Borneo island received a numbers of winter visitors of the migratory bird and this time the Grey-headed Lapwing visiting Borneo’s paddy field at Penampang district. There are only two type of Lapwing that come passing or visit Borneo which is the Grey-headed Lapwing and the Northern Lapwing. Both of this bird have not many sighting record in the past. This Grey-headed Lapwing usually breeds in South Russia, Japan and North China and during winter, they will migrate to South. This recent sighted bird and photographed is the only one seen in Penampang. Population of this bird species are unknown.

Photo by Jollence Lee

]]> http://wild.borneogeographic.org/?feed=rss2&p=136 0 http://wild.borneogeographic.org/?p=131 http://wild.borneogeographic.org/?p=131#comments Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:15:30 +0000 jollence http://wild.borneogeographic.org/?p=131

Borneo had many thing that has been discovered by experts and still have many yet to be discovered. Danum Valley June 18th 2009, Richard Webster together with his local bird guide Mr Wangkung are observing wildlife along the canopy walkway at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge when they saw a species of bird a family of a Flowerpecker which they did not find in their reference book.Fortunately Richard Webster managed to get a photograph of the bird and later Webster consulted with Dr David Edwards, a Fellow at Leeds University’s Faculty of Biological Science who has been conducting ornithological studies in the region for three years. They soon realized that this was a species never before recorded from Borneo and – following visits to museum collections in London, New York and Washington DC also not in the record. By having this finding of a new species, field guide’s book such as the Bird Of Borneo authored by Quentin Phillip has been updated adding the newly discovered “Spectacled Flowerpecker”.

“Amphibians are indicators of environmental health, with direct implications for human health. Their benefits to people should not be underestimated,” Das, said in a statement.
Three individual toads — a juvenile, a female and a male — were observed in three different locations and range from 30-51 millimeters in length.
The research was part of a wider ‘lost’ amphibian search launched by Conservation International and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) last year, which involved 126 researchers working in 21 countries on five continents.
“It is good to know that nature can surprise us when we are close to giving up hope, especially amidst our planet’s escalating extinction crisis,” Robin Moore, an amphibian specialist from Conservation International said in a statement.
According to IUCN amphibians are the most threatened group of vertebrates, with over 30% threatened with extinction.
“I hope that these unique species serve as flagships for conservation, inspiring pride and hope by Malaysians and people everywhere,” Moore added.

Source: CNN.com

The Red Giant Flying Squirrel (Petaurista petaurista) is a species of flying squirrel, This squirrel can be found through out South East Asia.  It can also be found in parts of Borneo . This species was recorded from many localities throughout Sabah and Sarawak, up to 900m on Mount Kinabalu, excluding the range of P.p. nigrescens, which is known only from the forests around Sandakan Bay north of Kinabatangan River.

In this short trip me and Cede Prudente a wildlife photographer based in Sandakan made a visit to the forest of Sepilok at dusk waiting for this illusive Giant Squirrel.  During the day this Squirrel is sleeping inside a tree hole and wait till darkness fall. According to Cede, on his observation of the Squirrel.. the squirrel will wait for the “6 o’clock Cicada” to start making it loud sound which is always start making noise around 6pm(How its earn it’s name) then the squirrel start to emerge from it’s tree holes.

This squirrel has a membrane of skin between its legs, which is used to glide between trees. It is characterised by its dark red colouring and large eyes. When compared to other species of squirrels, this species is large, being on average 422mm long. Entire body dark reddish except for black on nose, chin, eye-ring, behind the ears, feet and tail tip. This squirrel are capable of gliding from tree to tree as far as 80 meters in distance.

Cede and few other photographer in action

]]> http://wild.borneogeographic.org/?feed=rss2&p=89 4 http://wild.borneogeographic.org/?p=78 http://wild.borneogeographic.org/?p=78#comments Wed, 30 Mar 2011 04:17:48 +0000 jollence http://wild.borneogeographic.org/?p=78 Here are list of wallpaper images of Borneo that can be download for free, all are in wide 1280×800 screen size. These images are only for personal use and not for commercial use. Enjoy!

A statement by Musa (Sabah Chief Minister) that the state cannot afford to put its natural environment at risk was testimony of the State Government’s commitment in protecting Sabah’s rich biodiversity. This was the end of the long fight by many NGOs over the implementation of the coal power plant in Sabah.

The coal power plant will destroy a lot of natural habitat and at the same time it kill many wildlife in the area.  This will be totally against the concept of Sabah promoting the eco tourism. Dozen of people will be effected especially fisherman that live and catch fish in the area.

By learning other country like US which has 1493 coal-powered units at the electrical utilities across the US in 2006, which three coal-fired power plants reported the largest toxic air releases in 2001. By learning of that it should be a turning point and stop using coal for power.

Green Surf rep said “We are here to stay and we are ready and willing to work with both the State and Federal governments in identifying and implementing solutions”.  An alternative solution will be identify for producing power for Sabah and at the same time its green for environment.

This book is our source of inspirational, Alfred Russell Wallace collected dozens of specimens during his travel and wrote this book . Definitely a good read.

Jason is working as a bird guide in Sabah, Borneo and active in documenting endemic species as well during the winter migration season. He captured most of his bird photograph by digiscoping technique. He is using Nikon D300s with EDG scope for most of his work

Bio

Jason is working as a bird guide in Sabah, Borneo and active in documenting endemic species as well during the winter migration season. He captured most of his bird photograph by digiscoping technique. He is using Nikon D300s with EDG scope for most of his work.