| Journey to Lahad Datu | Trip from Lahad Datu to TWR | Tabin Wildlife Resort | The Pygmy Elephant | The Lipad Mud Volcano | The Cicada | SOSRhino | Sepilok Orangutan Appeal UK | Night Safari | Birdlife at Tabin - a list |

•  The Cicada

cicada nest

The Pomponia Imperatorial, found in Malaysia is the largest of species growing to a length of 15cm or 6in. Cicada nymphs spend an average of 2 - 5 yrs incubating and feeding on root juices, living underground . In the final nymphal maturity, they construct an exit tunnel to the surface and emerge. The cicada homes can be seen stacked up into little funnels on the jungle floor and are made from mud collected and molded high in cylindrical blocks. As they emerge from the funnel , they attach themselves to branches nearby and moult. When they moult, they shed their skins, and the abandoned skins can often be found left on trees, still clinging to the bark.

Soon we arrived at a clearing in the forest. The trail stopped near a high watch tower. From the watch tower a gradual incline leads to the source of the volcano. All around the clearing was a crisscross of animal prints. several prints were identified.. the easiest being the elephant tracks then the deer tracks, wild boar tracks and sometimes the rhino tracks but this is very rare.

Thinking that the bubbling mud oozing out would be scorching, I was really surprised it to be otherwise. The grey viscous liquid is what the animals come here for. Michael urged me to have a taste of the mud. A dark swirl in the mud is supposedly rich in mineral. Large animals come to mud volcanoes to pep up on their supplements of sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium, iron, and some researchers believe that a substance called kaolin in the soil, neutralises toxic substances. It is thought that plants have many toxic components and animals protect themselves from these substances by consuming kaolin. The mud tasted like, well .mud.

standing at the base of the mud volcano. caked with layers of mud over the years, the peak is difficult to get to...only way is to crawl to the top..

Big animals like the elephants and rhinos also wallow in the mud to take away the heat as well as the bugs that feed on their blood. I had first hand experience on how annoying these bugs were. An 'elephant fly' made a beeline for me... a quick and painful prick. Perhaps not much of a bother to the elephant with its thick hide but can be annoying if there's a swarm. Apparently, the presence of these flies meant that there were also elephants lurking very close to where we were. Unfortunately for the entire duration at Tabin, that was as close as I got to an elephant.

So, having tasted the mud, I was also encouraged to slap some on my face.like a facial mud mask.au naturale . .. And I'm sure something like that would have cost a lot of money a tub at the fancy spas. Visitors can wallow at the mud baths but it's a slow crawl from the edge of the volcano to its core and there's nowhere to clean it off until back at the resort. It's a great experience though.

The watch tower nearby overlooks the entire area and gives a good birdseye view of the mud volcano. An orangutan nest (some days old) was seen on a treetop nearby. The tower could be a good place to stake out for a night as it is high enough to watch the wildlife that visit the area without being intrusive. Humans have a very strong scent which other animals are able to pick out.

SOSRHINO

SOSRhino office at Tabin

SOS rhino has its main in-situ centre here at Tabin. This reserve is believed to have the largest concentration of Sumatran rhinos in Sabah numbering between 7 - 20 individuals. The trekkers and officers at SOSRhino patrols the reserve in search of evidence of the rhino's existence. Rhinos are extremely difficult to track. They are extremely shy, wary and are solitary animals. Although, creatures of habits, and camera traps can help track them but they are clever creatures as well. Once they have experienced the flashes from camera traps, they remember their positioning and more often than not, researchers find that new tracks lead behind the camera trap . For more on sumatran rhinos, have a look at www.sosrhino.org or wwf Malaysia. The patrol staff has also reduced illegal clearing of land by villagers or illegal immigrants. Any clearing of land seen will be reported to the authorities. Although poaching is still ongoing in the area , with the presence of patrols, poachers are a little more wary of their activities. How much impact that has, with the absence of strong backing from the wildlife departments and government with regards to the judiciary punishments of such crimes , is not known..

Unfortunately with logging concessions given out once again to companies to log certain areas in the Ulu Segama and Malua Secondary Forested areas, the vast areas required for the rhinos and elephants to roam and mate will be reduced significantly. Although, authorities have been justifying that logged forests can still sustain wildlife populations especially primates and apes as they are flexible and able to cope with changes in habits - eating and living. The jungle is not only a home, it's a medical hall for animals. For example, an elephant may take a number of herbs and plants to purge itself of roundworms such as The sea bean liana (Entada pursaetha DC.) ,The leaves or vines of the thorny plant tonjii (Harrisonia perforate Merr.) ,The leaves or stems from the black catechu {Acacia catechu Willd.) , The boraphet plant ( Tinospora tuberculata Beaumee), The fruit of the ebony tree ( Diospyros mollis Griff.) ,The bark of the forest siris ( Albizia procera [Roxb.] Benth.), The bark, flowers, and fruit of the golden fig tree ( Ficus benjamina Linn.) , The fruits of the bael fruit tree ( Aegle marmelos [L.] Corn ex Roxb.) , The roots of Job's tears ( Coix lachrymal-jobi Linn.) . Elephant care manual for mahouts and camp managers...

The wildlife rely completely on their knowledge of the forest and their instincts. With what we take away, we reduce their chances of survival into the next decade...

Sepilok Orangutan Appeal UK and the Orangutans

hopefully this young lady and her babe in arms now living at sepilok, will one day find freedom at Tabin Reserve

Sepilok is overburdened with orphaned orangutans. The rangers there have released a number into the reserve surrounding the Sepilok centre but there is a need to repatriate several rehabilitated individuals to Tabin which has a bigger roaming area and also to increase the gene pool with interactions with other existing orangutans in TWR. TWR is believed to be home to only 1,600 wild individuals and can take in a lot more being twice the size of Singapore - there's a lot of roaming space. With that, sepilok Appeal also aims to conduct detailed behavioural research on them. For more on the ongoing project conducted by Sepilok Orangutan Appeal, please click on the following:

http://www.orangutan-appeal.org.uk/projecs/project_tabin.php

Night Safari

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That evening, after dinner - we were all bundled into the pickup truck. Makeshift wooden planks were laid out across at the back in 3 rows. We sat ourselves as comfortably as we could. Herman, the extremely experienced (not to mention, handsome) ranger clicked on a bright torch and off we went. Within the vicinity of the resort, Herman managed to catch sight of a Kancil or mousedeer foraging in the bush. We made a quick stop before the little creature scurried off into the darkness. The 1 1/2hour drive through the dark night brought some very interesting sights. we came across a juvenile Buffy Owl, probably on its first few inaugural night hunts ; a leopard cat (Felis bengalensis) sitting at the edge of the plantation stalking a prey hidden in the undergrowth nearby ; a slow loris ; sambar deers galloping across the plantation into the jungle ; bearded wild boars startled by the bright lights..charging aross the plantation road. Although we didn't get to see a number of animals that previous guests had claimed to have seen on their night safaris.. Several sp. : the largest predator in Borneo . the clouded leopard (neofelis nebusa) , common palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), binturong or bear cat (Arctitis binturong), the elephants amongst others.

Tabin Wildlife Reserve is a great place to go if visitors would like to get to know more about the diversity of wildlife in borneo. Although most of the area has been logged and is surrounded by even larger plantations, there is at least a little refuge for the small pool of wildlife here.

Birdlist

For birders, one of the better places to watch birds is actually around the resort. There is a small library at the resort where they have a few refernce books on the wildlfie that can be found in the surrounding jungle. Early morning is great especially from the restaurant - there's an open patch where the birds come to forage in the morning.

Some of the birdlife found in Tabin are:

•  the oriental darter

•  storm's stork

•  crested serpeant eagle (common)

•  wallace's hawk-eagle

•  white fronted falconet

•  common sandpiper

•  emerald dove

•  raffle's malkoha (common)

•  chestnut bellied malkoha

•  greater coucal (common)

•  buffy fish owl

•  brown wood owl

•  whiskered treeswift

•  scarlet rumped trogon

•  black backed kingfisher

•  ruddy kingfisher

•  blue throated bee-eater (common)

•  dollarbird (common)

•  black hornbill (common)

•  oriental pied hornbill (common)

•  rhinoceros hornbill (common)

•  rufous piculet (common)

•  grey capped woodpecker (common)

•  orange-backed woodpecker (common)

•  dusky broadbill

•  black and red broadbill (common)

•  banded broadbill

•  black and yellow boradbill (common)

•  blue headed pitta

•  garnet pitta

•  pacific swallow (common)

•  scarlet minivet

•  black headed bulbul

•  red eyed bulbul (common)

•  spectacled bulbul (common)

•  yellow bellied bulbul (common)

•  hairy backed bulbul

•  green iora

•  lesser green leafbird (common)

•  asian fairy bluebird

•  magpie robin (common)

•  white browed shama (common)

•  white crowned forktail

•  black capped babbler

•  short tailed babbler (common)

•  ferruginous babbler (common)

•  sooty capped babbler (common)

•  scaly crowned babbler (common)

•  chestnut winged babbler (common)

•  striped tit babbler (common)

•  fruffy backed tit-babbler

•  dark necked tailorbird

•  ashy tailorbird (common)

•  malaysian blue-flycatcher

•  verditer flycather (common)

•  rufous winged philentoma

•  asian paradise flycatcher (common)

•  black naped monarch

•  pied fantail (common)

•  yellow rumped flowerpecker (common)

•  orange bellied flowerpecker (common)

•  ruby cheeked sunbird

•  purple naped sunbird (common)

•  crimson sunbird (common)

•  little spiderhunter (common)

•  black headed munia (common)

•  eurasian tree sparrow (common)

•  asian glossy starling (common)

•  bronzed drongo (common)

•  greater racket tailed drongo

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