Late Russell Wallace, here I come!

“It (the Malay archipelago) produces the giant flowers of the Rafflesia, the great green-winged ornithoptera (princes among the butterfly tribes), the man-like Orang-utan, and the gorgeous Birds of Paradise” – Alfred Russell Wallace, in the “Malay Archipelago”

With these words ringing in the back of my mind, I entered Peninsular Malaysia for a fully funded field course by the Centre for Tropical Forest Science. The course lasted six weeks so there is much to write about along with some photographs. However, I cannot keep my promise of uploading beautiful 50 mm lens pictures as the airport X-ray scanner damaged them during the luggage scan; I should have carried them in my hand baggage. 

At the outset, I would like to thank Manup, Dia, Pradeep, Lillian, Liwen, Alyse, Lydia, Param, Mumu, Ummul, Rhett, Rin, Rhona, Dtoon, big mama, Cici, Sandy, Du, Sze-leng, Juni, Kang min & Por for being there and for such an amazing time, and I will be putting up some of the photographs of these people that survived the airport scan. THANKS Pasoh - Field course folks! Terima kasih!!!

As I entered Pasoh, a line that Juni my friend in the above photograph said struck me and will remain with me for the next six weeks: a garden amidst oil-palm. This is a good four-word description of Pasoh forest, which is roughly about 17 sq. km amidst ever-expanding oil palm plantations. But the core area of this forest will be preserved mainly since it is being utilised for intensive research. In the year 1985, a 50-ha permanent plot was established here to monitor growth, recruitment and mortalities of lowland evergreen forest tree species, of which so little is known. So the good news is, the 50 ha will remain for a long time, at least till research on lowland forests here is on!

Mornings began with White-handed gibbon calls, which last the first two hours of the day and the occasional 3-note ‘Kha-Khoo-Khaan’ of the dusky leaf monkey. We also often heard the helicopter-like sound of Wreathed hornbills flying by and occassionally we were lucky enough to see them. After being briefed about Pasoh, about the CTFS and the 50-ha plot, we headed straight to the most interesting part of Pasoh, the ~60 m tall tower. View from the top? Photographs are arranged such that the view from all the sides is captured.

 

The canopy tower, 2-3rd way up.

The last photograph is of the tower 2-3rd way up, there was still a wing which some of us whodared the wind and the sway climbed.

For the next few weeks we were taught entomology, ornithology and primatology basics which we thoroughly enjoyed. We also went to the town once in a while (once, actually in the four weeks!), city folks that we were! We walked several kilometres taking in the sights and then we had some ginger beer, which is not really beer, but much tastier than beer. 

The leaf litter almost everywhere in Pasoh glows dimly at nights due to a fungus that forms on dead and sometimes fresh leaves. The next blogpost is about the night walks in Pasoh—snakes, frogs and geckoes.

The long walk on the highway