Malaysian Nature Festival KB
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Friday, April 18, 2014
Irrawaddy Dolphins: The Smiling Faces of the Mekong
The trademark curved mouth of the Irrawaddy dolphin led to the animal’s nickname: the “smiling face of the Mekong.” They travel in groups of no more than 10 and solitary dolphins are rarely seen. Unfortunately, populations of this rare species are shrinking. Dangerous fishing practices and habitat degradation from the development of dams, deforestation and mining are putting the future of Irrawaddy dolphins at great risk.
Learn more about the species and what WWF is doing to help:http://worldwildlife.org/species/irrawaddy-dolphin
Where do Irrawaddy dolphins live?
Irrawaddy dolphins are an unusual species with small populations found in Southeast Asia, ranging from India’s Chilka Lake to the Malampaya Sound in the Philippines and freshwater rivers like the Ayeyarwady in Myanmar, the Mahakam in Indonesian Borneo, and the Mekong between Cambodia, Vietnam and Lao PDR.
Learn more about the species and what WWF is doing to help:http://worldwildlife.org/species/irrawaddy-dolphin
Irrawaddy dolphins are an unusual species with small populations found in Southeast Asia, ranging from India’s Chilka Lake to the Malampaya Sound in the Philippines and freshwater rivers like the Ayeyarwady in Myanmar, the Mahakam in Indonesian Borneo, and the Mekong between Cambodia, Vietnam and Lao PDR.
What are the biggest threats to Irrawaddy dolphins?
Irrawaddy dolphins are directly threatened by bycatch, when they accidentally get caught in fishing gear meant to net other fish.
Research has found many dolphins, especially calves, also die from environmental contamination. Researchers found toxic levels of pesticides such as DDT and environmental contaminants such as PCBs during analysis of the dead dolphin calves. These pollutants may also pose a health risk to human populations living along the Mekong that consume the same fish and water as the dolphins.
Irrawaddy dolphins are directly threatened by bycatch, when they accidentally get caught in fishing gear meant to net other fish.
Research has found many dolphins, especially calves, also die from environmental contamination. Researchers found toxic levels of pesticides such as DDT and environmental contaminants such as PCBs during analysis of the dead dolphin calves. These pollutants may also pose a health risk to human populations living along the Mekong that consume the same fish and water as the dolphins.
Dams also threaten the survival of these dolphins. In Lao PDR, the proposed Don Sahong hydropower project is located just one kilometer upstream of the core habitat for Mekong dolphins, which could hasten their extinction from the Mekong River. Today, between only 78 and 91 individuals are estimated to exist in the entire Mekong River.
How does WWF help Irrawaddy dolphins?
WWF works with local communities to develop fishery management zones to help sustain the fish population and conserve the Irrawaddy dolphins. We also conduct research to determine how the dolphin population is fairing and the impact of climate change on the Mekong River. WWF ensures sustainable hydropower development to maintain the ecosystem integrity of the Mekong river.
WWF works with local communities to develop fishery management zones to help sustain the fish population and conserve the Irrawaddy dolphins. We also conduct research to determine how the dolphin population is fairing and the impact of climate change on the Mekong River. WWF ensures sustainable hydropower development to maintain the ecosystem integrity of the Mekong river.
Why save dolphins?
The dolphins are an important indicator of the health and sound management of the freshwater resources, and their decline could signal a potentially devastating decline in the health of the entire river ecosystem. Mekong dolphins also have great cultural significance to local communities and bring tangible livelihood benefits. Dolphin-watching tours are a major contributor to growth, bringing in much needed income to local communities.
The dolphins are an important indicator of the health and sound management of the freshwater resources, and their decline could signal a potentially devastating decline in the health of the entire river ecosystem. Mekong dolphins also have great cultural significance to local communities and bring tangible livelihood benefits. Dolphin-watching tours are a major contributor to growth, bringing in much needed income to local communities.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Be in the know about jellyfish By Patricia Hului @pattbpseeds
NOT YOUR EVERYDAY VIEW: Rahim Bugo, managing director of Permai Rainforest Resort paddleboarding while watching out for jellyfish.
IT HAD ALL STARTED with a phonecall from my editor, Margaret, who called to let me know that I had to be at Permai Rainforest Resort on April 6 by 8am.
She let me know that Zora Chan from Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) would be giving me a call, and sure enough, hours later, an unknown number popped up on my phone screen. Sounding friendly over the phone, Zora gave me detailed instructions on what to bring for the next day and how to get to Permai since – being from Bintulu – I’d never been there before.
Maybe I was too excited or maybe it was out of fear that I would get lost (my sense of direction is very poor), but it so happened that I woke up, got dressed and arrived almost an hour earlier than the appointed time at the resort.
Together along with a couple members of the press and few members from MNS, we were divided into two groups. There was a limited number of seats available on the boat, so we had to go a group at a time to catch a rare view for most people from the city: a jellyfish swarming.
GET THE BOAT OUT TO SEA: Heading out to watch jellyfish swarming.
According to Rahim Bugo, the managing director of Permai Rainforest Resort, who had been paddle-boarding out to sea a day before, there were hundreds of them bobbing up and down close to the water’s surface.
As we cruised through the waves, I was fascinated. It’s not every day you have the opportunity to ride on a boat out to sea and catch a jellyfish swarm. I was pulled in by the beautiful scenery of the sea and sky, trees along the small cape to our right, thinking how Mother Nature plays with all the colours, and how this seemed so unlike Kuching.
Soon enough I reminded myself the reason I was there, so I pulled out a pen and said to myself: “Time to work, Pat.”
Dressed casually in shorts and a plaid shirt, Anthony Sebastian, chairman of MNS Kuching branch, sat near the bow of the boat and shared what he knew about jellyfish.
He started by telling us the basics of the jellyfish. Under the phylum Cnidaria – ‘family’ in layman’s terms – jellyfish share the same feature as coral which is cnidocytes: explosive cells used to capture its prey as well as a defence mechanism.
TOUCH IT: Anthony (left) is holding onto the net while one member of the press tries to feel the jellyfish. No jellyfish were harmed during this process. 
Dubbed the oldest multi-organ animal, these free-swimming creatures have been wandering the seas for at least 500 million years.
Anthony briefed us saying that the most recent data on jellyfish was from 1991 from the fisheries department and that its records only accounted for the years between 1980 to 1987.
“In those years, they were catching 820 tonnes every year. It was worth RM6 million a year; remember that was from the 1980 to 1987. Today it must be worth much more,” he pointed out. “It is a local and very lucrative industry”.
On which species were found at which locations, Anthony said, “From my understanding, most of the red ones are found in the Mukah and Bintulu area whereas the white ones are found in Kuching, Sematan area.”
CAUGHT IT: The boatman caught a jellyfish for us to observe for a while.
These umbrella-shaped animals with trailing tentacles are food for most endangered marine turtles like the loggerhead, Ridley and leatherback turtles. Leatherback turtles rely primarily on jellyfish for their diets.
After some of my own research, I found a paper from 1991 by Richard Rumpet called ‘Some Aspects of the Biology and Fishery of Jellyfish Found along the Coast of Sarawak, Malaysia’.
Back then, Rumpet had not yet identified the species name of Sarawak jellyfish. But recent efforts by Fisheries Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) Sarawak identified that there were three dominant species foumd here; Lobonema smithii (the biggest white jellyfish in Malaysia), Rhopilema esculenta (red jellyfish) and Mastigias papua (spotted jellyfish).
According to Rumpet, the coastal waters off Sarawak are suitable for jellyfish breeding. This is shown by the occurrence of jellyfish all along the coast of Sarawak.
The Fisheries Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) Sarawak’s website listed three publications on this gelatinous animal – all done in the late 1990s – a study on jellyfish in Sarawak waters, breeding habitat and biology of jellyfish in Sarawak and the Encyclopaedia of Malaysia the Malaysian Seas: In Jellyfish.
Perhaps it was the weather – it was raining towards the end of our boat ride – or perhaps it was the slightly choppy waves but throughout the thirty-minute boat ride, we only managed to catch one jellyfish with a net for close observation.
WASHED UP: A jellyfish is washed up on shore. Photo courtesy of Malaysian Nature Society.
Then I realised there was a lot of room for research and exploration on jellyfish here in Sarawak; an example clearly would be factors affecting the swarming of jellyfish.
How was it that the day before our trip out to sea, for instance, we were told by resort staff that there were hundreds of them swimming closely to the surface yet when we got there a day later only handfuls of them were sighted and few washed up onshore?
ABOUT MNS
Being the oldest environmental NGO in Malaysia, MNS is still doing what it does best since 1941; to promote the conservation of Malaysia’s natural heritage.
MNS Kuching Branch is continuing to do so in Kuching with one of their efforts to organise the second instalment of Santubong Nature Festival end of this year.
Open to MNS members and the public, the festival is aimed to raise public awareness of the value of Santubong Peninsula.
Leading up to the festival, MNS is organising activities such as trips and talks. Sign up as a member by contacting MNS Kuching Branch at their Facebook page or email them at mnskuching@gmail.com.
For Santubong Nature Festival, just watch out for more updates on the event at www.facebook.com/SantubongNatureFestival.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Clouded Leopards seen at Mount Santubong
Clouded Leopards seen at Mount Santubong
Posted on April 6, 2014, Sunday
A close-up photo of the Bornean Clouded Leopard. There has been recent reported sighting of clouded leopard on Gunung Santubong.
KUCHING: Malaysian Nature Society has called for an immediate evaluation study of Mount Santubong as a home for Sarawak’s largest cat, the Bornean Clouded Leopard.
In February, there was a reported sighting of three Clouded Leopards on Mount Santubong.
The Bornean Clouded Leopard or ‘Neofelis diardi’ is an endemic medium-sized cat found only in Borneo, known locally as Entulu.
It is the smallest of the “large cats”, which is the general term used for the large members of the Felidae, like the tiger, lion and leopard. At over 2 metres in length, and weighing up to 25kg, this highly endangered cat in Sarawak is severely threatened by hunting and loss of its forest habitat.
In a press release issued yesterday, the Malaysia Nature Society Kuching Branch (MNSKB) chairman Anthony Sebastian said the sightings of three clouded leopards on Santubong, Sarawak’s newest gazetted National Park, is of great significance.
“MNSKB has been highlighting the biodiversity and historical importance of Gunung Santubong for many years. With more and more attention paid to Kuching’s iconic mountain, new discoveries are being made,” he said.
“Previously thought to have no hornbills, Santubong is now known to have four species of hornbills. Previously thought to have one otter species, we now know there are possibly three species of otters on Santubong,” he added.
This discovery of Clouded Leopards on Santubong, Sebastian pointed out, was yet another addition to Santubong’s increasingly rich wildlife, and not just another wild cat.
“This is Borneo’s top predator, and largest cat,” he emphasised.
The sightings of these Clouded Leopards were made by surveyors up on the mountain, doing preliminary work for the cable car project, revealed Sebastian.
Unlike hornbills, which are flying birds, and will only be affected by the disturbance caused by infrastructure development on the higher parts of the mountain, he said Clouded Leopards will be adversely affected by such projects.
Before any further plans to be made on Santubong, Sebastian stressed that it would be only prudent that a comprehensive study was commissioned to determine the requirements for Clouded Leopards on this isolated mountain, and what measures need to be put in place to ensure their continued, and permanent survival.
“Sarawak cannot afford to lose a population of a highly endangered large endemic cat living so close to Kuching. As arguably the most beautiful of the world’s wild cats, because of its exquisite bold markings, the opportunities are enormous for Sarawak’s, and Kuching’s tourism industry.”
He hopes that surveyors who sighted the big cats may withhold information on the animals’ exact location for their safety and survival.
The MNS, in its continuing efforts to highlight Santubong cultural, archaeological and biological richness, organised the first ever Santubong Nature Festival in 2013.
This year, the second edition of the Festival will be held in November.
Contact MNS atmnskuching@gmail.com for more information.
Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2014/04/06/clouded-leopards-seen-at-mount-santubong/#ixzz2y6o6XTHc
A close-up photo of the Bornean Clouded Leopard. There has been recent reported sighting of clouded leopard on Gunung Santubong.
KUCHING: Malaysian Nature Society has called for an immediate evaluation study of Mount Santubong as a home for Sarawak’s largest cat, the Bornean Clouded Leopard.
In February, there was a reported sighting of three Clouded Leopards on Mount Santubong.
The Bornean Clouded Leopard or ‘Neofelis diardi’ is an endemic medium-sized cat found only in Borneo, known locally as Entulu.
It is the smallest of the “large cats”, which is the general term used for the large members of the Felidae, like the tiger, lion and leopard. At over 2 metres in length, and weighing up to 25kg, this highly endangered cat in Sarawak is severely threatened by hunting and loss of its forest habitat.
In a press release issued yesterday, the Malaysia Nature Society Kuching Branch (MNSKB) chairman Anthony Sebastian said the sightings of three clouded leopards on Santubong, Sarawak’s newest gazetted National Park, is of great significance.
“MNSKB has been highlighting the biodiversity and historical importance of Gunung Santubong for many years. With more and more attention paid to Kuching’s iconic mountain, new discoveries are being made,” he said.
“Previously thought to have no hornbills, Santubong is now known to have four species of hornbills. Previously thought to have one otter species, we now know there are possibly three species of otters on Santubong,” he added.
This discovery of Clouded Leopards on Santubong, Sebastian pointed out, was yet another addition to Santubong’s increasingly rich wildlife, and not just another wild cat.
“This is Borneo’s top predator, and largest cat,” he emphasised.
The sightings of these Clouded Leopards were made by surveyors up on the mountain, doing preliminary work for the cable car project, revealed Sebastian.
Unlike hornbills, which are flying birds, and will only be affected by the disturbance caused by infrastructure development on the higher parts of the mountain, he said Clouded Leopards will be adversely affected by such projects.
Before any further plans to be made on Santubong, Sebastian stressed that it would be only prudent that a comprehensive study was commissioned to determine the requirements for Clouded Leopards on this isolated mountain, and what measures need to be put in place to ensure their continued, and permanent survival.
“Sarawak cannot afford to lose a population of a highly endangered large endemic cat living so close to Kuching. As arguably the most beautiful of the world’s wild cats, because of its exquisite bold markings, the opportunities are enormous for Sarawak’s, and Kuching’s tourism industry.”
He hopes that surveyors who sighted the big cats may withhold information on the animals’ exact location for their safety and survival.
The MNS, in its continuing efforts to highlight Santubong cultural, archaeological and biological richness, organised the first ever Santubong Nature Festival in 2013.
This year, the second edition of the Festival will be held in November.
Contact MNS atmnskuching@gmail.com for more information.
Kucing hutan besar di Gunung Santubong perlu dikaji: Anthony
Posted on April 6, 2014, Sunday
SPESIES TERANCAM: Kucing hutan Entulu atau Bornean Clouded Leopard yang dijumpai di Gunung Santubong.
KUCHING: Persatuan Pencinta Alam Malaysia (MNS) meminta agar penyelidikan dilakukan di Gunung Santubong yang merupakan habitat kucing hutan di Sarawak susulan penemuan tiga kucing hutan besar oleh penduduk tempatan di gunung itu pada Februari lepas.
Dikenali sebagai Entulu di kalangan penduduk tempatan atau Bornean Clouded Leopard dalam bahasa Inggerisnya, spesies itu mempunyai tubuh sepanjang dua meter dan berat hingga 25 kilogram.
Spesies berkenaan sangat terancam di Sarawak ekoran aktiviti berburu dan kehilangan habitat di hutan.
Pengerusi MNS Cawangan Kuching Anthony Sebastian dalam kenyataan akhbarnya berkata penemuan tiga kucing hutan di Santubong, kawasan baharu diwartakan sebagai Taman Negara, amat bermakna.
“MNS sekian lama telah menekankan kepentingan dan kepelbagaian biologi di Gunung Santubong.
“Dengan tumpuan yang lebih banyak diberikan kepada gunung ikon Kuching itu, penemuan baharu telah dilakukan.
“Sebelum ini kita fikir tidak ada enggang, Santubong kini dikenali dengan empat spesies enggang.
“Dahulu cuma ada satu spesies memerang, tetapi kini mungkin ada tiga spesies memerang di Santubong,” katanya.
Penemuan Entulu di Santubong merupakan satu tambahan kekayaan hidupan liar di situ.
Ia bukan sekadar kucing hutan malahan kucing pemangsa utama di Borneo dan kucing terbesar, kata Sebastian.
Ia dijumpai oleh juruukur yang bertugas melakukan kerja- kerja awal bagi projek pembinaan kereta kabel.
Kucing tersebut mungkin terjejas akibat projek berkenaan.
Justeru, Sebastian berkata sebelum dilaksanakan pembangunan di Santubong adalah mustahak untuk melakukan kajian menyeluruh agar tidak menjejaskan kewujudan spesies unik itu.
Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2014/04/06/kucing-hutan-besar-di-gunung-santubong-perlu-dikaji-anthony/#ixzz2y6SqY4XP
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
The Animated Life of A.R. Wallace’
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/opinion/the-animated-life-of-ar-wallace.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0
http://www.sweetfernproductions.com/?p=1276
http://www.sweetfernproductions.com/?p=1276
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