Industrial Training at KK Wetland Centre (KKWC)

Hi wildlifers~

I am having my Industrial Training at KK Wetland Centre (KKWC), also known as KK City Bird Sanctuary (KKCBS) before. It is my 3rd day here and it's my pleasure to drop by to share a little bit of my experiences. As a Conservation Biology based student, I am under supervision of an Environmental Education officer which we will give talk about KKWC, mangroves, as well as the biodiversity here to students, teachers and public. Besides talk, of course there will be Interpretative Walk to get closer with the real mangrove environment here. Today we have session for bird-watching. We have been briefed on methods, identification, etiquettes , etc. before we went to the mangrove area for bird-watching using binocular. I have saw many types of birds but only managed to identified 10 species such as Purple Heron, Little Egret, Intermediate Egret, Great Egret, and White Collar Kingfisher. One of the endangered species of birds in Asia, Lesser Adjutant Stork was seen here before. Besides, we were told that about 10 fireflies were brought from Klias by one of the IBTP's lecturer.

It will be a good experience for visitors especially who loves the nature. For all wildlifers who are interested to come, KKWC is open from 8am-6pm everyday except Monday.

Is toad a frog?

Hello,

Dear Dr. Hamid, Tang (Tang Huoy Min) here .
I choose to write this post because I read a book today, which tells about the naming of toads and frogs.
I remembered that Dr. ask me a question during my progress report presentation, saying that if toad and frogs are 'frog', why is toad called 'toad'?
Well, here's the answer....
"The terms frog and toad can often be confusing, mainly because there are no real scientific rules to distinguish between two".
This statement are copy from book "Wildlife & Natural Resource Management by Kevin H. Deal (1998)".
Dr. please add me. My email address is mihon218@gmail.com

Kalimantan Tengah and freshwater fishes

Hi guys,
I am writing this up before the heat of my Kalteng memories fade. So, I just came back from Kalimantan Tengah (Kalteng) via Banjarmasin and actually stayed in the city of Palangkaraya for 3 nights. The land journey from Banjarmasin to Palangkaraya took about 5 hours - despite only 200km in distance. The road is less luxirious, I might say. The scenery is just like Beaufort, minus the many houses in Beaufort. It is a huge stretch of peatland all throughout. I slept for about an hour in the bus, when I woke up, it was all the same: flat, and degraded peatland all over. The rivers are huge. I crossed the longest river bridge in Indonesia, the Barito Bridge, stretching 1.2km over the Barito passing a small island in the middle where the foundations are.

What I want to share is the fact that how freshwater fishes are consumed in Kalteng. Climbing perch, snakehead, catfishes. In fact I had seven meals at the Dandang Tingang Hotel in Palangkaraya (3 brekkies, 2 lunches, 3 dinners), except the brekky this morning, we had ikan patin without fail! You better enjoy your roti canai and teh tarik with all of your hearts, because if you were in Palangkaraya for 3 nights, you might miss them a lot.

If I have time, I'll share some pics, too.

Hamid.

Flooding in Klias

Harnitta & Nasirah (and Fairus & Hafiz),

I talked to Zul just now, water is still high and rain is still doing its bit. I think I will have to pass the Klias trip to F and H - I don't think I can handle this one by having to go to Serudong and Klias. It is OK if I don't go, kan?

What you guys need to do is to keep asking for news about water level from zul and decide to go.

I hope this can be done when the water is still high but low enough to take the party to the jetty at Sg Api-Api.

Zul's hp is 0198323371

Hamid.

Snake Island trip

Hi all,

If you can't find the tidal charts, there are 2 copies in IPMB - one at the Pejabat Am and another at the Boathouse.

Cindy - please prepare 20 sample jars filled with 5% buffered formalin to preserve your samples, plus 20 empty jars and a litre of formalin just in case you are able to get an abundance of biofouling samples.

Is there a tentative plan for 17 & 18 Jan? What time do we leave KK?

Thanks.

Pushpa

Klias Snake and other directive

Guys,

This cute little serpent was captured in the swamp of Klias (Yes, where your toilet was!) near the last pondok. It was seen by Dr Fairus twigging itself as camouflage (apparetly, Fairus didn't care about his trick!).

I don't know what it is in Latin but it is only 8 cm and I think that is as big as it gets.

To Harnitta and Nasirah, one of the fishes we photographed from the fishermen was IDed as Clarias nieuhofii - a new record from Sabah! Your job now is to try your luck to find Clarias pseudonieuhofii!!!  

Clarias nieuhofii - it is different from all Clarias by having ventral, caudal and anal fins not separated.

The crockers, quickly find the latest tidal chart for 2008! We need to go to Beringgis and Klias soon!!!

Hamid.

happy new yer

Hi guys!

Happy new year! January and February will be my busiest months yet - so guys, please keep me informed of things you want to do these coming two months.

I've had a good nice break and could have the looongest break I ever had, or at least if felt like a long one. Take it from me, if you wanted your break to be a long one, don't go anywhere. Eat sleep, eat sleep... Trust me, it'll be long.

Hamid.

Crockers rocked!

Izwan (Matt) and friends started their crocking trip for the first time in Kinarut early Nov - and saw nothing. I don't blame them because I was also in the boat and we chose the wrong time (because there was no right time). Then we did Beringgis (Kawang). Tidal chart indicates that low tide is at 0417. I foolishly planned to hit Bringgis, going upstream at 0330 (thinking at that time, most of the tide is already gone). It hadn't. In fact the water was very much going out to sea, fast and unrelentless. The 30hp outboard was screaming, belching white noxious smoke and we went up slowly. Pushpa said "All we need is one eye... only one, and that will be enough, and we'll go home".

Fair Dinkum. There not one, but two eyes! Apparently the other eye of the baby croc was still very much intact! Pak Jurin struggled to get his boat close to the mudflat. Between his excellent manuever and the pushing water, croc was gone. But we were all happy, the happiest was Matt - now that his burning question (for the thesis) is answered! Yene silently clocked her data, parasiting on the locations baby crocs.

We didn't go home, though and kept seeing eyes, there were 6 of them all hatchlings. Sorry guys, no picture of croc babies yet.

Feeza crocked Serudong in the wee hours of Dec 10th - departing from Pulau Sebatik and reported to Wallace Bay Police Station and Sebatik PGA post near the Indonesiaon border, she sat mid-boat with Yene, Matt, Azniza and me. Jang Asoi was skipper and just shot a buck two days earlier. I must tell you guys, we had the best crocking condition and the river had compeletely released the tide off into Cowie Bay. We saw 9 crocs.

But, as if that was not enough, Yene, Feeza and Matt joined me crocking Tenegang at Kinabatangan. Bad time - flood! But we saw 3 crocs.

I'll have some of pics during the three trips soon. I'm happy. Matt is planning to hit Klias after Eid - I'm already jealous of what he'll find!

tiga snakers reply

ok dr, i see you tomorow..i try to bring aiman too..

Such a rainy day

Today is the 4th day in Danum V. and its raining all day long (since the day i arrived!). Can't do much, even Kalsum get stucked on the ground (so windy..who dares to climb the trees). My plan to do stick insecting is perished. Maybe next month(s) after the monsoon season is over and i've got a clear instruction from DNM. Going to KL next week for Natural History Museum Workshop.

Bats group (and many other things)

Dear Dr. Hamid,

Last week, Agos, Ehsan, Nurul and myself went to Gomantong..doing some site survey and arranging a few things with SWD people there. Everything goes well..except on the way back, our transport (a rented Rusa) had "tabrak" a lori, which front of it. None of us was injured, but Agos is not in good shape..(he's the driver during the incident), and i had to pay for ketuk balik keta..

and this week, i'm in Danum, to get ideas on how to do my work in Sukau and Gomantong. If you remembered, Dato Noramly n i was granted a permit to conduct a research on Orthoptera in Canopy in Danum V...

Apart of this things, hope u had received my email. C U soon.

Tiga Snakers

Dr Puspa, Cindy, Haifz and Aiman.

Cindy came to see me and we discussed about several things. One of them is the scale - I dug up my old stuff and found a spring scale of 3kg but with smaller grades, 10g I think. So that's great and we're OK now.

We agreed for 5-7 December.

Hamid.

trip to kalampunian damit

Dear Dr Hamid,

how are you? Dr pushpa have gave me and you the copy of the permit. I would like to ask if you are free on 26hb-30hb nov for the 4days trip to Kalampunian Damit. when can i meet you to discuss about the tools we gonna use during the trip?

thank you.
cindy

Field trip to Kalampunian Damit

Hi there,

I have just received a fax from Sabah Parks giving us permission to conduct Cindy's work on Pulau Kalampunian Damit. Please let me know when we can schedule the trip - the sooner, the better. We have been given 4 days in November 2007 and an exemption on the camping fees. We also need to discuss details of the trip with the 'Pegawai Penguasa Taman Pulau Tiga'.

Thanks!

Regards,
Pushpa

Brief report

Dear Dr,

First of all I would like to apologise for not making any report about my (Christopher’s as well) final year project progression. The following are some brief report on what we have done for our field sampling so far.

In our first trip to Paitan (09 Aug until 13 Aug), we manage to interview with 23 local people from 6 different villages (Pengkalan Kanibungan, Sinukap, Pias, Masin Besar, Sulit Bina Baru and Batangan Darat) who are still hunting. We also asked help from a Ketua Kampung from Kampung Masin Besar and some local people to be our guide to enter the Paitan Forest Reserve (PFR).

During our second trip to Paitan (27 Sept until 01 Oct), we could only manage to interview with 7 local people who are currently still hunting. This situation occurred because most of the villagers we met are rubber taper and they have their own small plantation land. More over, there are “out siders” who will sell meat (RM6 per kg for pork and RM10 for deer meat) to them which means they can obtain their protein source easily. We have entered the PFR with the help of one villager from Kampung Masin Besar. From his experience, he showed the marking that left out by deer and pig.

Our next trip will be on 11 Oct until 16 Oct. We are going to establish and walk our line transects. Hope we are lucky enough to see some.

That’s all.

Wish you all Selamat Hari Raya.

REMINDER FOR PROJECT I

Guys,
Please be reminded that the dates for Project I has been announced. I will be on leave until from today until 21 October. There will be only a small window on 22 October that I will be here, after which I will leave for tasks out of the campus until 29 October. That will be the only window that i will be able to see your work.

Hamid.

Salam Aidilfitri~

Wishing all Selamat Menyambut Hari Raya Aidilfitri!Have a wonderful celebration and happy holidays!

A better way of studying frogs

I was reading Daily Express posted on Oct 1st, when one of this article title 'No need for dissection as see-through frogs jump in' caught my attention. It was about Japanese researchers at Tokyo that produced see-through frogs letting them observe organs, blood vessels and eggs under the skin without preforming dissection. Two kinds of recessive genes have been known to cause the frog (Rena japonica, rare mutant of Japanese brown frog) to pale. Two frogs with the recessive genes were crossed which produced offspring that looked normal. Crossing the offspring led to a frog whose skin is transparent from the tadpole stage. The researchers can see changes of organs when tadpoles mutate into frogs. Transparent frog can also reproduce, but their grandchildren die shortly after birth.

It's amazing as a new way to be able to observe the development of the internal body through time. Researchers also can see at what stage the cancer starts. However, its unrealistic to apply same method to mammals as their skin structure is different.

Eid Mubaarak!

Dear all,

This should be my last day in office before a long raya break and may well be my last posting to this blog before I come back to office in two weeks time.

On behalf of myself and my small family, I wish all of you here Eid Mubaarak - minal eidin wal faaizin, kullu aam, aantum bikhair - amin. I pray that you have a prosperous, rewarding and a healthy life for the year to come. For those who fast, may the sunrise of the eid brings you the joy and the moment to strengthen brotherhood and friendships. May this teach all of us that once we fall, we need to get up and keep on going because such is life. For my dear students, I believe that all of you can do it and you will do it beautifully.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA IDILFITRI, MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN.

Hamid

Lili

Marwan @ Ultraman Tiga

Secondary Data

Dear dr,

(Marlina, norafiza, yene, and izwan) said.......

about the secondary data that u asked us to get from Sabah Wildlife Department. last tuesday, we made an appoinment with Puan Jumrafiah, and she agreed to meet us at 11.00a.m. However, when we get there, she already left to Lok Kawi due to the unexpected business. we also tried to meet with En. Karim but still, he was not there. Somewhere in Sandakan if i'm not mistaken.
the another day, we went again to the library. try to look for the data about illegal harvestment but they were not there. Puan Azren whose incharged there said, we still need to meet Pn. Jumrafiah because she is the one whose exactly knows about those things.

about the sea tide table, we already have it...the data is based on k.kinabalu and Tawau area year 2007.

those we want to seek for your advice regarding this situation,....

thanks