Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part three: 2013-2014

DavidBrown said:
His brain would look awfully silly wandering around the rain forests and swamps of Asia by itself though, not to mention mobility issues...
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But it *would* be small enough to sneak offshow at any collections with exceptionally unusual species :p

Zooish said:
Exactly, I struggled with wanting to put that down. Bless you TeaLovingDave for actually posting it! :D
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I didn't struggle at all ;)
 
Chlidonias said:
This next part of the trip is called “Back In Borneo, Baby!”. Otherwise known as “Good God Will This Trip Never End?!”. Or to lintworm as “Stop Going To Places With Mammals!!”
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I've probably asked you before, but I don't remember so I'll just ask. What is your opinion of the origin of the Bornean elephants? Do you think that they are native to the island as some of the genetics work has suggested or do you think that they were introduced a few hundred years ago?

Will you be able to see any of the gliding fauna on this expedition?
 
DavidBrown said:
I've probably asked you before, but I don't remember so I'll just ask. What is your opinion of the origin of the Bornean elephants? Do you think that they are native to the island as some of the genetics work has suggested or do you think that they were introduced a few hundred years ago?

Will you be able to see any of the gliding fauna on this expedition?
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I have seen flying dragons, flying geckoes and colugos so far this trip, in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore respectively. I'm not sure what I'll see in Borneo, hopefully some giant flying squirrels.

I'll have to come back later with specifics on the elephants (dates and so forth) but my opinion is they originated in Java and came to Borneo via an introduced population in the Philippines.
 
I just saw this and WTF!!! I thought you were ending this trip? I m not sure if ending a trip has a different meaning in New Zealand as in the rest of the world, but cool you ended up in Borneo. Any pictures of Psittacula longicauda or blue-rumpets would be amazing. And what is next? New-Guinea (which would upset Lintworm due to the cool mammals and would ensure you winning the Zoochat big year already in May).
 
DDcorvus said:
I just saw this and WTF!!! I thought you were ending this trip? I m not sure if ending a trip has a different meaning in New Zealand as in the rest of the world, but cool you ended up in Borneo. Any pictures of Psittacula longicauda or blue-rumpets would be amazing. And what is next? New-Guinea (which would upset Lintworm due to the cool mammals and would ensure you winning the Zoochat big year already in May).
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no, not New Guinea. Sadly, the trip is over! :p
 
Chlidonias said:
I'll have to come back later with specifics on the elephants (dates and so forth) but my opinion is they originated in Java and came to Borneo via an introduced population in the Philippines.
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the elephants in Borneo have a very restricted range and basically no fossil record (as far as I'm aware there is only one fossil specimen on record from Borneo [a molar] and the actual specimen no longer exists so cannot be verified). Borneo has been connected to mainland Asia and most of the rest of Indonesia at various points in time due to lower sea levels in glacial periods, but there are several "likely" mammals missing from Borneo, including tigers and tapirs, so there must have been some sort of channelling effect preventing full colonisation by all large mammal species.

The case for Bornean elephants coming from Java currently rests on historical data which show that in the 14th century two elephants from Java were sent to an island in the Philippines (Jolo) where they established a wild population which survived until around 1850 (i.e. for 500 years!!!). Elephants from this Philippines island were transplanted to northern Borneo by the Sultan of Sulu in 1658. This doesn't prove the current elephant population is not native but to me it is far more likely that it is derived from introduced Javan elephants.
 
You bastard :p and I just booked a trip to the country with probably the lowest amount of land mammals (including bats), with only 1 native species. Allthough some pacific islands may be similar in species numbers...
 
lintworm said:
You bastard :p and I just booked a trip to the country with probably the lowest amount of land mammals (including bats), with only 1 native species. Allthough some pacific islands may be similar in species numbers...
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I know you're not talking about Madagascar!

And where the hell is everyone getting all this money?! Do they just hand out money where you guys live? Or is there a way to convert your number of posts into real currency? I could totally get rich off of that:p

~Thylo:cool:
 
ThylacineAlive said:
I know you're not talking about Madagascar!

And where the hell is everyone getting all this money?! Do they just hand out money where you guys live? Or is there a way to convert your number of posts into real currency? I could totally get rich off of that:p

~Thylo:cool:
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They actually sell their organs while travelling, this is unfortunately not the most sustainable way of making money so in a couple of months both Lintworm as Chlidonias will stop posting on Zoochat.
 
Chlidonias said:
This doesn't prove the current elephant population is not native but to me it is far more likely that it is derived from introduced Javan elephants.
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1. Are there still wild/native Elephants on Java? Do they share the long tails characteristic of Borneo elephants?

2. Where are you now? I am seriously confused...:confused:

3. Any chance of you putting up some of your Kaziranga photos in the Gallery? I keep looking but to no avail...:(
 
1. No that population is gone.

2. And I m wondering as well, mainly due to his comment on that it is over. He might have returned home and is writing the reports with some delay.
 
DDcorvus said:
So not even a recently extinct population is there anymore :p
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Well I meant that the population wasn't prehistoric but died out some time ago.

If you look up the Javan Elephant (Elephas maximus sondaicus) on Wikipedia, it lists it as Critically Endangered and says a small introduced population lives on Borneo, which I find interesting.

~Thylo:cool:
 
Pertinax said:
1. Are there still wild/native Elephants on Java? Do they share the long tails characteristic of Borneo elephants?

2. Where are you now? I am seriously confused...:confused:

3. Any chance of you putting up some of your Kaziranga photos in the Gallery? I keep looking but to no avail...:(
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1. no elephants left on Java anymore, so if the Bornean ones are Javan then that subspecies is not extinct.

2. I'm at Mt. Kinabalu in Borneo.

3. I have a back-log of photos from various places and zoos due to slow internet speeds, the issues with th gallery uploader at the moment (having to upload photos one at a time!) and not always a lot of time for uploading things. There will be photos from India in due course. (I will post whenever I add photos to relevant galleries).
 
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