Sunda clouded leopard cub rescued

On Saturday April 28, we received information from our partners, Yayorin, that there was a baby Bornean clouded leopard,  or Sunda clouded leopard as it is now known (Neofelis diardi), which had been hit by a car in the village of Bayat, district of Belantikan Raya, Lamandau regency in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.

The Orangutan Foundation team left the port town of Pangkalan Bun late morning and arrived at the village of Bayat four hours later. After some discussion with the villagers we saw the leopard cub which was being stored in a cardboard box and was silent and motionless.

 Dr Fikri, the Orangutan Foundation's vet, examining the cub being held by villagers

Information obtained from the villagers was that leopard cub was found at night on the road leading to the iron ore mining site.  They saw the mother clouded leopard walking across the road carrying her cub in her mouth.  When the iron ore vehicles passed they must have startled the mother who dropped her cub and ran away.  It is thought that the vehicle hit the cub, though very lightly.  The iron ore mining vehicles were heading to the port of Pangkalan Bun.

The people of Bayat village had been looking after the cub for 2 days before we arrived.

Orangutan Foundation vet with the cub

Baby clouded leopard weak and silent

Cub not able to walk

The good news is that the cub is progressing well and is in pretty good health. Initially it was always unsteady when standing and its walking wasn’t normal.  It had problems with both hind legs. This pain seems to have now gone and its walking is normal and sometimes it even climbs the wall of its cage.

Cub alert and seems healthy

It is eating and drinking. Its current weight is ± 2 Kg. Looking at the husbandry manual on the Clouded Leopard Project website this suggests its age may be between 60 and 90 days old.  It is still very early days for the cub.  More news to follow soon...

Thank you

Orangutan Foundation

Please consider a donation to support our work by visiting our website or bid on a Gary Hodge's print that is being auction in aid of the Foundation. Thank you!

Meet Eko, our elephant!

The Orangutan Foundation is excited to be taking part in Elephant Parade London 2010, in conjunction with the charity, elephant family. The event is billed as London's largest public art exhibition and aims to raise over £1 million for conservation projects in Asia.  Below are some photos of our adopted elephant, whom we have called Eko. He has been beautifully designed and painted by artist Paul Kidby. Le Pain Quotidien have generously agreed to be our sponsors enabling us to participate.

The photos show you Eko's transformation over the past months (all photos by Paul Kidby).

Paul takes delivery of Eko (2 Nov 2009) and he takes over their dining room!

Eko turns blue!

Eko makes a new friend!

Intricate detail

Paul applying the undercoat for the gold paint.

Eko has gold paint and it has taken Paul many coats and much time to get the desired effect!

Eko leaving Paul's house (23 Dec 2009).

Eko being transferred onto a lorry to be taken away.

On the lorry and ready to go - Paul and his family said they'll really miss Eko!

A huge thank you to Paul and Vanessa Kidby for their time, energy and fantastic work - we are absolutely delighted with Eko!

Butterflies and birds - diversity of life!

The Orangutan Foundation is proud to support Indonesian students conducting research at Pondok Ambung Tropical Forest Research Station in Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. We want to encourage and help young Indonesian scientists and researchers.  Yusi (at the front) and Harri (in the middle) conduting their research in Tanjung Puting National Park. Photograph by Brian MatthewsIn 2009, we provided two grants, one to Yusi Indriani for her research into the diversity of butterfly species around Pondok Ambung and one to Harri Purnomo for his research into the diversity of bird species. The students spent two months at Pondok Ambung conducting their research. Yusi Indriani (in the middle) presenting her research results to Ashley Leiman (left), the Orangutan Foundation Director, Rene Bonke (right), a German Tomistoma researcher and Hudi DW (just left of centre), the Orangutan Foundation Programme Coordinator in Orangutan Foundation Pangkalan Bun office.Yusi recorded over 80 butterfly species. Orangutan FoundationI hope to bring you more news about Pondok Ambung and its amazing wildlife soon.Thank you,Hudi W.D.Orangutan Foundation Programme Co-ordinator

Lamandau and Flat-headed Cat Photographed in Danum, Borneo

Chris and Maina in answer to your question about Lamandau's carry capacity. Surveys took place in 1997/8, when Lamandau was gazetted, revealing an insignificant wild orangutan population. The Lamandau camp managers have always kept a record of every orangutan sighted and based on what we know we believe Lamandau has the capacity to take at least another 100 released orangutans. This may be of interest to some readers. The Bornean Wild Cat and Clouded Leopard Project blogged yesterday that they have obtained their first photograph of a flat-headed cat.

'This is the first time this species has been photographed within the Ulu Segama Forest Reserve and this record means that the Ulu Segama is the first known forest on Borneo where there is definitive evidence of the existence of the entire 5-species Bornean felid guild.'

To follow their blog please click on this link http://borneanwildcat.blogspot.com/2009/04/flat-headed-cat-photographed-in-danum.html

Another encounter with a crocodile.

I don’t know what is going on this year. It seems crocodiles are keeping us busier than orangutans: this weekend’s little extra curricula activity was dissecting a large saltwater crocodile that died after being caught in a fisherman’s net.

Stephen and Mr Hudi with the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus).

An already unpleasant task was made more so by the fact that, by the time the crocodile arrived in Pangkalan Bun, it was bloated and starting to decay. Miss Ully, our office manager who came along out of interest, caught one whiff of the crocodile and promptly vomited. I gagged twice during the dissection.

Saltwater crocodile (crocodylus porosus).

Despite the grimness it was actually an interesting exercise. The crocodile was very large – just over 4m. Its stomach was empty except for some stones which crocodiles often ingest to help with digestion, some seeds and a balled up fishing net. We will clean up the skull and put it on display in Tanjung Puting National Park's Visitor Information Centre alongside one from a Tomistoma.

While I can admit to the interest value, I also have to confess if that is my last involvement with crocodiles for a time I won’t be too upset.

Many thanks

Stephen

Forest regeneration at Pondok Ambung - a year after the fires.

About a year ago, almost seven hectares of forest behind the Pondok Ambung Research Station was burnt to the ground (see post Fires in Tanjung Puting National Park). This was attributed to human carelessness (not the Pondok Ambung staff, we should note!), and favourable dry conditions. A burnt forest patch however, when left alone, regenerates and a vegetation survey was conducted in February 2009, at the burnt area, to see what had indeed grown back. Field manager for Pondok Ambung, Mr. Devis, noted that the dominant plant types in the recovering burnt area are the ferns, or more specificially the Gleichenia linearis (tree fern) and Lycopodium cernuum (club moss).

Lycopodium cernuum (club moss)

The grasses and sedges are also growing back (Digitaria ischaemum, Sorghum halepense, Pennistrum purpureu, Eleocharis parvula, Cyperus kyllingia, Cyperus distans and Cyperus paniceus), along with the shrubs (Melastoma malabathricum, Ochthocharis borneensis, Achasma coccineum Val. Blumea balsamifera).

The trees as well are making a comeback (Schima wallichii korth, Garcinia sp, Rhodamina cinerea, Eugenia sp, etc.). The evergreen tree (Schima wallichii korth) dominates the rest of the tree types.

Schima wallichii korth is the dominant tree species

It’s not just good news for vegetation – the newly growing area is also attracting deer who favour open habitats for grazing.

Deer track

We will continue to monitor the changes of this recovering burnt area. With each new seedling pushing its way through the soil, one is reminded that this damaged patch of forest, as with the other fire-damaged forests elsewhere in Borneo, could come back to life, if it is left alone.

The forest just after the fire.

Forest recovery one year on. All photos by Devis Rachmawan.

Thank you very much Nicole D and Tal B for your recent donations. We are currently trying to raise $250-300 to buy two digital cameras (see post Meet our new vet for the orangutans of Lamandau Wildlife Reserve).

Thank you,

June Rubis

Video Clip Featuring Wildlife of Tanjung Puting

Very quickly, if anyone would like to see Tanjung Puting National Park, one of the protected areas in which we work, then a short video clip has been released by a German film company who made a film about Tomistoma crocodiles last year. The narration is in German (which will probably be OK for our Swiss friends :-) and an English translation to follow shortly) but the pictures speak for themselves. Its shows orangutans, proboscis monkeys and Pondok Ambung Research Station.Here is the link: http://www.br-online.de/bayerisches-fernsehen/welt-der-tiere/sunda-gavial-krokodil-sumatra-ID1234357757657.xml

Thank you and more on the crocodile.

Firsly, Mike S thank you very much for your recent donation. Please bear with me I will blog more about orangutans soon but first I'd like to reply to Dana and Sheryl who commented on my last post Endangered crocodile species kills local man. I agree it was a sad end for this crocodile that had lived for over 50 years and is an endangered species. As soon as I saw the photographs of her caught and dead, I realised how old she must have been. The cynic in me is surprised she lived as long as she did. The pragmatist in me knows, as soon as she took the man, her life would probably be short. Here, in Kalimantan, for the people who live on and from the rivers or forest, nature is a little more redder in tooth and claw than it is for those of us who deal with emails, traffic jams and income tax returns. An eye for an eye – even between people – remains acceptable.

Even if we had been informed straight away, there would have been next to nothing we could have done. In no way are we equipped to deal with the capture and translocation of a reptile – especially one almost 5m long. Moreover, none of our staff could have calmed the crowd that went out on the hunt.

The crocodile had apparently been seen before. How, when and where has been harder to find out, especially in this case, when our questions inevitably carry the sense “What was the man thinking of? It is partly his fault.”

As with snakes and spiders, almost universally crocodiles get bad press. Tomistoma normally eat fish – hence their elongated snout – so people do not seem too concerned about them. That all changed when the crocodile attacked. By catching the right crocodile, we can hope no further action will be taken against other Tomistoma. Certainly, the attack has not unleashed indiscriminate slaughter of all crocodiles.

By encouraging Devis (Manager - Pondok Ambung Research Station) to write up this case we can hopefully understand more about the attack and learn the right lessons. Tomistoma are fish specialists but it should not be surprising they are capable of eating people too. However they should not be given the title ‘man-eaters’ but should just be treated with respect.

Apologies for the length of this post; complex and emotional issues can’t be explained succinctly. I am just happy I have electricity tonight, so I can keep typing.

Here's an orangutan picture to end on. I think this is a great photo, it was taken by Hugh Sturrock at Camp Leakey a good few years ago.

Endangered crocodile species kills local man

I am afraid orangutans won’t feature in this post. Unfortunately, I am writing about something rather sombre. On the 31st December a local man was killed and eaten by a large crocodile. A group of people went out the same night to look for the man and the crocodile but found neither. The next day they called on a pawang or shaman who has the ability to call crocodiles. He worked his magic and within 17 hours of the attack the crocodile was caught and killed; it was almost 5m long and must have been over 50 years old. Inside were the remains of the man.

The Malaysian False Gharial (Tomistoma schlegeli) that killed and ate a local man.

What makes this interesting, as well as tragic, is the crocodile was a Malaysian False Gharial (Tomistoma schlegeli). You may remember last year (A VERY RARE CROCODILE), Rene Bonke was out here studying them. They are one of the crocodile species never reported to have attacked people. Because of this, we need to write up the case. Devis, Pondok Ambung Manager, has been leading the investigation and yesterday we went out to look at the site where the attack occurred.

It isn't surprising Tomistoma kill people. What surprised me was the river where the attack happened. It was an ordinary, peaceful, black-water creek, not 15 minutes upstream from town. It was identical to literally dozens of such rivers that I have seen, been up, even waded across. Never once did it occur to me that such a large Tomistoma might live there. They are an endangered species and you rarely see them.

Being in that place, where I knew someone had died, gave me pause. But behind that was a wonder; a wonder that in this era of chainsaws, speedboats and wanton habitat destruction, an animal of such size could have survived for so long.

For more information about Tomistoma please visit Tomistoma Task Force

National Park Visit

I am sorry for the long silence – I had a fantastic break with my family in Australia. I hope you all had a similarly good end to the year. I actually got back to Indonesia on 9 January but had to spend a frustrating week in Jakarta; the traffic jams in the city are something else! Anyway, I arrived back in Pangkalan Bun last Thursday and, you’ll be pleased to know, I wasted no time in getting back into the forest. Yesterday, the National Park office hosted a visit by the Bupati, the head of the local Government. There was a cast of thousands; well 67 to be precise but the orangutans did not seem at all fazed.

Visit to Camp Leakey organised by the National Park Office.

There were lots of orangutans about including Tom who remained incredibly cool despite the crowd of onlookers. Even the gibbons came in.

Feeding Site - Camp Leakey

After everyone had moved back to Camp I stayed on at the feeding site as there was a new sub-adult male at the feeding platform. The Assistants tell me it is Popeye, the son of the wild female orangutan Peat. Ashley and I can remember following him when he was just an adolescent. Unfortunately, it was getting very dark and overcast by then so my pictures don’t do the scene justice.

There are in fact three or four orangutans in the photo spread out through the trees - you might be able to just work them out.

The day ended in a local village with a display of traditional dancing. All in all it was a fine welcome back!

Brigitta - thank you very much for you recent donations we really appreciate your support.

Are released orangutans really in the wild?

Bernadette thanks for your interest and yesterday’s question: Is the feeding site to ensure that the released orangutans can get food if they aren’t able to in the wild? I’d like to know more about how the release site will function? Is it a huge enclosure, or is it really the wild? Rehabilitated orangutans, released into the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, are given supplementary feedings every day. This ensures they maintain their physical condition during the transition period from life at the Orangutan Care Centre & Quarantine (OCCQ) to life in the wild. The feedings also decrease potential competition with wild orangutans and they allow us to monitor the released individuals. Frequently, the only time they are seen is when they come in for food.

Orangutans in Lamandau (sorry the photos are so dark).

As for the question of how wild it is: it is definitely wild. The Lamandau Wildlife Reserve has no fences. It is 760km2 most of which is forested. As you can see from the attached map, our guard posts protect the buffer zone (between the Reserve and the Lamandau River) which adds to the area available to the orangutans.

Just yesterday we counted six species of birds as we ate lunch on the jetty. During the time the volunteers were staying there they saw, red leaf-eating monkeys, proboscis monkeys, pig-tailed macaques (very rarely seen), a mouse deer and some snakes (admittedly the snakes were not so popular!).

They also saw leeches. However, let’s not be too hard on leeches as abundant leeches are a good indicator of a healthy mammal population; after all they do not exist just to prey on you and me. So even the leeches help answer your question. It is wild.

Thanks,

Stephen

Sad and Rare Death of a Baby Orangutan Killed by a Pig.

Tragedy struck us again this week with the news from Camp Leakey, in Tanjung Puting National Park, that Tut, a female orangutan, had her two-year old baby killed by a pig. It appears the pig and orangutans were near to each other in Camp when the pig turned and snapped at Tiido, catching the young orangutan around the head. One bite was enough. Tut immediately picked him up and when the assistants rushed over they could see Tiido was still alive but, within an hour, he was lying limp in his mother’s arms.

I am afraid I don’t have a recent photo of Tiido but if you zoom in on the photo below, of Tut sitting by the tree, you can see a tiny arm across her waist. That was Tiido when he was new born.

Peter’s photos show him when he was a year old. I am afraid I don’t have more recent photos.

Tut with her beautiful baby Tiido. Photo by Peter Ellen.

Tut was released at Camp Leakey in the very early days of Biruté Galdikas' research there. Indeed, she is the mother of Tom the present “King of Camp Leakey". Tiido was her fourth son.

Bornean Bearded pigs are common in this area primarily because they are omnivorous; they will eat anything. This means they can survive in a wide variety of habitats including oil palm plantations – where they are considered pests – as well as in dense forest. They tend to hang around the orangutan feeding stations so they can scavenge left-overs or dropped fruit.

They are temperamental and have been known to chase orangutans, probably in the hope the orangutan will drop the food they are carrying. In 1985 Biruté Galdikas reported a pig killing a young orangutan. But this week’s incident was the first of its kind in over 20 years.

Regarding Tiido’s death, I know people will say “that’s life; it is nature red in tooth and claw”. In my heart of hearts I agree with them. But I still feel sick and a little heartbroken (I threw a branch at the first pig I saw on Saturday).

To end on a positive note, thank you very much Maciej G. for your donation of $130. This is hugely appreciated and will go towards our new feeding system in Lamandau.

Orangutan Making Good Recovery.

Thank you all very much for your kind and supportive comments on Zidane. Yesterday, I had to go out to the Care Centre again and so took the opportunity to look in on him. I couldn’t believe it – he wasn’t there!!! The vets said he had been so energtic in the morning, once his sleeping-cage door was opened he took his carers hand and wandered off into the nursery forest. Time was limited so I did not follow him out there. Clearly though he continues to go from strength to strength.

I did however pop over to see the binturongs.

They weren’t best pleased to be woken up in the middle of the day but did happily come down for a sniff around. I still think they are amazing. Scientifically, binturongs are classed as carnivores in the family viverrids, which includes civits and genet cats. It may be simpler for US readers to think of them as racoons with attidute or, for European readers, to imagine a badger with a prehensile (gripping) tail.

By the way, the man next to the binturongs’ cage is Mr Sehat, the senior assistant at the Care Centre. He is absolutely amazing with the orangutans and is, beyond all doubt, Montana’s best friend.

There have been a few comments asking about who shot Zidane. These are good questions and it is still being investigated so unfortunately I can't give you any more information at the moment.

Thanks again,

Stephen

A short trip in Tanjung Puting National Park

Last night, before I was side tracked into giving you an update on Zidane (who I saw again today and he is still looking good), I thought this story of a weekend trip to Tanjung Puting National Park would be quite good fun. Now I have started it, I have a feeling it is going to be dull! As I've mentioned Elly from the London office is out on a short visit. Devis and I took her up to Pondok Ambung and Camp Leakey. The night at Pondok Ambung was great as ever and nothing is better than waking to the sound of gibbons singing.

After breakfast we decided to go for a short walk to have a look around. Besides one glorious veiled-lady fungus (beautiful but very smelly) and some pitcher plants, we did not see too much besides water.

Veiled-lady fungus

Pitcher Plants

All the swamps are full. I was the first to stumble in but, I am pleased to say Devis and Elly quickly followed suit. Also, as I was the one with the camera my mishaps are not recorded :-)

(Devis insists I tell you that, in the photo, he is not in fact falling over, but picking up a stick. I leave it to you to decide!)

We then went up to Camp Leakey. I hope next year we can update the displays in the Information Centre which are starting to deteriorate and look a bit tired. I was attempting to show this to Elly but understandably she was far more interested in the orangutans.

With Gara and her new baby around, who can blame her?

Orangutan still very sick but now eating.

I went out to the Care Centre today to check on Zidane. While still in a pretty awful state he is improving. We have brought one of the Camp Buluh staff back to town to sit with him throughout the day. He offers Zidane food whenever he feels like it. Zidane is eating but he is reluctant to drink. However, the affection he shows for people is touching. He actually slid off his makeshift cot for a hug. Thank you Brigitta for your generous donation of $100 it is very much appreciated by all of us.

(Apologies if the photo is dark – I deliberately switched the flash off)

Elly, from the UK office, is visiting the field projects at the moment so she came to the Care Centre too.

Elly receiving an enthusiastic welcome.

There is a pair of binturongs (Arctictis binturong) also known as bearcats at the Centre at the moment.

They are very cool animals. It is a dream of mine to see one in the wild… as well as to Zidane back in the trees.

Add Power To Our Research

Pondok Ambung, our research station in Tanjung Puting National Park, has been mentioned quite a bit in my blog. In the late 80's, Pondok Ambung was established as a proboscis monkey research site but by the end of 90's it had been badly damaged by illegal loggers. The Orangutan Foundation's team of volunteers repaired the site in 2001 but it remained abandoned until 2005 when the Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation awarded us a grant for its complete renovation.

And this is what we did.

The station requires a new solar power set. Solar is the only source of power providing electricity for the station. A new solar set costs $600 and any donations towards this amount would be hugely appreciated. So far the running and maintenance of the station has been entirely funded by the Foundation or from fees received from researchers staying at Pondok Ambung.

Recently, Pondok Ambung was used as the base for the “Orang-utan ‘08” expedition from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. A team of four undergraduates led by Graham Banes spent eight weeks in Tanjung Puting studying the effects of disturbance, particularly forest fires, on the distribution and density of orangutans. Encouraging scientific research in Tanjung Puting National Park creates the knock on effect of increasing support for its protection.

Here are some of the incredible species that have drawn researchers to Pondok Ambung so far.

Malaysian False Gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii)

Proboscis Monkey

Tarsier

Tropical Pitcher Plant

And of course...Orangutans!

Thanks for your comments on my last post - I've just about recovered!

Tropical Forest Research Station

July has been a busy month, hence my lack of posts (apologies) and it looks set to continue into August. This has definitely been Pondok Ambung’s month. Pondok Ambung is the Tropical Forest Research Station we operate inside Tanjung Puting National Park.

Pondok Ambung is set in a beautiful location on the Sekonyer River, TPNP.

I have already told you of Rene’s study on crocodiles but I think it completely slipped by to tell you that the University of Reading's ‘Summer School’ were here earlier this month. This is the second year, Reading University have run a ten-day field course at Pondok Ambung. It is always great to see students getting out of the classroom and into the forest. I hope it inspires them. They were certainly captivated by the orangutans and gibbons.

Pondok Ambung visitors; orangutans, gibbons, and humans -whose watching who?

And just to prove there are always new experiences to be had, the day Brigitta (who contacted us through Wildlife Direct) was with us at Pondok Ambung, we found a tree that had been absolutely torn apart. You will have seen photos of the damage sun bears can do to trees in one of my earlier posts. Orangutans will also tear off bark to either get at sap or insects. But, on this tree, half the bark had been shorn off and huge chunks of heartwood pulled out. If it was an orangutan or a bear, I would not want to meet them!

It was Rene who gave us the answer: the tree had been struck by lightening (he said there had been an almighty thunder clap and lightening flash the day before). That was why the wood appeared to have exploded outwards. Still it was incredible there was no sign of burning. Despite the downpour, I would have thought a million plus volts would have at least singed the leaves…

Orangutans and Crocodiles

Hello again, sorry for the silence but I have just had another fantastic week in Tanjung Puting National Park. Actually, on Monday I was in Lamandau, on a peat-lands survey, but I was still out of the office and in the forest, which made for a good day!

In case you're wondering where these places I keep mentioning are, here's a map (Pangkalanbun is where our office is).

At Pondok Ambung I caught up with René, the German crocodile researcher, and then spent a wonderful couple of days at Camp Leakey. There were orangutans everywhere! What was great was seeing some unusual things. Foremost on that list was food sharing between two adult females.

Above and below, Rani and Riga - sharing food

Young orangutans will often sample what their mothers are eating. This is part of the learning process; finding out what is good to eat. However, on Wednesday, I watched two adult orangutans Rani and her daughter Riga sharing food. What made this doubly interesting is that it was Riga who was giving food to her mother. There may be some biological reason for this – Rani’s three year old son is obviously Riga’s half-brother but that seems a stretch. Normally, the genetic drivers of caring-behaviour are down the generations, not up them. This could have been a case of dominance; the older female forcing the younger one to submit. However, it is also quite likely that it was a simple act of altruism: Riga had enough to eat so was happy to share with her mother.

The final excitement of the week was finding a dead and half-eaten crocodile. We reported this to René who examined the carcass. He estimated it to have been around three metres in length and was killed in a fight with another crocodile. Almost certainly the other crocodile was bigger.

Sekonyer River, TPNP

Having just bathed in that river it was kind of sobering to know there was a bigger crocodile out there…..

As always thanks for your comments, questions and support of our work. Maciej G, thank you very much for your $50 donation at the end of June. Will try and post again soon - the daily powercuts aren't making it easy!

A very rare crocodile

Compared with the week before, when I spent four days out of six in the field, this week seems to have been very office bound with only one visit to the Orangutan Care Centre. I guess that is what happens as audit-time approaches. One exciting thing did happened. Rene Bonke, a German PhD student arrived to begin research into the ecology of the Malaysian False Gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii), one of the world’s rarest crocodiles.

Malaysian False Gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii)

Rene will be spending the next three months at Pondok Ambung Research Station in Tanjung Puting National Park (TPNP). Earlier studies, on which we also collaborated, found “the highest ever recorded density of wild Tomistoma” on the river system leading to Pondok Ambung and Camp Leakey.

Tomistoma are easily distinguished from the other species of crocodile found locally, the saltwater or estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus).

Top photo large Tomistoma on Sekonyer and one below saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) - not so sweet!

Tomistoma, like the true gharial of India, have slender snouts which are an adaptation for catching fish, their main prey. Tomistoma can reach lengths of over 5 m. Individuals of that size are rarely seen, but we know of a very large one on the Sekonyer River.

One of the residents in the Sekonyer River, TPNP

Tomistoma have never been known to attack people, though they have been recorded catching swimming monkeys. By comparison, saltwater crocodiles can be aggressive and extremely dangerous. Unfortunately one actually took a tourist in 2002. As the sign at Pondok Ambung says “There is a reason why crocodile researchers come here: No Swimming!”

Tomistoma - Photo by Mark Auliya

Sheryl, thank you for your offer of a donation. I read your blog on your visit to the Centre for Great Apes. I hope you are not too offended by chimps spitting because orangutans do it too. And they blow raspberries…

For more information Tomistoma Task Force

Trapped Wildlife

Releasing caged wildlife is rarely anyone’s idea of fun. Panic-stricken animals tend to lash out and they don’t have claws, teeth and talons for nothing. Which is why, yesterday, finding an eagle, a snake and two macaques caught in fish traps provided a challenging finish to the day. As always, I must apologise for the photos; but this time we did have a good excuse; we were all a bit too busy to take photos. So, thank you Rene (a peat forest researcher) for taking the ones below. The fish traps were made of a wooden frame wrapped in netting with an inverted slit through which fish can enter but can not escape. Because the water level in the Mangkung River, the Lamandau Wildlife Reserve, has dropped so much the traps were exposed and the fish inside had obviously tempted the monkeys and the crested-serpent eagle in for an easy meal. Certainly, I have never seen animals caught in them before.

Jak, the Lamandau Patrol Manager and I tackled the eagle first, only to find there was a small python in the trap as well. I was certain that as we cut away the netting the eagle would either peck or slash with its talons, which were wrapped in the netting. Amazingly, once the roof was cut away the bird freed its feet and flew out right in front of our faces, without scratching either of us.

Crested serpent-eagle caught in a fish trap (photo by Rene Dommain).

The python was half way through the netting but having gorged on the trapped fish had a bulge three quarters of the way down its body, which would not fit through the mesh. Jak was all for leaving it and I have to say as its head twisted around I thought he had a point. However, as it was, the snake would be a sitting target for the next eagle to come along. So trying to keep the sharp edge away from its skin, I slid my knife in between the snake and the netting and cut it free. Great, we were now in the water with a python and neither of us wanted to think about crocodiles!

Juvenile macaque caught in a fish trap - once freed he swam away (photo by Rene Dommain).

The macaques were about 100m downstream. In one trap there was a juvenile and on the opposite riverbank, an adult female, thrashing around madly. We were able to free the youngster and I swam over to cut out the female. Again, having some experience of macaques, I thought as soon as the top was open she would come flying out and bite. My dulcet tones did nothing to calm her and, as I cut away each side, she would retreat into the opposite corner ensuring she was always under netting until the whole top was cut off. Only then did she come out.

It was obviously our lucky day for instead of flying out as predicted she actually dove down and swam away under the water. We saw her pop up and climb out, maybe, 15m away.

Four animals released without injury to either them or us. Not bad. Then I scrapped all the skin off my shin climbing back into the boat!

Nancy M., thank you very much for your donation of $50, that you made at the end of April, your support is much appreciated.

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