Danum Valley weekend

[TonyQ]

@@Kitsafari

Some beautiful writing - especially your description of waking up and seeing the mist clear.

 

Is it really possible to linger too long when seeing wild orang utan?

 

Very enjoyable pictures

[Kitsafari]

 

Is it really possible to linger too long when seeing wild orang utan?

 

 

absolutely not. that's why each time we saw the orang utans, we would linger, spend loads of time watching, admiring, loving their expressions and actions, and taking pictures.

[Kitsafari]

sorry for the delay. i'll try to finish this soon.

 

 

the highlights of the afternoon walk were more birds, and a batch of red leaf monkeys in the sapa babandil trail. they were screeching at each other and then hopped off the trail into a thicket of high trees. we tried to follow their tracks on the main road but lost them.

 

There are different species of leaf monkeys in Asia. Red leaf monkeys, with a face like a forlorn wrinkly human mask and expressive eyes, are endemic to Borneo. Their maroon-auburn coats have given them other names – maroon langurs and maroon leaf monkeys. They are Old world primates and are social, living in small groups. The monkeys are also territorial. Unlike the orang utans, they are quite big in numbers although they also face pressure from hunting and habitat loss.

 

the bum treatment

 

with a baby

 

beautiful long tails

 

[Kitsafari]

The following were birds we saw along the trek, at the staff quarters and at the lodge itself.

 

Pacific swallow building a nest at the lodge.

 

 

a mate lending a beak...

 

a Jerdon's baza looking curiously at us

 

 

 

showing off another profile

 

 

an oriental magpie robin outside our deck

 

 

blue throated bee eater

 

 

 

all in a row..

 

 

a juvenile plaintive cuckoo in bushes in front of our cabin

 

a whiskered tree swift showing her beautiful stripes

 

 

 

wallace's hawk eagle looking for prey in the light rains

 

 

Edited July 18, 2014 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

The night walk was very short. Din hunted around the staff quarters for some life, but other than the TVs, all was quiet. A female tarantula was hanging in her favourite nest in a tree close to the quarters. about the size of my hand, the old world arachnid looked like an ornithoctoninae or orange-fringed tarantula.

 

then it was on to frogs. and it was fun! followed by a short walk on the elevated boardwalk on the Natural trail which is the only trail you can take for the night walks and that is a shame. the lodge operators should consider building another elevated boardwalk on one other trails, especially for guests who want to stay longer than 3 nights. a ride on the lorry is pretty limited in seeing wildlife, and we saw more interesting insects on the short walk.

filed ear treefrog

giant river toad - can u see him? mr Kitsafari couldn't for the longest time...

dark eared treefrog

soft focus-ed harlequinn flying frog

another dark eared tree frog

yet another dark earred tree frog

this is a clearer pic...

 

[Kitsafari]

and the insects of the night

 

a whip scorpion - it was small, about the length of the middle finger

 

 

 

a forest gecko trying to make a quick getaway. his skin was quite translucent

 

a rather large spiny backed stick insect

 

 

quite a pretty little red cricket

 

 

missed this frog - a white lipped frog

 

 

 

and a mystery that took us a while to figure out....can you guess what this is?

 

 

a clue:

 

[Kitsafari]

Next morning we were going to start out a little later with breakfast planned for 7.30am. Right on cue at 5.30am, I opened my eyes to the wake up calls from the birds. I played around with the camera taking different forms of the mist in the forest. But no matter what form it took, the forest looked enchanting, wrapped in the misty muslin clothes. The birds flew around in the faint darkness, calling each other up for the early worms and to bask in the cold dew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

okay one last one....

 

[Kitsafari]

We took a leisurely breakfast before Mr Kitsafari was taken to the trail that led to the Viewpoint – a 4-hr trek up some pretty steep trails past the jacuzzi pool and the coffincliff trail. I opted out knowing that I couldn’t take it the steep climbs, so I went off to the treetop canopy walk alone instead.

on hindsight, I wished I had just braved some of the trails on my own, but the lodge prefers that you take the trails with a guide. Understandably so, since you really won’t know what you come up across and the lodge won’t know your whereabouts. But it’s pretty safe in Danum valley; other than the clouded leopards and the elephants, you are unlikely to come up against major predators or militants (so far).

I returned to the fig tree, and there I found Yanti and her 3-year old juvenile orangutan up in the fig tree. A group of guests joined me for a short while but the guide ushered them back as the breakfast buffet was closing soon. All on my own in the quiet solitude, I watched them through my camera. I could see Yanti glancing towards me when the group left. A moment later, she released her hold on her baby Shirley and Shirley started exploring the tree.

Mother and baby sharing a moment.

Female orangutans give birth to a single baby (like humans!) but only when they reach 10-15 years old and even then, only in 4-5 years’ intervals. Yanti is nearly 40 years old which means that Shirley may be her last child. This slow birth rate has aggravated the loss of orang utans since the reproduction is not fast enough to replace the decline caused by poaching in or habitat loss for orangutans.

Warning: Jerkiness can cause motions sickness…. at one point, I lost their positions so you can see the camera zooming all over before I found them. I don't know how to edit a video. any tips will be most welcome

[Kitsafari]

Mr Kitsafari had an even quieter walk up to the viewpoint. he didn't get to see much, other than a trogon and more red leaf monkeys. we had been wanting to catch a glimpse of the elusive bird. the photo came out out of focus, so i'll skip it.

instead, here s a pill milipede

a female red leaf monkey

such soulful eyes and expression.

with her baby

a view of the lodge from the viewpoint. you can see Danum River behind the lodge, looping around the lodge and returns infront of the lodge. well the lodge was built along the curve!

[Kitsafari]

we saw more birds after a particularly heavy downpour that afternoon.

A bush full of blue throated bee eaters

a little spiderhunter

another juvenile plaintive cuckoo

a great bill heron parading with her tiny fish

the drenched heron shaking off the rains

[TonyQ]

@@Kitsafari

Beautiful shots of the misty morning

It was great to see all of the frogs and the insects. And good to see the orang utan with the baby

The bee eaters are stunning.

You gave us a clue for the two photos, but you didn't say what they are..... (it looks like feathers?)

[Kitsafari]

@@TonyQ thank you!

 

din was stumped when he saw it at first. But it was two birds all curled up in a ball. It was unusual for them to be sleeping at such low levels - about thigh-height in a bush, and next to the boardwalk. It was quite cute.

[Kitsafari]

On our last evening walk, the new orangutan couple Ornie and Amy decided to pay us a royal visit. They came low among the trees, and close to the road leading to the staff quarters. We had a great view of the two. During her trip, @kittykatuk23 had seen Ornie and another female together, but apparently that female wasn’t too keen on Ornie, so he switched his affections to Amy.

 

enjoying his tree bark which looked exactly like Udon noodles

 

 

 

in search of Amy

 

 

 

amy enjoying honey

 

 

 

videos are still rather shaky. sorry....

 

Ornie chewing tree bark

 

 

Amy enjoying some stolen honey, and getting stung by bees.

 

 

Ornie too late on the scene to share the honey

Edited July 24, 2014 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

On the way to the treetop canopy walkway, a rusu deer was sitting by the road. It was my first sight of the deer! it was skittish, looked at us for a while, and then bounded off into the forest. we couldn’t chase it as we had a Big Date to attend - the dusk flight of the large flying squirrel.

 

 

 

 

 

prevost's squirrel

 

 

 

view of the tree tops from the canopy walkway

[Kitsafari]

we were just slightly ahead of another group and Din got us first class seats to the flight. we had to wait for a while as the last lights of the sun began to give way to the gathering mists of darkness . The squirrel emerged from its nest in the tree and clambered up the branches and started to feed. Just as the sun disappeared, the cicada started their echoing cries and right on time the squirrel took off and glided. It was awesome. we stayed on as the other group crossed the walkway, and then the squirrel took off for another tree. it was then i saw a lone red leaf monkey at the crown of a tall tree, looking rather forlorn and sleepy.

 

Flying squirrel preparing for its flight

 

 

the awesome flight

 

 

the lonesome monkey

 

[michael-ibk]

Love the Squirrel flight, great capture!

[Kitsafari]

The last morning dawned less colder than the day before. At last I saw the sun trying to break through the thick clouds.

 

 

 

Walking through the hornbill trail that morning was the most fruitful for us. We saw a gibbon on its own. Din thought it had lost his female partner. The gibbon was elusive, darting from tree to tree and we couldn’t get any shots. Just 50m away, we heard a crash and Din got off the trail into the bushes to check. It was the gibbon’s female partner coming to join him.

 

 

 

 

We were stopped by a pygmy squirrel darting down a tree trunk. They are fast creatures! Din turned around to talk to me, and uttered Otters. I spun around to see a male adult scampering across the path, followed by a female adult and then a juvenile otter swiftly running across. It was over in a minute, too late for Mr Kitsafari to turn around to see them.

 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

finally - all too soon, we were tucking into lunch and ushered into the vehicle to take the 2.5-hr ride back to Lahad Datu. It has been an eye opening trip. Back in Singapore, when we mentioned we saw orangutans in the forest, every single person thought we had seen those in rehabilitation sanctuaries. it’s a sad reflection that many of the orangutans we hear of are either in zoos or in sanctuaries, rather than in their natural habitats.

 

the other reflection I had was how we in Asia take orangutans for granted. We think of Gorillas and Chimpanzees as such great exotic primates, but orangutans? we had an orangutan which was a famous mascot in the Singapore zoo for years,and we have come to treat these beautiful wild primates as yet another pet in our backyard. how sad is that? and the worse thing is I was one of them! now that I have had a glimpse of how majestic they are in the wild, in nature where they belong, i have a new sense of awe for them. they are so intelligent, they deserve more respect from us.

 

Would we go back again? i think so, but probably in combination with a trip to another place like Tabin or Kinabatangan. probably Tabin as it is just 2 hrs drive from LD.

 

baby and mum

 

 

 

[TonyQ]

@@Kitsafari

I really enjoyed your video clips of the orang utan - the one with the honey and the one coming to join in a bit too late! It is great to see them moving through the trees.

The squirrel in flight is spectacular.

 

It was a short trip, but you saw a lot - despite what you had said! Very informative and engaging writing and fascinating pictures throughout. Very thought provoking about the place of the orang utan.

 

We are going next year and we adjusted our planning to make sure we request a river-view room. Your report adds to the excitement!

[Kitsafari]

Love the Squirrel flight, great capture!

Thanks Michael. Our guide Din offered to video it for us so we could enjoy the splendid flight, which we thoroughly did!

[Kitsafari]

@@Kitsafari

I really enjoyed your video clips of the orang utan - the one with the honey and the one coming to join in a bit too late! It is great to see them moving through the trees.

The squirrel in flight is spectacular.

 

It was a short trip, but you saw a lot - despite what you had said! Very informative and engaging writing and fascinating pictures throughout. Very thought provoking about the place of the orang utan.

 

We are going next year and we adjusted our planning to make sure we request a river-view room. Your report adds to the excitement!

You could also request for Din, if you like. He was part of the guide team for prince William n Kate when they were there, as well as for david Attenborough. He also guided safariCal.

[Thursday's Child]

I really enjoyed your report - your descriptions create a wonderful sense of the forest. I also think you saw a lot. I loved the videos of the orang utan especially with the honeycomb and the flying squirrel was amazing; I also really liked your photos of the monkeys and all the birds, bugs & frogs. Thank you for taking the time to post it.

[Kitsafari]

@@Thursday's Child so glad you enjoyed the photos. Thank you for the kind words.

 

The curious thing was - all these years I felt Africa held the key to all wildlife and nature because of the documentaries I would gobble up. But little did I know that back in my "backyard" (so to speak) there are wonderful nuggets of amazing wildlife to be explored. I'm quite keen now to explore more of such areas before they shrink to extinction. The problem is squeezing them into my plans for Africa as well into my limited time and resources...... Sigh....

[michael-ibk]

@@Kitsafari

 

Thank you, I really enjoyed this as well. The thought of Borneo is in my head as well some time now. Would love to see the Orang-utans, and I love the smaller mammals and the birds as well. My internal struggle is if it really could be as satisfying as a trip to Africa (or tigers in India or the Pantanal), that´s why I am still a bit hesitant. But your report, and those before, are slowly but surely convincing me. Similar thing with Costa Rica.

[pault]

@@Kitsafari Thanks for a really good report. That is a pretty good list of sightings you had and nice photos. Very impressed with it all.

 

 

I am sure you are right about the orangutans vs. the African apes. Too much exposure in zoos, traveling circuses and general entertainment has nade people totally indifferent. Why go all that way to feed the monkeys, when you can do it right here?

 

Maybe Planet of the Apes will help?