Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part two: 2011

Melaka

okay, now that I have some internet time, I shall continue with my story:

After Taman Negara (where I saw tapirs....just reminding you) I had given myself a couple of spare days to go to Melaka. If you are old like me, or have some older books, you may know this town better as Malacca. Its about two hours south of Kuala Lumpur. The reason I was going there was partly because I can't stand KL and partly because I wanted to visit the Melaka Zoo. So I took the earliest bus from Kuala Tahan (at Taman Negara) to the Pekeliling bus station in KL. I didn't know where the buses to Melaka left from but a helpful taxi driver told me it was from the TBS station and it would only cost me 50 Ringgits to get there. Surely there's some other form of public transport there, I said, but no apparently taxi was the only possible way. As soon as he said that I knew there was another way, so I went into the train station next door and got a train there for 1.70. The TBS station (or in full, Terminal Bersepadu Selatan) was completely unexpected after the low-tech Pekeliling -- there were touch-screens to buy your tickets, coffee shops, and departure lounges....it was more like an airport than a bus station!

Melaka turned out to be an exceptionally nice little town, far superior to Kuala Lumpur. Plus it has a maritime museum inside a giant ship. I found a very nice backpackers called Le Village (er, situated in Chinatown) where a single room was only 20 Ringgits. My plan for Melaka was to visit the zoo, visit the Butterfly Park which despite its name also contains a good variety of vertebrates, and also visit a place I'd recently found out about called the Air Keroh Hutan Rekreasi (that's "Recreational Forest" in English). When I had flown into the KL airport from Bali en route to Taman Negara I had found a free glossy A4-sized booklet on birding sites in Malaysia. It was a magnificent find and it made me question why New Zealand doesn't do the same at its airports. Then I remembered that birdwatching isn't socially acceptable. Anyway, in the booklet I discovered this Hutan Rekreasi which was apparently abundant in birdlife and situated just outside Melaka by the A'Famosa Resort. As it turned out the booklet was a bit misleading in its directions (well, plain wrong in fact) but fortunately I got that sorted out in the backpackers before actually going out and getting lost. Ayer Keroh is a district nowhere near A'Famosa and in fact the Recreational Forest is almost opposite the Melaka Zoo which was nothing if not handy. The next morning I took a bus to the forest, which was as it happened also the Botanic Gardens. I can't say I found too many birds there at all -- only common tailorbird was new for the trip-list -- although there were a lot of squirrels (Low's, slender and plantain), and then I got distracted by a Dinosaur Park. Sadly none of the dinosaurs were alive, only statues. It was getting a bit hot by late morning, so I walked down the road to the zoo. I have been to a lot of really bad zoos in Asia, but the Melaka Zoo isn't one of them. My review of the zoo is here: Melaka Zoo Forums (and photos in the gallery)

I was flying to Perth the next day from KL but the flight wasn't till midnight so I still had most of the day free. In the morning I went to the Butterfly Park, which is just up the road from the zoo. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say I tried to go to the Buttterfly Park. It was a bit confusing how on the way there there were signs for the Butterfly Park pointing to the left, to the right, and straight ahead. The bus driver dropped me where he was turning off into a side-road and said the Butterfly Park was just up the highway a little way. The map on the park's leaflet showed it right before the toll gates. It wasn't there. I scratched my head a little, then asked some nearby people. They didn't know what I was talking about. I walked back down the highway and found a sign for the park pointing up a side-road. That road just lead to another highway. I spent about an hour wandering around aimlessly trying to find the place then just gave up and caught a bus back to Melaka.

The KL airports are halfway between KL and Melaka, and there are buses straight there from either town. I had a ticket for the last direct bus from Melaka Sentral to the airport. It was leaving at 2.50pm, although the ticket itself said 3pm. I'd been told I needed to be at the station at 2.30. All very simple. I left the backpackers in plenty of time and waited for a bus from there to Melaka Sentral. One came by...and didn't stop. That was annoying, but its alright because they go every half an hour and it should only be ten minutes to get to the station. Waiting, waiting, waiting....Eventually a bus arrived, I jumped on, and off we went, but not straight to Melaka Sentral, instead on a slow crawl around the city and because I didn't have a clue where I was I didn't know how long it was going to take. Not that it mattered anyway because eventually my watch ticked past 2.50. Ten minutes later we arrived at Melaka Sentral. I was hoping the bus would be leaving late but I wasn't holding my breath, and curiously I wasn't really all that bothered anyway because it would be (or should have been) a simple matter to get another bus to KL and then a bus from there to the airport and still arrive in plenty of time for the midnight flight. Nevertheless I made a bit of a dash for the stop my bus would be at, and quite surprisingly it was still there. I got on and off we went. What a boring story. See, this is how cruisy things became since leaving Indonesia -- I have to pad out my blog with a tale about almost missing a bus!!! Oo-er, as they would say in Beano.
 
Chlidonias said:
There were also rats in the hide, very attractive red ones. I wanted to get some photos to see if I could get an ID for them later so I put out some food as bait. A girl in one tour that passed through asked if it was for birds. You should have seen her face when I said it was to attract rats!
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the rats turned out to be dark-tailed tree rats Niviventer cremoriventer
 
Chlidonias said:
When I had flown into the KL airport from Bali en route to Taman Negara I had found a free glossy A4-sized booklet on birding sites in Malaysia. It was a magnificent find and it made me question why New Zealand doesn't do the same at its airports. Then I remembered that birdwatching isn't socially acceptable.
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Apologies if this is a joke that I'm not getting, but is birdwatching really not popular in New Zealand? I know many people who have gone to New Zealand primarily as a birding destination (and hope to get there at some point myself).
 
What a boring story. See, this is how cruisy things became since leaving Indonesia -- I have to pad out my blog with a tale about almost missing a bus!!! Oo-er, as they would say in Beano.
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Of all the words in the English language, "boring" would be the last I'd choose to describe your account of your journey. It's been a joy to read from start to end.

A couple of questions, if you don't mind:-

When did Sumatran rhino disappear from Taman Negara, and iis there any word of them still surviving in peninsular Malaysia in viable numbers?

And what's the position for the three bigger cats (tiger, leopard, clouded leopard)?​

Thanks again for your time and effort. Have you ever had anything published?
 
there are probably still some rhinos in Taman Negara, but no more than a handful and none anywhere near the parts of the park where tourists go. I think the last survey at the park (at least the last one I know of) was in 2003 or 2004 and while they didn't obtain any camera-trap photos of rhinos they did find a few footprints. A report in 2005 stated that the rhino was now extinct in one of its former peninsular strongholds, Endau Rompin, through poaching, and official estimates of the total population on the peninsula were put at 80 to 100 (which to me sounds much too high).

As for tigers, apparently they are doing relatively well there. A three year survey from 1998 to 2001 estimated between 70 and 112 tigers in Taman Negara, and found no evidence of poaching (of any animals, not just tigers). Leopards are common -- in fact one was seen at the tapir hide not long before my stay there; and they have been seen right by the village there as well. Clouded leopards seem to be still fairly common. On the wall of the HQ they have some framed photos from camera traps, one of which is a clouded leopard; when I asked how often they are seen I was told "sometimes".
 
Perth, Western Australia

My plane from KL touched down in Perth at the entirely reasonable hour of 5.10am. The first bird I saw was a magpie-lark on the airport runway (this is what I call an "airport bird" -- the first species seen from the plane when entering a new country/state). This was my first time in Western Australia and I was looking forward to seeing a lot of new birds and mammals. I was staying at my brother's place (where there were red-tailed black cockatoos in a tree outside the window!) so I didn't need to worry about accommodation, but of my two weeks in WA I would only be in Perth for a few days. First stop, naturally, was the zoo, of which my little review is here: http://www.zoochat.com/24/perth-zoo-visit-october-2011-a-243233/ (and photos in the gallery).

Apart for the captive animals at the zoo, another species there that I was supposed to be looking out for, but forgot to, was the five-lined palm squirrel from India. These aren't in cages, they are wild in Perth. They were released by the zoo back in 1898 and have been living and breeding in the area ever since. The zoo released kookaburras at the same time and they were even more successful -- all the kookaburras all over Western Australia descend from the zoo's releases. The rainbow lorikeets all over Perth are also introductions from the east, but this time by the University of Western Australia (or so I was told); now they are considered a pest and a possible threat to the native purple-crowned lorikeet. Anyway, I completely forgot to look out for squirrels and instead caught a bus over to Lake Monger to look for ducks. Lake Monger is a small roundish lake surrounded by lawns which are popular with cyclists and dog-walkers. The lake itself is popular with ducks and also the oblong snakeneck turtle which is endemic to Western Australia. Most of the waterfowl found in WA occur around Lake Monger and I saw most of them quite easily. There were a couple missing but I'll find them some other time. There are also great crested grebes on the lake which was nice.

The next day I had been planning on going to Lake Herdsman, just by Lake Monger, because its better for birds, but I had been reminded about the squirrels and also been told that there were bottlenose dolphins living in the Swan River which flows through Perth. These are IndoPacific bottlenose dolphins, smaller than regular bottlenoses (about six foot or so), and more of an inshore species. Apparently they are common in the river and easily found. Sounded good to me. I borrowed my brother's bike and went searching. First stop was a golf course just along the road from the zoo where the palm squirrels are regularly seen. There were none. I went to the river and cycled along it for a few hours where the dolphins are regularly seen. There were none. Feeling like the King Of Fail, I drowned my sorrows in birds at King's Park, a big expanse of bushland in the heart of Perth. This is a great place. I even managed to find western gerygone, which was good because this little bird is a common western endemic and if I'd failed to find it, well, that would have been truly tragic. Feeling better, I returned to the river and cycled along its banks to Pelican Point. There's a viewing platform here overlooking a small lagoon reputed to be good for watching waders. Not so good now though because trees have grown up between the platform and the lagoon making the water all but invisible. However there's a scout building or something like that next to it from which the river can be watched (although the lagoon is still mostly hidden). An osprey flew past and a couple of pied stilts foraged in the shallows. There was something on the far side of the river and when I checked it out through the binoculars I realised it was a dolphin. I couldn't see much because it was so distant and it was really just a dorsal fin appearing and disappearing, but it was still a dolphin. Keeping my binoculars trained on the far side of the river, I was musing on whether I should count this as a sighting. I mean, I knew it was an IndoPacific bottlenose because it couldn't be anything else but at the same time I couldn't really see much. Suddenly there was a splashing in the water right in front of me and I took my eyes from the binoculars to see a dolphin literally ten feet away, right at the beach! Now that one counts! The dolphins here do tend to hunt right along the shore in very shallow water, but they move fast and continuously. I grabbed the bike and took off after it, basically following it all the way along the river. Sometimes there was one dolphin, sometimes a whole group, but I never managed to get any good photos because they were just too fast and unpredictable with their surfacing. Brilliant afternoon though, and later when checking my photos I realised that what I had thought was a little plastic ball or something similar which the dolphin was playing with was actually a small pufferfish, blown up into a globe, being used as a throw-toy (photo in the Australian Wildlife gallery). Before calling it a day I returned to the golf course by the zoo and, what do you know, I found two palm squirrels in a bottlebrush tree. Two new mammals in one day is always good, especially if I haven't even left the city.
 
Another nice report. Strange to read about Great Crested Grebe in WA; my walk to London Zoo when I worked there as a volunteer took me through Regent's Park, and I quite often saw one on the lake.

Dolphins weren't quite as common..:)
 
IanRRobinson said:
Another nice report. Strange to read about Great Crested Grebe in WA; my walk to London Zoo when I worked there as a volunteer took me through Regent's Park, and I quite often saw one on the lake.
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I also enjoy seeing crested grebes because the subspecies down in my part of the world (australis) is not at all common. The NZ population is only a few hundred and almost all of them breed on mountain lakes -- I'm pretty jealous of being able to see them floating around on city lakes with the mallards like you can in London! The Australian population is more common than that of NZ but there's still not a lot of them and they're only found down in the south of the country. They are more conducive to spotting than the NZ ones though, as I found out in Perth.
 
They're even more laid back in Amsterdam, where they can be seen nesting on canals yards away from houseboats.

The bird of Regent's Park, though, is the Grey Heron. A wild heronry has been on one of the lake islands for about forty years, and the birds are bolder than anywhere else I've ever seen them in Britain. They're quite frequently seen inside the Zoo; heaven knows why the latter don't make more of them.

Lord's Cricket Ground is about fifteen minutes' walk away from the Zoo. I remember once, about a dozen years ago, seeing a bird flying slowly across the ground from the Park early during the day's play. Some time close to the final over, once again a heron flew over the ground, this time in the opposite direction. I like to think it was the same bird, a commuter retracing his steps after a hard day's fishing...:)
 
Dryandra Woodlands

There were really only two places I was visiting while in Western Australia, Dryandra Woodlands and Cheyne Beach. Both are birdy spots, and Dryandra has the added attraction of numbats. The reason for only going to two places was due to limited time and more importantly because I travel by bus and in WA you can't get anywhere interesting on a bus. They run between the main centres and will stop at towns along the highway routes but anywhere else you're out of luck. Still, I never let little things like that stop me. I had organised my stay at the Lions Village at Dryandra, and the caretakers there, John and Lisa, had kindly agreed to pick me up from the nearest bus stop in Cuballing. They have been the caretakers there for eight years and I was only the second person to need a pick-up: that's how unusual it is for travellers here to be without a car. They also loaned me a bicycle to get around the woodland while I was staying there. I honestly can't say enough good things about Dryandra; it was simply a fantastic place to stay. The cottages there are, despite fooling me with their excellent state of preservation, actually the original cottages from the late 1920s/early 1930s when the Lions Village was a real working village of wood-cutters. A lot of history there and I won't bore you with it all but definitely worth a bit of googling to find out about. My cottage (Magpie) was only $30 per night and was fully-equipped with fridge, freezer, stove, cooking utensils, wood-burner, air-conditioning, shower, everything! Now that's value for money!

Most people visiting Dryandra are birders, followed by wildflower enthusiasts, and then mammal and reptile watchers. I was sort of a bit of everything but the main animal I was after was the numbat, a marsupial equivalent of the anteater which feeds solely on one species of termite which itself feeds solely on one type of eucalyptus tree. Australia is the home of picky eaters. Numbats used to be found across most of the southern half of Australia, there were probably millions of them, but within less than a lifetime they have been reduced to two tiny populations of a few hundred animals. Even at their stronghold of Dryandra the population has recently crashed; I think the statistic I was told was that the population there is now equivalent to just one every hundred hectares. If you imagine a shy little animal the size of a squirrel that lives on the ground amongst fallen timber and you're cruising around trying to see one on the off-chance that it will be near the road when you're passing by you can probably see the odds. I didn't see any.

Most of the mammals at Dryandra are so rare as to be impossible to see, apart for western grey kangaroos and brush-tailed possums. I had seen my first western grey kangaroo on the road out of Perth. To be strictly accurate it was only half a western grey kangaroo and it was dead, but beggers can't be chosers. At Dryandra real live ones are common around the village at night, as are the possums which here have white tail brushes instead of black like in the rest of the country. Tammars and western brush wallabies are supposed to be common but I didn't see a single one which was very unusual. I went on a trapping run with John which enabled me to see a woylie (brush-tailed rat-kangaroo in layman-speak); again, these used to be common -- in fact some fairly recent books note that they can reliably be found right around the Lions Village at night -- but all the populations have now collapsed. John and Lisa were also hand-raising a baby quenda (aka southern brown bandicoot) which was one of the cutest things ever. There's a small fenced enclosure at Dryandra called Barna Mia where some hand-raised marsupials live so people can see them on night tours. The species in here are woylie, boodie, mala, quenda and bilby. Translations from Lewis Carol are brush-tailed rat-kangaroo, burrowing rat-kangaroo, rufous hare-wallaby, southern brown bandicoot and, um, bilby. I'd seen the woylie at Perth Zoo and in the live-trap earlier, but for all the others it was first time. They don't count as wild sightings of course but they are fabulous animals and for the first time I saw why rat-kangaroos are called rat-kangaroos -- they actually do look like giant hoppy rats.

So mammal-watching had rather disappointing results, and it was a tad too early for reptiles (I only saw a couple of stumptail skinks and a couple of reticulated velvet geckoes), so it was up to the birds to come to the rescue. Australian ringneck parrots were all over the village, I saw a few elegant parrots and western rosellas out in the bush, and I finally found a red-capped parrot, so ridiculously colourful that it looks like someone gave a little kid a box-full of paints and told him to go nuts. The scientific name of the species is spurius so I guess its colours were considered a little suspicious even when first discovered. Among many birds of somewhat more subdued colouring there was the rufous treecreeper which for some reason prefers the ground to trees, and the white-crowned babbler which in a nice change from the skulking Asian babblers hops around in the open in groups so you can't possibly miss it. The red-capped robin kept up its end in the colour show, but it was competing with the blue-breasted fairy wren. There are 119 species on the Dryandra bird list, 23 of which are rarely-occurring species (including barking owl, which I unexpectedly saw one of during the daytime when it flushed from under a bush and flew into a tree where it sat glaring at me); I saw 49 species while there, so roughly half the total. Good for me I say.

I was at Dryandra Woodlands for four nights which wasn't nearly long enough and I must go back. The main reason is because I still need to find a numbat. My obsessive nature means the numbat is my new Flores giant rat and I will not rest till I have found one. Well I might rest a little because it will be a while before I get back there. Hopefully the population will pick up before I try again. As the state mammal of WA it would be a pretty poor show if the government allowed the numbat to become extinct! I also found out whilst there that thorny devils live at Dryandra so a summer visit is definitely in order, and even more excitingly -- turtle frogs!! You probably haven't heard of a turtle frog, few people have, but they are very weird turtle-shaped frogs that live more or less entirely underground and feed on termites. I have no idea how you would go about trying to find one, but it is the frog at the top of my list of frogs I want to see (along with hairy frog and goliath frog).
 
Albany and Cheyne Beach

Next stop after Dryandra Woodlands was Cheynes Beach Caravan Park at Cheyne Beach (note the lack of an S), which is a fixed point in the itinerary of birders visiting Western Australia, largely because here you can supposedly find three extremely devious endemic birds called the noisy scrub-bird, western bristlebird and western whipbird. Not only are they devious but its quite likely they don't even really exist, having been dreamed up by government tourism departments to fleece foolish birdwatchers of their money. As I said in the previous blog its well-nigh impossible to get anywhere in WA with public transport. Getting from Cuballing (by Dryandra) to the southern town of Albany is easy enough, but then from there to Cheyne Beach about 67km distant is a bit of a thinker. The owners of the caravan park weren't too helpful in this regard when I was booking, simply saying a taxi would cost about $120. I didn't really want to pay that much money, no matter how many noisy scrub-birds were involved, so when I got to Albany I went into the Info Centre to see if they had any info and managed to sort out a free lift out there with some people heading that way. I can't say I was particularly enamoured of the Cheynes Beach Caravan Park. My two weeks in Western Australia coincided exactly with the school holidays and the caravan park was full of yobbo redneck Australian families. For $32 I got a square of grass to pitch my tent on. I thought back to Dryandra and wished I was there. Looking on the bright side, there were brush bronzewings wandering around the campground, as well as splendid and red-winged fairy wrens. I never saw the former, and the latter looked very much like the blue-breasted fairy wrens of Dryandra. The kangaroos were much friendlier here though. There were sleeping boxes hung up for pigmy possums but they appeared to be unoccupied, or at least no possums showed themselves when I was waiting.

There's no forest at Cheyne Beach, mostly just low thick heath growing on sand. The birds like to stay inside the heath, only occasionally popping up to the surface to catch a breath of fresh air. How anyone actually sees birds there I have no idea. Its like sneaking around with binoculars inside your house trying to see the birds that are lurking under the floorboards. Then when a bird does pop up to the top of a bush it becomes like Whack-A-Mole, trying to guess where a bird will appear, then get your binoculars onto it, focus, and try to identify it, all in about one-tenth of a second. That's right, its impossible. There are birds flying around, its true, but they're all honeyeaters. Basically if you can see a bird its a New Holland honeyeater. Don't even bother looking at it because I've just told you what its going to be.

The bird I was particularly interested in at Cheyne Beach was the noisy scrub-bird. It was discovered in 1842 south of Perth but only a handful of specimens were collected in the next fifty years and by the end of the 1800s it was generally considered to have become extinct. Why anyone would care I don't know, its pretty boring. But anyway, it was unexpectedly rediscovered in 1961 at Two Peoples Bay just outside Albany (also, interestingly enough, the site of the rediscovery of another "extinct" animal, Gilbert's potoroo which is a type of rat-kangaroo; dibblers were also rediscovered in the general area after being thought extinct). The recovery programme for noisy scrub-birds has gone quite well and now they number about 1000 or so and have been moved around to some more sites, including Cheyne Beach. There's a dirt track just near the caravan park where a bird or birds seems to be seen regularly in the morning crossing from one side to the other. I dutifully headed over there in the morning and took up a position where I could see both branches of the track at the same time. While focussing the binoculars a southern brown bandicoot scuttled across the road right through my field of view which was an excellent start -- I'd been looking for them at Dryandra where they are rare and around the caravan park site where apparently they are common. So I'm standing there for maybe twenty minutes, and I'm starting to think that this was really stupid, just standing there hoping a small bird is going to run across the track in front of me. And then one ran across the track in front of me. The annoying thing was that it was so fast that I never even got a good look at it beyond that it was a brown hoppy bird. I waited, not actually expecting a repeat performance, but after just five minutes the bird went back the other way, paused in the middle of the track and then again at the edge, so I did get a good look at it. I kept waiting and it reappeared briefly at the edge but didn't come out. A flock of red-eared firetail finches dropped onto the road, a beautiful little bird that I had wanted to see, and then another western endemic -- white-breasted robin -- turned up, followed not long after by another bandicoot which spent some time foraging along the side of the track. I was going to keep waiting to see what else showed itself but then a group of about ten birders appeared at the far end of the track on the sealed road and huddled in a cluster staring towards me through their binoculars and scopes waiting for the scrub-bird. It was an uncomfortable place to be so I left, looping round the other way back to the road because I didn't think they'd appreciate me walking straight up the path they were hoping the scrub-bird would appear on! From the road the huddle of birders looked absolutely ridiculous staring en masse through their lenses at something that wasn't even there, and its no wonder people mock birding when you see something like that. I'm so glad I bird alone and not in tours. I went down to tell them there'd been a bird there half an hour ago, just to give them some hope, but they just acted snooty in an American sort of way (can Americans even act snooty, or is that the preserve of the British?). I guess it takes all types.

I returned to Albany, getting a lift back with a woman from the caravan park in exchange for having helped her put her tent up. Once back at the backpackers there I got hold of a bicycle and cycled out to Lake Powell Nature Reserve which is about 10km west of town. In an older book I have its called the Lake Grasmere Nature Reserve. The sign is set back from the road as if they want to keep the place hidden. Apparently it works because it doesn't look like anyone has been to the hide for a long time. The track and boardwalk to the hide is overgrown and the hide itself is pretty unkempt. The water was high though so there were no waders and apparently the ducks don't like the place either because there were few of them. I did finally manage to see some splendid wrens, the blue-ist bird on the planet -- probably the blue-ist anything on the planet that isn't man-made. I cycled back to Albany and took the Marine Drive Scenic Walk to Lake Seppings. There were uncountable numbers of huge black King's skinks along the way (more fingers than I have anyway and that's about as high as I can count). Mammal of the day was a New Zealand fur seal lolling on an offshore rock. It may seem strange seeing a New Zealand fur seal in Australia but the species is found in both countries and a recent paper makes the case that they're actually South American fur seals anyway. The water level at Lake Seppings was too high as well and there weren't many birds around, but there were lots of oblong snakeneck turtles and also a tiger snake. The tiger snakes in WA are glossy black with bright yellow bellies. When I saw the first one at Cheyne Beach I thought it must be a yellow-bellied black snake (a name which I cannot say without wanting to add "sleeping on a red rock, waiting for the stranger to go") but it turns out that yellow-bellied black snakes are an inland species and don't look like that. I had been hoping to find some Albany pitcher plants while at one of the lakes but the water levels were too high. The Albany pitchers are really interesting little plants, not related in any way to the Asian Nepenthes but superficially similar. The coolest thing is that there is a species of fly found only in association with the pitchers which mimics ants, to the extent that it has lost its wings entirely. The fly larvae live inside the pitchers feeding on the insect corpses inside.

Another species I was hoping for in Albany was a possum called the western ringtail which is endemic to WA. It feeds on the leaves of the peppermint tree which is likewise endemic. The possums are particularly common around Albany apparently. I had spent one night in Albany before Cheyne Beach but it was pouring down so I didn't go out, but I had found a nice bit of forest near the backpackers in which half the trees were peppermint trees. So on this night I went out searching. I figured it would take about five or ten minutes. A forest filled with peppermint trees in a town filled with ringtail possums. How could I possibly fail? I failed. I truly am the king of wildlife spotting. But I have to come back to WA anyway to find the Flores giant numbat, so I'll get the ringtail then. I'm ever-optimistic; hope springs eternal; etc etc.
 
Rottnest Island

One of the best things about Perth is that there's an island right off the coast full of quokkas. There's an island off Cheyne Beach full of quokkas too but no-one's allowed on there (that's Bald Island, which is also full of Gilbert's potoroos). A quokka is a type of little wallaby, once common on the western mainland but now largely exterminated by foxes and cats. They were first seen by Europeans in 1658 when Samuel Volkerssen, skipper of the Dutch ship Waeckende Boey (which looks like it translates as "Weekend Boy" -- exactly what sort of cruise was this?), spotted some on Rottnest Island. He thought they were a kind of civet, which sounds a bit odd but they actually do have a pointy civet-y sort of face, even if the hoppiness isn't exactly a distinguishing feature of civets. They were next recorded in 1696 by another Dutchman, Willem de Vlamingh, who thought they were giant rats, again not a bad guess if it weren't for the hopping. But it was de Vlamingh who gave Rottnest Island the name it still holds today in slightly changed form -- Rattenest is Dutch for "rat nest".

Its not all that cheap getting to Rottnest Island but its a bit hard to see a quokka otherwise. There's also the added bonus of some nice birds. Some of those were on the boat trip across to the island with a couple of albatrosses being sighted, likely to be yellow-nosed albatrosses but I didn't see them well enough to tell for sure. I hired a bicycle to get around the island for a ridiculous $27. The bike hire shop on Rottnest is apparently the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, said to have 13,000 cycles. It opens at 8.30am -- why it doesn't time its opening for the arrival of the first ferry escapes me -- and it closes at 4pm. You have to have the bike back by 3.30. Their 24-hour hire period thus becomes 7 hours. You might think 7 hours would be plenty but for a while I didn't think it would be: I was on the island for three hours before I saw my first quokka! Seriously. No wonder I couldn't find any numbats at Dryandra if I can't even find quokkas on Rottnest! All was well though because after spending the day not seeing quokkas, at around 3pm I found absolutely loads of them coming out to feed. And that's right about when I dropped my camera and broke it. D'oh. At least it was on the last day of the trip.

Quokkas are the only land mammal on Rottnest but there are lots of birds, especially waders around the salt lakes in the centre of the island. The birds I mostly wanted to find were rock parrots, red-necked avocets and banded stilts. Rock parrots are supposed to be common here. Couldn't find any. I think the avocets might be visitors rather than residents. Either way I couldn't find any. But banded stilts I did find. There was a sign there that said they form huge "rafts" on the water but the ones I saw were more like a small flock and then some other scattered individuals. They look much like the regular pied stilt really, just with less black on them. Somehow they seemed much more attractive though. Banded lapwings were also new for me. There are quite a few reptiles on the island as well, including King's and stumptail skinks. I was hoping to see a dugite which is a venomous snake, but no luck there.

A nice day all up, but I'm not sure if the cost of getting to Rottnest is really worth it for just a day-trip. I think staying on the island -- and there's ample accommodation there -- would make it a more profitable trip and you'd have a lot more freedom and time to look for the wildlife. I must do that next time I think.
 
Melbourne -- end of trip!

I had an overnight stop in Melbourne on the way back to New Zealand. The plane got in around midday, and after dropping my stuff at a backpackers I got myself over to the Melbourne Zoo where I met up with local Zoochat member CGSwans for a couple of hours. I haven't been to the Melbourne Zoo since 2007 and I really do need to go back again for a proper revisit. There wasn't time to go round the whole zoo this day so we basically just saw the bits that interested me most, namely the Treetop Walk, Platypus House (where the platypus was very active, and was fed on mealworms when we were in there; a most inefficient feeder is the platypus when faced with a handful of mealworms!), Reptile House, Frog House, the new Southern Oceans complex (which looked very nice but somewhat out of place in contrast to the rest of the zoo and with a lot of seemingly wasted space), the new coatis (well, one of the new coatis; and very big it was too!), and finally the new baboon enclosure which was excellent.

CGSwans gave me the useful tip that there were little blue penguins and Australian water rats at St. Kilda, so after we parted company I took a tram over to the pier at St. Kilda beach where a breakwater made of boulders has been colonised by the penguins. There are 1000 of them living there now. Most of them come up at night of course to their burrows, but there are also quite a few sitting in amongst the rocks in the daylight hours. I waited around till dusk and saw two water rats, one in the rocks which didn't show for long, and the other actually hunting along the boulders, diving for prey and bringing it up onto the rocks to eat (their favourite food would be starfish, if the remains on their dinner tables are anything to go by!). I've seen water rats in the wild before (well, one anyway, in Tasmania in 2007), but they are fascinating creatures and a fitting mammal to end the trip with.
 
For people who like lists of things seen, here are some lists of things seen!

(Species that were new for me are in bold)

BIRDS: (333 spp - how's that for a perfect number?!)

Southern crested grebe Podiceps cristatus - Australia
Eurasian little grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis - Flores
Australian little grebe Tachybaptus novaehollandiae - Australia
Little blue penguin Eudyptula minor - Australia
Bulwer's petrel Bulweria bulwerii - Komodo
Australasian gannet Morus serrator - Australia
Australian pelican Pelecanus conspicillatus - Australia
Australian darter Anhinga novaehollandiae - Australia
Black shag Phalacrocorax carbo - Australia
Pied shag Phalacrocorax varius - Australia
Little pied shag Phalacrocorax melanoleucos - Australia
Little black shag Phalacrocorax sulcirostris - Australia
Great white egret Egretta alba - Australia
Intermediate egret Egretta intermedia - West Timor
Eastern reef heron Egretta sacra - Komodo
White-faced heron Ardea novaehollandiae - West Timor; Australia
Purple heron Ardea purpurea - Sulawesi
Great-billed heron Ardea sumatrana - Komodo
Cattle egret Bubulcus ibis - Sulawesi; West Timor
Javan pond heron Ardeola speciosa - Sulawesi; Flores
Nankeen night heron Nycticorax caledonicus - Australia
Australian white ibis Threskiornis molucca - Australia
Straw-necked ibis Threskiornis spinicollis - Australia
Black swan Cygnus atratus - Australia
Australian shelduck Tadorna tadornoides - Australia
Australian wood duck Chenonetta jubata - Australia
Mallard Anas platyrhynchos - Australia
Pacific black duck Anas superciliosa - Flores; Australia
Grey teal Anas gracilis - Australia
Chestnut teal Anas castanea - Australia
Australian shoveller Anas rhynchotis - Australia
White-eyed duck Aythya australis - Australia
Blue-billed duck Oxyura australis - Australia
Musk duck Biziura lobata - Australia
Osprey Pandion haliaetus - Australia
Australasian harrier Circus approximans - Australia
Australian black-shouldered kite Elanus axillaris (formerly E. notatus) - Australia
Black-winged kite Elanus caeruleus - West Timor
Wedge-tailed eagle Aquila audax - Australia
Brahminy kite Haliastur indus - Sulawesi; Flores; Komodo; Malaysia
White-bellied sea eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster - Flores; Komodo; Australia
Crested serpent-eagle Spilornis cheela - Malaysia
Sulawesi serpent-eagle Spilornis rufipectus - Sulawesi
Blyth's hawk-eagle Spizaetus alboniger - Malaysia
Green junglefowl Gallus varius - Komodo; Flores
Crested fireback pheasant Lophura ignita - Malaysia
Purple gallinule Porphyrio porphyrio - Australia
Common coot Fulica atra - Australia
Dusky moorhen Gallinula tenebrosa - Australia
Banded rail Rallus philippensis - Australia
Barred rail Gallirallus torquatus - Sulawesi
Australian pied oystercatcher Haematopus longirostris - Australia
Sooty oystercatcher Haematopus fuliginosus - Australia
Red-capped dotterel Charadrius ruficapillus - Australia
Greater sand plover Charadrius leschenaulti - Australia
Banded lapwing Vanellus tricolor - Australia
Far-eastern curlew Numenius madagascariensis - Komodo
Red-necked stint Calidris ruficollis - Australia
Common sandpiper Actitis hypoleuca - Komodo
Ruddy turnstone Arenaria interpres - Australia
Australasian pied stilt Himantopus leucocephalus - Australia
Banded stilt Cladorhynchus leucocephalus - Australia
Beach thick-knee Esacus neglectus - Komodo
Australian pratincole Stiltia isabella - West Timor
Pacific gull Larus pacificus - Australia
Silver gull Larus novaehollandiae - Australia
Caspian tern Sterna caspia - Australia
Great crested tern Sterna bergii - Komodo; Australia
Feral pigeon Columba livia - Malaysia; Australia
Flores green pigeon Treron floris - Flores
Rose-crowned fruit dove Ptilinopus regina - West Timor
Red-eared fruit-dove Ptilinopus fischeri - Sulawesi
Black-naped fruit-dove Ptilinopus melanospilus - Flores
Green imperial pigeon Ducula aenea - Komodo; Malaysia
White-bellied imperial pigeon Ducula forsteni - Sulawesi
Grey-headed imperial pigeon Ducula radiata - Sulawesi
Brown cuckoo-dove Macropygia amboinensis - Sulawesi
Barred cuckoo-dove Macropygia unchall - Flores
Emerald (Green-winged) dove Chalcophaps indica - Flores; Komodo
Common bronzewing Phaps chalcoptera - Australia
Brush bronzewing Phaps elegans - Australia
Spot-necked dove Streptopelia chinensis - Komodo; Flores; West Timor; Malaysia; Australia
Island collared dove Streptopelia bitorquata - Flores
Laughing dove Streptopelia senegalensis - Australia
Zebra dove Geopelia striata - Malaysia
Barred dove Geopelia maugei - Komodo; Flores; West Timor
Red-tailed black cockatoo Calyptorhynchus banksii - Australia
Carnaby's (Short-billed white-tailed) black cockatoo Calyptorhynchus latirostris - Australia
Lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo Cacatua sulphurea - Komodo
Galah Cacatua (Eolophus) roseicapilla - Australia
Red-cheeked parrot Geoffroyus geoffroyi - Flores
Golden-mantled racquet-tailed parrot Prioniturus platurus - Sulawesi
Australian ringneck Barnardius zonarius - Australia
Western rosella Platycercus icterotis - Australia
Red-capped parrot Purpureicephalus spurius - Australia
Elegant parrot Neophema elegans - Australia
Rainbow lorikeet Trichoglossus haematodus - Australia
Purple-crowned lorikeet Glossopsitta porphyrocephala - Australia
Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo Chrysococcyx basalis - West Timor
Gould's bronze-cuckoo Chrysococcyx russatus - West Timor
Oriental cuckoo Cuculus saturatus - Flores
Rusty-breasted cuckoo Cacomantis sepulcralis - Flores
(Australian) koel Eudynamys scolopacea cyanocephala - Komodo
Black-bellied malkoha Phaenicophaeus diardi - Malaysia
Chestnut-breasted malkoha Phaenicophaeus curvirostris - Malaysia
Raffles' malkoha Phaenicophaeus chlorophaeus - Malaysia
Lesser coucal Centropus bengalensis - Sulawesi
Short-toed coucal Centropus rectunguis - Malaysia
Barn owl Tyto alba (or Tyto javanica if split) - Malaysia
Barking owl Ninox connivens - Australia
Moluccan scops owl Otus magicus - Flores
Wallace's scops owl Otus silvicola - Flores
Asian house swift Apus nipalensis - Malaysia; Sulawesi
Fork-tailed swift Apus pacificus - Bali; Malaysia
Sulawesi swiftlet Collocalia (Aerodramus) sororum - Sulawesi
Edible-nest swiftlet Collocalia (Aerodramus) fuciphaga - Flores
Glossy (White-bellied) swiftlet Collocalia esculenta - Sulawesi; Flores
Cave swiftlet Collocalia linchi - Bali
Scarlet-rumped trogon Harpactes duvaucelii - Malaysia
Black-backed kingfisher Ceyx erithacus - Malaysia
White-rumped kingfisher Caridonax fulgidus - Flores
Common kookaburra Dacelo novaeguineae - Australia
Sacred kingfisher Todiramphus sanctus - Flores; Australia
Collared kingfisher Todiramphus chloris - Sulawesi; Komodo; Flores; West Timor
White-throated kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis - Malaysia
Rainbow bee-eater Merops ornatus - Flores; West Timor; Australia
Red-bearded bee-eater Nyctyornis amictus - Malaysia
Purple-bearded bee-eater Meropogon forsteni - Sulawesi
Red-knobbed hornbill Rhyticeros (Aceros) cassidix - Sulawesi
Buff-necked woodpecker Meiglyptes tukki - Malaysia
Buff-rumped woodpecker Meiglyptes tristis - Malaysia
Sunda pigmy woodpecker Dendrocopos moluccensis - Flores
Banded woodpecker Picus miniaceus - Malaysia
Green broadbill Calyptomena viridis - Malaysia
Black and red broadbill Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchus - Malaysia
Banded pitta Pitta guajana - Malaysia
Garnet pitta Pitta granatina - Malaysia
Elegant pitta Pitta elegans - Flores
Noisy scrub-bird Atrichornis clamosus - Australia
Australian bushlark Mirafra javanica - Flores
West Australian pipit Anthus novaeseelandiae bilbali - Australia
Paddyfield pipit Anthus rufulus - Flores
Welcome swallow Hirundo neoxena - Australia
Pacific swallow Hirundo tahitica - Malaysia; Sulawesi; Flores
Barn swallow Hirundo rustica - Sulawesi
Tree martin Hirundo nigricans - Australia
Black-faced cuckoo-shrike Coracina novaehollandiae - Australia
Pale-shouldered cicadabird Coracina dohertyi - Flores
Pigmy cuckoo-shrike Coracina abbotti - Sulawesi
White-shouldered triller Lalage sueurii - Sulawesi; West Timor
Scarlet minivet Pericrocotus flammeus - Flores
Little minivet Pericrocotus lansbergi - Flores
Yellow-vented bulbul Pycnonotus goiavier - Malaysia
Cream-vented bulbul Pycnonotus simplex - Malaysia
Red-eyed bulbul Pycnonotus brunneus - Malaysia
Spectacled bulbul Pycnonotus erythropthalmos - Malaysia
Sooty-headed bulbul Pycnonotus aurigaster - Sulawesi; West Timor
Grey-bellied bulbul Pycnonotus cyaniventris - Malaysia
Yellow-bellied bulbul Alophoixus phaeocephalus - Malaysia
Ochraceous bulbul Alophoixus ochraceus - Malaysia
Hairy-backed bulbul Tricholestes criniger - Malaysia
Buff-vented bulbul Iole olivacea cryptus -Malaysia
Asian fairy bluebird Irena puella - Malaysia
Greater leafbird Chloropsis sonnerati - Malaysia
Blue-winged leafbird Chloropsis cochinchinensis - Malaysia
Tiger shrike Lanius tigrinus - Malaysia
Long-tailed shrike Lanius schach - West Timor
Orange-sided thrush Zoothera peronii - West Timor
European blackbird Turdus merula - Australia
Sulawesi thrush Cataponera turdoides - Sulawesi
Oriental magpie-robin Copsychus saularis - Malaysia
White-rumped shama Copsychus malabaricus - Malaysia
White-crowned forktail Enicurus leschenaulti - Malaysia
Pied chat Saxicola caprata - Flores; West Timor
Malia Malia grata - Sulawesi
Chestnut-winged babbler Stachyris erythroptera - Malaysia
White-chested babbler Trichastoma rostratum - Malaysia
Ferrugineous babbler Trichastoma bicolor - Malaysia
Sulawesi babbler Trichastoma celebense - Sulawesi
Rufous-crowned babbler Malacopteron magnum - Malaysia
Scaly-crowned babbler Malacopteron cinereum - Malaysia
Sooty-capped babbler Malacopteron affine - Malaysia
Striped tit-babbler Macronous gularis - Malaysia
Large wren-babbler Napothera macrodactyla - Malaysia
Malaysian rail-babbler Eupetes macrocercus - Malaysia
White-browed babbler Pomatostomus superciliosus - Australia
Russet-capped tesia Tesia everetti - Flores
Timor stubtail Urosphena subulata - West Timor
Chestnut-backed bush-warbler Bradypterus castaneus - Sulawesi
Australian reed warbler Acrocephalus australis - Australia
Sulawesi leaf-warbler Phylloscopus sarasinorum - Sulawesi
Flores leaf-warbler Phylloscopus floris - Flores
Mountain tailorbird Phyllergates cucullatus - Sulawesi
Common tailorbird Orthotomus sutorius - Malaysia
Dark-necked tailorbird Orthotomus atrogularis - Malaysia
Golden-headed cisticola Cisticola exilis - Flores
Splendid wren Malurus splendens - Australia
Blue-breasted fairy wren Malurus pulcherrimus - Australia
Red-winged fairy wren Malurus elegans - Australia
Southern emu-wren Stipiturus malachurus - Australia
White-browed scrubwren Sericornis frontalis - Australia
Western gerygone Gerygone fusca - Australia
Plain gerygone Gerygone inornata - West Timor
Golden-bellied gerygone Gerygone sulphurea - Sulawesi
Western thornbill Acanthiza inornata - Australia
Inland thornbill Acanthiza apicalis - Australia
Yellow-rumped thornbill Acanthiza chrysorrhoa - Australia
Yellow-vented whistler Pachycephala sulfuriventer - Sulawesi
Fawn-breasted whistler Pachycephala orpheus - West Timor
Golden whistler Pachycephala pectoralis - Flores; Komodo; West Timor; Australia
Bare-throated whistler Pachycephala nudigula - Flores
Rufous whistler Pachycephala rufiventris - Australia
Yellow-flanked whistler Hylocitrea bonensis - Sulawesi
Grey shrike-thrush Colluricincla harmonica - Australia
Western yellow robin Eopsaltria griseogularis - Australia
White-breasted robin Eopsaltria georgiana - Australia
Red-capped robin Petroica goodenovii - Australia
Scarlet robin Petroica boodang - Australia
Northern fantail Rhipidura rufiventris - West Timor
Asian pied fantail Rhipidura javanica - Malaysia
Spotted fantail Rhipidura perlata - Malaysia
Willy wagtail Rhipidura leucophrys - Australia
Brown-capped fantail Rhipidura diluta - Flores
Grey fantail Rhipidura albiscapa - Australia
Rusty-breasted fantail Rhipidura teysmanni - Sulawesi
Arafura fantail Rhipidura dryas - Flores; West Timor
Black-naped monarch Hypothymis azurea - Flores; Malaysia
Asian paradise flycatcher Terpsiphone paradisi - Flores; Malaysia
Spectacled monarch Monarcha trivirgata - West Timor
Flores monarch Monarcha sacerdotum - Flores
Broad-billed flycatcher Myiagra ruficollis - West Timor
Restless flycatcher Myiagra inquieta - Australia
Flores jungle-flycatcher Rhinomyias oscillans - Flores
Jacky Winter (Brown flycatcher) Microeca fascinans (formerly M. leucophaea) - Australia
Yellow-rumped flycatcher Ficedula zanthopygia - Malaysia
Black-banded flycatcher Ficedula timorensis - West Timor
Snowy-browed flycatcher Ficedula hyperythra - Sulawesi
Little pied flycatcher Ficedula westermanni - Sulawesi; Flores
Island verditer flycatcher Eumyias panayensis - Sulawesi
Pale blue flycatcher Cyornis unicolor - Malaysia
Mangrove blue flycatcher Cyornis rufigastra - Sulawesi
Timor blue flycatcher Cyornis hyacinthinus - West Timor
Blue-fronted flycatcher Cyornis hoevelli - Sulawesi
Citrine flycatcher Culicicapa helianthea - Sulawesi
Black-winged flycatcher-shrike Hemipus hirundinaceus - Malaysia
Large woodshrike Tephrodornis gularis - Malaysia
Great tit Parus major - Flores; Komodo
Varied sitella Daphoenositta chrysoptera - Australia
Rufous treecreeper Climacteris rufa - Australia
Striated pardalote Pardalotus striatus - Australia
Golden-rumped flowerpecker Dicaeum annae - Flores
Thick-billed flowerpecker Dicaeum agile - Flores; West Timor
Yellow-sided flowerpecker Dicaeum aureolimbatum - Sulawesi
Black-fronted flowerpecker Dicaeum igniferum - Flores
Red-chested flowerpecker Dicaeum maugei - West Timor
Crimson-crowned flowerpecker Dicaeum nehrkorni - Sulawesi
Grey-sided flowerpecker Dicaeum celebicum - Sulawesi
Mountain white-eye Zosterops montanus - Sulawesi; Flores
Black-ringed white-eye Zosterops anomalus - Sulawesi
Yellow-spectacled white-eye Zosterops wallacei - Flores
Yellow-bellied white-eye Zosterops chloris - Sulawesi
Ashy-bellied white-eye Zosterops citrinellus - West Timor
Silvereye Zosterops lateralis - Australia
Crested dark-eye Lophozosterops dohertyi - Flores
Yellow-browed dark-eye Lophozosterops superciliaris - Flores
Streak-headed dark-eye Lophozosterops squamiceps - Sulawesi
Thick-billed dark-eye Heleia crassirostris - Flores
Purple-naped sunbird Hypogramma hypogrammicum - Malaysia
Olive-backed sunbird Nectarinia jugularis - Sulawesi; Komodo
Flame-breasted sunbird Nectarinia solaris - Flores; West Timor
Crimson sunbird Aethopyga siparaja - Sulawesi
Little spiderhunter Arachnothera longirostra - Malaysia
Grey-breasted spiderhunter Arachnothera modesta - Malaysia
Western spinebill Acanthorhynchus superciliosus - Australia
Streak-breasted honeyeater Meliphaga reticulata - West Timor
Singing honeyeater Lichenostomus virescens - Australia
Yellow-plumed honeyeater Lichenostomus ornatus - Australia
White-eared honeyeater Lichenostomus leucotis - Australia
Bell miner Manorina melanophrys - Australia
Red wattlebird Anthochaera carunculata - Australia
Greater Sulawesi honeyeater Myza sarasinorum - Sulawesi
Lesser Sulawesi honeyeater Myza celebensis - Sulawesi
Sulawesi myzomela Myzomela chloroptera - Sulawesi
Black-chested myzomela Myzomela vulnerata - West Timor
Scaly-crowned honeyeater Lichmera lombokia - Flores
Indonesian honeyeater Lichmera limbata - West Timor
Brown honeyeater Lichmera indistincta - Australia
Yellow-eared honeyeater Lichmera flavicans - West Timor
New Holland honeyeater Phylidonyris novaehollandiae - Australia
White-cheeked honeyeater Phylidonyris nigra - Australia
Western white-naped honeyeater Melithreptus chloropsis - Australia
Brown-headed honeyeater Melithreptus brevirostris - Australia
Helmeted friarbird Philemon buceroides - Flores; Komodo
Timor friarbird Philemon inornatus - West Timor
White-fronted chat Ephthianura albifrons - Australia
Red-eared firetail Emblema oculatum - Australia
Zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata - West Timor
Black-faced munia Lonchura molucca - Flores
Scaly-breasted munia Lonchura punctulata - Flores
White-bellied munia Lonchura leucogastra - Malaysia
Black-headed munia Lonchura malacca - Sulawesi
Five-coloured munia Lonchura quinticolor - West Timor
Timor sparrow Padda fuscata - West Timor
House sparrow Passer domesticus - Australia
Tree sparrow Passer montanus - Malaysia; Sulawesi; Flores; West Timor; Bali
Fiery-browed starling Enodes erythrophris - Sulawesi
Finch-billed starling Scissirostrum dubium - Sulawesi
Short-tailed (Lesser glossy) starling Aplonis minor - Flores; West Timor
Common starling Sturnus vulgaris - Australia
Javan mynah Acridotheres javanicus - Malaysia
Common mynah Acridotheres tristis - Malaysia; Australia
Timor figbird Sphecotheres viridis - West Timor
Dark-throated oriole Oriolus xanthonotus - Malaysia
Black-naped oriole Oriolus chinensis - Sulawesi; Komodo; Flores; Malaysia
Greater racquet-tailed drongo Dicrurus paradiseus - Malaysia
Crow-billed drongo Dicrurus annectans - Malaysia
Hair-crested drongo Dicrurus hottentottus - Sulawesi
Sulawesi drongo Dicrurus montanus - Sulawesi
Wallacean drongo Dicrurus densus - Flores; Komodo
Magpie-lark Grallina cyanoleuca - Australia
Dusky woodswallow Artamus cyanopterus - Australia
Black-faced woodswallow Artamus cinereus - West Timor
Ivory-backed woodswallow Artamus monachus - Sulawesi
White-breasted woodswallow Artamus leucorynchus - Komodo; Flores; West Timor
Grey currawong Strepera versicolor - Australia
Australian magpie Gymnorhina tibicen - Australia
Black magpie Platysmurus leucopterus - Malaysia
Crested jay Platylophus galericulatus - Malaysia
House crow Corvus splendens - Malaysia
Piping crow Corvus typicus - Sulawesi
Flores crow Corvus florensis - Flores
Large-billed crow Corvus macrorhynchos - Komodo
Australian raven Corvus coronoides - Australia


MAMMALS: (37 spp)

Short-beaked echidna Tachyglossus aculeatus - Western Australia

Southern brown bandicoot Isoodon obesulus - Western Australia
Western grey kangaroo Macropus fuliginosus - Western Australia
Quokka Setonix brachyurus - Western Australia
Woylie (Brush-tailed bettong) Bettongis penicillata - Western Australia
Brush-tailed possum Trichosurus vulpecula - Western Australia
Sulawesi dwarf cuscus Strigocuscus celebensis - Sulawesi

Sulawesi fruit bat Acerodon celebensis - Sulawesi
Black fruit bat Pteropus alecto - Sulawesi
Large flying fox Pteropus vampyrus - Komodo
and dozens of unidentified micro-bat species.....

Dusky langur Presbytis obscurus - Melaka Zoo grounds
White-thighed langur Presbytis siamensis - Taman Negara
Crab-eating macaque Macaca fascicularis - Flores
Moor macaque Macaca maura - Sulawesi
White-handed gibbon Hylobates lar - Taman Negara

Greater tree-shrew Tupaia glis - Melaka Zoo grounds

European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus - Western Australia

Australian water rat Hydromys chrysogaster - Melbourne (Australia)
Dark-tailed tree rat Niviventer cremoriventer - Taman Negara
Flores Giant Rat Papagomys armandvillei - Flores
and several unidentified rats and mice
Plantain squirrel Callosciurus notatus - Taman Negara
Sunda black-banded squirrel Callosciurus nigrovittatus - Taman Negara
Grey-bellied squirrel Callosciurus caniceps - Taman Negara
Slender squirrel Sundasciurus tenuis - Taman Negara
Low's squirrel Sundasciurus lowii - Taman Negara
Sulawesi dwarf squirrel Prosciurillus murinus - Sulawesi
Five-lined palm squirrel Funambulus pennanti - Western Australia
Three-lined ground squirrel Lariscus insignis - Taman Negara

Southern right whale Eubalaena australis - Western Australia
IndoPacific bottlenose dolphin Tursiops aduncus - Western Australia

Leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis - Taman Negara
Common palm civet Paradoxurus hermaphroditus - Taman Negara

New Zealand fur seal Arctocephalus forsteri - Western Australia

Rusa Cervus timorensis - Komodo
Asian wild pig Sus scrofa - Taman Negara
Bearded pig Sus barbatus - Taman Negara

Malayan tapir Tapirus indicus - Taman Negara


REPTILES:

Komodo dragon Varanus komodoensis - Komodo
Water monitor Varanus salvator - Peninsula Malaysia
Heath (Rosenberg's) monitor Varanus rosenbergi - Western Australia
various unidentified flying dragons Draco spp - Indonesia
Eastern water dragon Physignathus lesueurii - Melbourne (Australia)
Reticulated velvet gecko Oedura reticulata - Western Australia
Tokay gecko Gecko gekko - Indonesia
various commensal geckoes I haven't got round to ID-ing yet
Stump-tailed skink Tiliqua rugosa - Western Australia
King's skink Egernia kingii - Western Australia
lots of unidentified skinks throughout

Reticulated python Python reticulata - Flores
Painted bronzeback Dendrelaphis pictus - Taman Negara
White-bellied racer Zaocys fuscus - Taman Negara
Tiger snake Notechis ater - Western Australia
Russell's pit viper Daboia russelli - Komodo
and a few other snakes unidentified

Green turtle Chelonia mydas - Komodo
Oblong snakeneck Chelodina oblonga - Western Australia


AMPHIBIANS:

Black-spined toad Bubo melanostictus - Sulawesi
White-spotted burrowing frog Heleioporus albopunctatus - Western Australia
various other species as yet unidentified
 
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