LaughingDove Goes Travelling - SE Asia and Australia

I had wondered where on the scale of Common Palm Civet to Marbled Cat the threshold for this was.

The problem now of course is what you give me when I see a wild Marbled Cat . (Maybe not terribly likely, but you never know!)

 

I hate to say it, but after Red Giant Flying Squirrels, slow lorises are the second most commonly encountered mammal at night. I saw them on 4/5 spotlighting nights and the night walks saw them on 2/3. Speaking to the guides, there's definitely a better than even chance of slow loris on the official night walks.

They're really not uncommon at Sepilok, it's not just me being extra lucky. I really don't know how you have so many difficulties with lorises.

You know they live in trees right? So, torch pointed upwards? (I'm sorry, that's really unnecessary and patronising )

 

If the live ones are anything like the stuffed ones, we'll probably have to give you an exorcism.

 

Yeah, Moonrat and Tarsier were on my hit-list for Sepilok too. The tarsier I had thought was likely, while the moonrat I was just think was a remote chance.

I think for tarsier, it's a matter of spending hours and hours walking along the trails in the more closed forest just based on the probability that one just happen to leap out in front of me. Obviously with a time restriction I was limited in how long I could spend doing that.

Speaking to the guides about moonrats, I got the impression that although not common as such, they could be seen and they seemed to suggest that they were more commonly seen than tarsiers or stink badgers. They seemed more surprised at my stink badger sighting than anything else, including the Banded Palm Civet.

How often have you seen tarsiers at Sepilok? Not more often than slow lorises surely?!

I suggested to them that the pangolin was escaped from smuggling or being kept as a pet, though they didn't like that idea and thought it came from Signal Hill.

 

Nope, that's it for Sepilok now. 6 nights there with 5 nights of spotlighting (because I was stopped from going in the first night). On to Kinabatangan.

I guess I've got a chance for moonrat and tarsier at Danum still (and I imagine they're present at Kinabatangan too but I don't think I'll see them from the river at night).

 

Since I was only at Kinabatangan for two nights, I was intending to do both nights on the river rather than doing night walks because that's the unique thing at kinabatangan and I've done walks at Sepilok and can do them at Danum. Do you think that's the wrong move?

I don't think there's any accessable rainforest right where I'm staying (Greenview) but I'll see what I can find.

 

I've just asked about chances of Flat-headed Cat. The guide says he sees them about 3 times a year. I know I've been quite lucky in general, but those are long odds for two nights... You never know though!

 

To The Kinabatangan!

I started with an early morning at the RDC for my last morning here and it was quite a cool morning. The metal of the canopy walkway was actually cold to the touch and covered in condensation which is much better than the situation in the afternoon of minor burns to the touch.

There were quite a number of birds seen from the canopy walkway including some new for Borneo but seen on the Peninsula like Long-tailed Parakeet, some completely new like Thick-billed Green Pigeon and Golden-faces Barbet and other not new but still extremely impressive like Rhinoceros Hornbill. Also extremely cool to watch was the resident pair of Wallace's Hawk Eagles right by the tower and one of them dived down to the canopy and came up with a Plantain Squirrel which it flew with to an exposed perch on a nearby emergent tree and ate the squirrel, all in full view. Really spectacular thing to watch.

After breakfast, I went back for a short visit to the RDC before check out at 12. This being my 7th day at the RDC means I've now got their coloured sticker for each day of the week. I imagine most visitors don't stay this long! (I originally only intended on a 4 night stay which got pushed to 5 to line up with the Danum Valley bus transfer times and then to 6 when Kinabatangan was cut to 2. It doesn't feel too long though: new birds every day and new mammals every night! Although ideally I think I could do with a few more nights the other side of Danum. I didn't see a huge amount in the late morning, though I did hear what I think might have been a Helmeted Hornbill but I'm not sure because I don't know exactly what they sound like and it's a restricted species on Xeno-Canto (do they even occur at Sepilok though?). No more Bristleheads at all though so I was very lucky to see them flying over on the first evening.

After lunch, the minibus from the Kinabatangan accommodation picked me up just after 1PM (with a few other people on it and another group from the Sepilok B&B too). Apart from the occasional settlement or electricity substation, the drive just past through endless oil palm plantations as far as you could see and the occasional hill showed that it was really very far indeed. And there were numerous big tanker trucks labelled 'palm oil' along the way too. Most of the plantations were labelled 'Sime Darby Plantations Berhad'.

I got to the accommodation at Kinabatangan, I'm staying in a dorm at a place called Sukau Greenview on a two night package, after a couple of hours and after quickly putting the stuff away was an afternoon cruise up the Kinabatangan. Just to briefly describe the place: the Kinabatangan is a large river with extensive primary rainforests along the flood plain which in particular areas are connected to form large patches of primary forest. Most of the wildlife is the same as at Sepilok and Danum but with some additional riverine species here that aren’t at either place like Proboscis Monkeys and, in theory, Flat-headed Cats (though chances for the latter are extremely slim indeed).

Obviously you can't identify the small birds because it's a wide river and you're going past, though slowly, in a small boat. But you see lots of the most impressive birds like hornbills and birds of prey and things, and of course mammals too. The best mammals were proboscis monkeys and most excitingly, a group of Bornean Pygmy Elephants feeding by the river which was great. They do look stockier than typical Asian elephants. A pygmy elephant really is the sort of thing that 18th century explorers ventured out into the heart of the Bornean rainforest to find. Very relaxing and lots of cool bird flyovers with four species of hornbill seen and a couple of fish eagles.

After the late afternoon/early evening cruise for a couple of hours was dinner followed by a night cruise. The number of sightings per hour of night cruise was actually quite low, but there were crocodiles which I assume must be Saltwater Crocodiles? As well as Large Flying Foxes and a Bornean Small-toothed Palm Civet showing well. A roosting Stork-billled Kingfisher too. I was hoping for some owls, but none seen unfortunately.


New birds:

Thick-billed Green-pigeon

Golden-faced Barbet

Lesser Fish-eagle

Eastern Great Egret

Great-billed Heron


Mammals

Asian (Bornean Pygmy) Elephant

Bornean Small-toothed Palm Civet

 

I actually stayed for a couple of days and nights a little up river (or down, I guess) at the Borneo Natural Sukau Billig Resort and I did one night boat tour for some 3 hours or so. And because some things I wanted to see are just not possible from water, we (as in one local friend that I met there) shipped to the other side of the river and decided to actually do a 4 hours night walk alongside the Kinabatangan part of the Heritage trail which lead us up to Ox Bow Lake. During my time in Borneo I turned into quiet a critters person and I can only speak in favor of doing a night tour on foot. The advantage of basically walking around is, that you can hear who/what is moving in ones close proximity and try spot it ;-) I have to admit though, that we did not find anything spectacular in the mammal department but sure some great sleeping birds as the smallest woodpecker (Rufus Piculet) in his tree den, which we I have to admit woke up ;-) and my first whip scorpion which was great. Anyway, try spotlighting maybe, it is so super not crowded people wise that you just may get to see some great things maybe even with non reflecting eyes ;-) You can always go out after the boat trip I think!

With that said, have a great time at the river and as I guess there is an early morning dusk boat trip which should be fantastic for saltwater crocs.

 

Bornean [saltwater] crocodiles, long thought to be a separate species - Crocodylus raninus.
Genetic studies would be welcome in establishing its validity, although early papers (over a century ago) seem convinced that these are a distinct entity.