moloch05
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Greetings everyone,
I am back from a wonderful trip to Malaysia. I spent six weeks in June and July at several sites including Taman Negara in west Malaysia, the Maliau Basin in Sabah (east Malaysia, Borneo) and then Fraser's Hill (west Malaysia). My trip was prompted by an invitation to participate on a butterfly survey of the Maliau Basin. This reserve was largely unknown with regards to butterflies and a group of avid photographers from Singapore and Malaysia were able to organize the survey. I, of course, looked for reptiles, birds and mammmals while there. I did the same at all sites although I spent much of the time in pursuit of butterflies.
I will have three posts from this trip. Reptiles were hard going so unfortuantely I won't have many shots of these creatures. I will have many other natural history photos along with numerous shots of the butterflies. Malaysia is one of the top locations in the world for butterflies. The total list is on the order of 1400 species so the diversity and sheer numbers of butterflies at most sites was staggering. I had lots of fun searching for these and the other animals that live in the Malaysian rainforests.
Fraser's Hill is a lovely hill station located about 100 km northeast of Kuala Lumpur. The temperature in the mountains is much lower than in the hot, steamy lowlands so this is a popular retreat on the weekends. Weekdays were quiet and I usually had the roads and trails to myself. My wife and I stayed at the Pekan Bungalow as we did on our last visit.
Not far away was the town centre with this often photographed clock:
... and the restaurants where we ate. Food was cheap and my wife and I could usually buy a tasty, spicy dinner for less than $10 AUD for the two of us.
Here are shots of the rainforest near the little town of Fraser's hill or along the 8 km road down to the Gap.
Mornings and evenings were often misty although not really all that cool. Temperatures usually hovered between 18C and 24C.
I visited the Jeriau Falls area a few kms from the hill on several afternoons. The sandy area along the creek above the falls was a great place for butterflies. I learned how to bait for butterflies with the butterfly photographers in Borneo. Shrimp paste (belachan) dissolved in water worked very well. The Malaysians use this smelly stuff in many of their dishes and the butterflies love it as well.
Snakes were hard to come by and I only found two live and one dead on the hill. The most impressive was the Malayan Rat Snake (Elaphe flavolineata). Wow, what a creature! I blocked it from crawling off the road one morning and it immediately flattened its neck, lifted into coils and attacked. I stood still expecting this to be a bluff. I was wrong and it shot up to me and bit my leg. I caught it and then moved it to a more open location for photos. Unfortunately, it settled fast so most of my shots were when it was only in a "half-hostile" emotional state.
I found this injured White-spotted Cat Snake (Boiga drapiezii) a little below the Gap. It was still alive but it had been hit by a car and was mortally injured. Its form was so much like Imantodes in the neotropics. I did not recognize it as a Boiga at all until I looked through the photo guide.
The third snake that I found was a flattened Malayan Banded Wolf Snake (Lycodon subcinctus). It was too damaged for photos. I would have been very wary about touching it at night since it looked much like a krait.
Geckos included what I think to be a Banded Slender-toed Gecko (Cyrtodactylus pulchellus). These were large, fast-running geckos that usually would race off the road before I could get back to them for photos.
During the day, I saw several species of skinks but I don't have photos this year.
This is the burrow of one of the primitive trapdoor spiders, Liphistius sp. I passed a small stick across the door of the burrow and the spider absolutely exploded out of its burrow and hit the stick with considerable force. I involuntarily jumped back and this unfortunately flicked the girl onto the ground. She was highly defensive at first with front legs and fangs lifted but then after awhile, appeared frightened to be so exposed. I used a stick to lift her and place her next to her burrow. Hopefully, she found her way home.
This one popped out of its burrow when I was working with the spider above. It seemed to be watching to see the source of the commotion.
I found a few tarantula burrows along road cuts. These tarantulas were large with red legs and a navy blue body ... quite colourful. I was able to tempt this one to the edge of its burrow but it would not come all the way into the open.
Primates were numerous around Fraser's Hill. Long-tailed Macaques were the most common but this year, for the first time, I saw several troops of Pig-tailed Macaques. Here are a couple that I photographed along the road. I had to shot from inside the car since they always ran if I poked the camera out the window.
Dusky Leaf Monkeys were also fairly common.
Here are shots of the butterflies. I will start with the Pierids and then others in subsequent updates to this post. Some of the pierids were so beautiful. Many of these were quite strange with colourful outer wings but rather dull black and white inner wings.
Here was one of the prettiest known as a Painted Jezebel (Delias kyparete):
This is the beautiful Red-base Jezebel (Delias descombesi), a species that is the most numerous in the hills.
The most common Jezebel by far was the Malayan Jezebel (Delias ninus). Unfortunately, all of those that I saw remained high overhead.
Here is one of the Gulls (Cepora nadina):
Spotted Sawtooth (Prioneris thestylis): I saw one of these on most days. What a beauty!
... a sawtooth mixed with Chocolate Albatross.
Redspot Sawtooth (Prioneris philonome)
an Albatross (Appias cardena)
White Albatross (Appias indra)
Orange Albatross (Appias nero): one of the few entirely orange butterflies. The upperwings were brightly coloured so this was a lovely butterfly in flight.
Chocolate Albatross (Appias lyncida)
Banded Puffin (Appias pandione): These had both white and yellow forms.
Dercas verhuelli
Grass Yellow (Eurema simulatrix)
Grass Yellos (Eurema sp.)
I am back from a wonderful trip to Malaysia. I spent six weeks in June and July at several sites including Taman Negara in west Malaysia, the Maliau Basin in Sabah (east Malaysia, Borneo) and then Fraser's Hill (west Malaysia). My trip was prompted by an invitation to participate on a butterfly survey of the Maliau Basin. This reserve was largely unknown with regards to butterflies and a group of avid photographers from Singapore and Malaysia were able to organize the survey. I, of course, looked for reptiles, birds and mammmals while there. I did the same at all sites although I spent much of the time in pursuit of butterflies.
I will have three posts from this trip. Reptiles were hard going so unfortuantely I won't have many shots of these creatures. I will have many other natural history photos along with numerous shots of the butterflies. Malaysia is one of the top locations in the world for butterflies. The total list is on the order of 1400 species so the diversity and sheer numbers of butterflies at most sites was staggering. I had lots of fun searching for these and the other animals that live in the Malaysian rainforests.
Fraser's Hill is a lovely hill station located about 100 km northeast of Kuala Lumpur. The temperature in the mountains is much lower than in the hot, steamy lowlands so this is a popular retreat on the weekends. Weekdays were quiet and I usually had the roads and trails to myself. My wife and I stayed at the Pekan Bungalow as we did on our last visit.
Not far away was the town centre with this often photographed clock:
... and the restaurants where we ate. Food was cheap and my wife and I could usually buy a tasty, spicy dinner for less than $10 AUD for the two of us.
Here are shots of the rainforest near the little town of Fraser's hill or along the 8 km road down to the Gap.
Mornings and evenings were often misty although not really all that cool. Temperatures usually hovered between 18C and 24C.
I visited the Jeriau Falls area a few kms from the hill on several afternoons. The sandy area along the creek above the falls was a great place for butterflies. I learned how to bait for butterflies with the butterfly photographers in Borneo. Shrimp paste (belachan) dissolved in water worked very well. The Malaysians use this smelly stuff in many of their dishes and the butterflies love it as well.
Snakes were hard to come by and I only found two live and one dead on the hill. The most impressive was the Malayan Rat Snake (Elaphe flavolineata). Wow, what a creature! I blocked it from crawling off the road one morning and it immediately flattened its neck, lifted into coils and attacked. I stood still expecting this to be a bluff. I was wrong and it shot up to me and bit my leg. I caught it and then moved it to a more open location for photos. Unfortunately, it settled fast so most of my shots were when it was only in a "half-hostile" emotional state.
I found this injured White-spotted Cat Snake (Boiga drapiezii) a little below the Gap. It was still alive but it had been hit by a car and was mortally injured. Its form was so much like Imantodes in the neotropics. I did not recognize it as a Boiga at all until I looked through the photo guide.
The third snake that I found was a flattened Malayan Banded Wolf Snake (Lycodon subcinctus). It was too damaged for photos. I would have been very wary about touching it at night since it looked much like a krait.
Geckos included what I think to be a Banded Slender-toed Gecko (Cyrtodactylus pulchellus). These were large, fast-running geckos that usually would race off the road before I could get back to them for photos.
During the day, I saw several species of skinks but I don't have photos this year.
This is the burrow of one of the primitive trapdoor spiders, Liphistius sp. I passed a small stick across the door of the burrow and the spider absolutely exploded out of its burrow and hit the stick with considerable force. I involuntarily jumped back and this unfortunately flicked the girl onto the ground. She was highly defensive at first with front legs and fangs lifted but then after awhile, appeared frightened to be so exposed. I used a stick to lift her and place her next to her burrow. Hopefully, she found her way home.
This one popped out of its burrow when I was working with the spider above. It seemed to be watching to see the source of the commotion.
I found a few tarantula burrows along road cuts. These tarantulas were large with red legs and a navy blue body ... quite colourful. I was able to tempt this one to the edge of its burrow but it would not come all the way into the open.
Primates were numerous around Fraser's Hill. Long-tailed Macaques were the most common but this year, for the first time, I saw several troops of Pig-tailed Macaques. Here are a couple that I photographed along the road. I had to shot from inside the car since they always ran if I poked the camera out the window.
Dusky Leaf Monkeys were also fairly common.
Here are shots of the butterflies. I will start with the Pierids and then others in subsequent updates to this post. Some of the pierids were so beautiful. Many of these were quite strange with colourful outer wings but rather dull black and white inner wings.
Here was one of the prettiest known as a Painted Jezebel (Delias kyparete):
This is the beautiful Red-base Jezebel (Delias descombesi), a species that is the most numerous in the hills.
The most common Jezebel by far was the Malayan Jezebel (Delias ninus). Unfortunately, all of those that I saw remained high overhead.
Here is one of the Gulls (Cepora nadina):
Spotted Sawtooth (Prioneris thestylis): I saw one of these on most days. What a beauty!
... a sawtooth mixed with Chocolate Albatross.
Redspot Sawtooth (Prioneris philonome)
an Albatross (Appias cardena)
White Albatross (Appias indra)
Orange Albatross (Appias nero): one of the few entirely orange butterflies. The upperwings were brightly coloured so this was a lovely butterfly in flight.
Chocolate Albatross (Appias lyncida)
Banded Puffin (Appias pandione): These had both white and yellow forms.
Dercas verhuelli
Grass Yellow (Eurema simulatrix)
Grass Yellos (Eurema sp.)
