the pet trade.

Pic 3
The proboscis monkey lives only in the swampy lowland rainforests of coastal areas of Borneo and the Mentawai Islands. These large monkeys are best known for the male's large protruding nose.

Pic4
The Hairy-nosed Otter (Lutra sumatrana) is one of the rarest otter species on earth, and was thought to be extinct in 1998 as there had been no sightings for many years, but a tiny number of populations have been rediscovered since then.

Pic 5
Bornean Bearded Pig (Sus barbatus) is a species of pig. It can be recognized by its prominent beard. It also sometimes has tassels on its tail. It is primarily found in Southeast Asia—Sumatra, Borneo, the eastern Philippines—where it inhabits rainforests and mangrove forests.

Pic 6
he Bornean yellow muntjac (Muntiacus atherodes) is restricted to the moist forests of Borneo and it is also called as Barking Deer.