Borneo mammals i saw....

P

patrick

Well-Known Member
well i'm back and exhausted but thought i might share some of the species i saw, in the wild that i can positively ID (lots of squirrels and treeshrews were hard but more on that later)...

mountain treeshrew
maroon langur
silvered langur
proboscis monkey
long-tailed macaque
pig-tailed macaque
bornean gibbon
bornean orang-utan
prevost's squirrel
brooke's squirrel
jentick's squirrel
red giant flying squirrel
malayan badger
common palm civet
bornean asian elephant
bearded pig
bornean red muntjac

obviously, identifying small bats was out of the question and the lowlands were frequented by an aweful lot of smaller red and brown squirrel species that i saw frequently but can Id with certainty off the images i have of them in my head. as was a miniature treeshrew species.
in most cases the prevost's were always the C.p.pluo race that is jet blck with a deep maroon underbelly, however in sepilok, there was what appeared to be an all balck variation the local simply call "black squirrel". myself and another amatuer mammalologist were convinced they were all-black prevost's however, the field guide to the mammals of borneo does not list any all black squirrels at all other than the maroon bellied black version of the prevost's. we thus declared it a new unidentified subspecies :)

easily the "big" species such as the wild orangutans (a fully grown adult male and on another occasion a female with baby), proboscis monkeys and wild elephants stand out, however a few oddities really stood out - among these the giant red flying squirrels, who have to be seen to be believed. these monsterously large long limbed nocturnals, fly with an amazing grace through the high canopy from tree to tree that they totally captivated us until the sun went down and we could see them no longer. their coat was a beautiful rich red that was reminiscent of another favorite, the maroon langurs, who have strickly contrasting almond eyed slatey-grey faces like something out of a alien science fiction film. gorgeous!

anyhow, for anyone who prefers to stalk their wildlife in the jungle i cannot recommend borneo highly enough. keep you eyes peeled, take a headtorch, shut your mouth and have persistance. and the treasures simply come to you!

it's aweful tiring though!
 
Pat
How many of these would you have seen during the day and how many at night?
Also out of curiosity, what conditions were you living in, were you really roughing it?
 
That sounds great Patrick, but did you go to any Bornean zoos ;)

Any photos?
 
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jonathan - my bird watcher friend kept a list of all the species of birds we saw and he promised to give me a copy, so i'll post that when i get it. you'd be impressed, we saw A LOT of different birds!

jay - most of the animals were during the day and up close. the bearded pigs for example let you almost touch them (by the way adults are enormous!). primates are easy to spot during the day, and many were in trees we were standing under. unlike the amazon in which i found it very difficult to view primates, in borneo it seems they are much less concerned with your presence. the only species that i didn't get within a few meters of was the gibbon. who was swinging around in a distant tree, silhuetted against the setting sun (but we had binoculars).

so everything was pretty much a very "good" sighting, which was very satisfying.

the civets and badger were the night spotted species. both we got within a two or three meters of. the red flying squirrels begin to come out at dusk, but its still light enough to see them very clearly.

oh and the muntjac ran in front of the car.

wasn't really "roughing" it. in south america i spent much time sleeping in a hammock tied between two jungle trees. we cooked over a fire, washed in the river - that was more like camping (only without a tent!). in borneo we stayed in simple lodges in NP's or in the case of the Kinabatangan river, in wooden huts with wire walls and doors (to stop the monkeys raiding). a soggy mattress under a mosquito net was our beds, but when your tired as i was, thats just fine!
 
Patrick-(glad you had a good trip) about the Sumatran Rhino you saw- I'm presuming it was the female Geologob(?) that used to be at Sepilok- is she now on public display at the 'zoo' where you saw her? Presumably there's nothing else they can do with her as she's quite old and probably past breeding age even if they were able to obtain another male.

I guess you didn't get a chance to stake out the wild rhino wallow?

Look on the Sumatran rhino thread for an update on Way Kambas- there is actually NEWS at long last (but no pregnancies yet....)

Cheers.
 
grant - thats the one, and she is also completely blind due to the same condition that effects malayan tapirs when taken out of the shady forest.

unfortunately the zoo did not think to provide her with a shaded exhibit, instead placing her in a deer paddock in which the watering hole and her mud wallow is in full sun thus giving her little choice.

as to the pheasants - they had argus, i remember that, but no peacock or bulwer's from memory.
 
patrick said:
unfortunately the zoo did not think to provide her with a shaded exhibit, instead placing her in a deer paddock in which the watering hole and her mud wallow is in full sun thus giving her little choice.
Click to expand...

In the early 90's I visited the Dusit Zoo in Bangkok, hoping here was MY chance at last to see a Sumatran Rhino. They definately had one, it was featured in their brochure but (of course) it had died.. it must have been quite shortly before my visit as the small empty enclosure was just a slurry -like mud wallow- this was also just an open enclosure with no shade whatsoever, as you describe for Geologob..

(Finally saw them at Port Lympne in UK about two years later).
 
... and what do you reckon on the Bornean elephants you saw. I've heard rumour that they were introduced from elsewhere in Malaysia, rather than being true endemics. I reckon you will disagree with that?
 
the Bornean elephants were regarded as introduced animals for quite a while, but I think they have since done DNA studies on them to show they are quite distinct from other subspecies
 
Chlidonias said:
the Bornean elephants were regarded as introduced animals for quite a while, but I think they have since done DNA studies on them to show they are quite distinct from other subspecies
Click to expand...

Yes, I've just started to read a scientific article about this which is listed under the Dwarf elephant thread. I'm going to try and find out more about them as its caught my interest...

Does anyone think the Perth elephants came from Borneo or Sumatra?
 
"pygmy" elephants

the elephants in borneo are now accepted as a different subspecies E.m.borneensis and after seeing them in the flesh (both in the wild and captivity) i would have to wholeheartedly agree with this decision as they have a distinctly different look about them.

the two things that struck me first are their small size (though i hardly think its accurate to refer to them as "pygmies") - which is a good couple of feet smaller than mainland elephants. as a rough guide i would say bornean mature bulls tend to be about the size of mainland cows (all be it with an impressive set of tusks) and the cows a bit smaller again.

the faces of the cows tend to have puffy cheeks, more reminiscent of elderly elephants despite their younger age. this may be due to apparent morphological differences in jaw size, or not, but its something i noticed.

most noticeable however was the subspecies long tails. all animals had tails that almost touched the ground, and with a fully bristled end, many on the long hairs certainly did.

as i said i think they are a valid subspecies, as DNA studies suggest. however, i'll chose to refer to them as "bornean asian elephants" from now on i think, as the word "pygmy" is really a bit of an exaggeration.
 
I believe they have a very limited distribution- is it limited to Sabah? Any idea of the estimated total population size?
 
Patrick, that is an amazing list of animals you've seen!!!

You'd have to go to loads of zoos to be in with a chance of ticking all of those animals off otherwise wouldn't you. But then, some, like the pygmy elephants and squirrels may not be even kept in captivity at all!!!

I'm glad you had a nice time!!

Did you see the bearded pigs while you were in the lodges near the Kinabatngan river?
 
fodders - yes the pigs would hang around the camp on the kinabatangan. saw quite a lot, from piglets to sows and fully grown boars (which are massive!). actually whilst undeniably the best bornean elephant experience was in the wild, they also had a large herd at the wildlife department owned zoo in Kota Kinabalu. this gave me a good opportunity to visually study the animals as when i saw them in the jungle i spent a lot of time running away from them!!

oh and grant - correct. distribution restricted to northeastern sabah. it is believed that vegetation and/or lack of minerals is the excuse for the limited amount of dispersal. can't remember how many (a few thousand i think) but i do remember that, after they became recognised as a distinct subspecies, they received the dubious honor of becoming most endangered elephant taxa on earth.
 
Patrick, We've booked our Holiday, and we're going to do a similar thing to you!

Fly over to Singapore, spend a few days there (zoo, one day at Birdpark, sentosa island) then fly to Kota Kinabalu, spending a few days at the national park. Then we fly to Sandakan, and go to an offshore island to watch the turtles. We stay a night there, then come back and look at the Sepilok orang sanctuary (my mum's favourite part, without a Doubt!). Then we'll take a ride down the kinabatangan river.

We're also going to try and Fit Danum Valey in here, but I'm not sure 100% whether this is possible....

Then we go back to Kota Kinabalu and fly back to Singapore (we stay a few more days here, looking at the Night safari and the bird park(again!))

It looks as if it's going to Be amazing!!!

Patrick, I have a few minor queries...

Where was the Sumatran Rhino Kept?
What is in the Zoo in Kota Kinabalu (species list, if possible)?
 
Jo you are a very lucky boy, I guess you be taking a few pics of the hornbills there as well
 
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