Sunday, March 23, 2014

Tutle carcasses found in Sabah?!

Heard this news from my sister and mom.

Quote from The Star :

KOTA KINABALU: An academic studying the economic behaviour of Sabah’s northern communities stumbled upon 60 decomposing turtle carcasses on a remote island.Universiti Malaysia Sabah’s Dr James Alin, an economist, said he was carrying out research at Pulau Tiga – an island under the proposed Tun Mustapha marine park in Northern Sabah when he smelt a stench.“The smell was so strong, and after looking around for the source, my guide and I discovered these carcasses last week,” he said.Dr Alin added that leftover flesh and discarded internal organs were decomposing in some of creatures while others were still intact with only some of their parts missing.“I also noticed that many of the carcasses scattered at the sites had their scutes (scale-like structures used for making jewellery) re­­moved,” he said.The lecturer said he was no turtle expert but suspected the carcasses belonged to the hawksbill sea turtle, green turtle, olive ridleys, and loggerhead species, among others.Dr Alin said there was also a hut-like structure as well as a fireplace near the area where they found the carcasses, believed to have been used by poachers.He said over his 10 years’ experience doing research on the islands here, he had heard about turtles and other marine life poaching, but had never seen evidence of such claims.“The islanders even told us about locals and foreigners poaching all the time, some for self-consumption and some to be sold,” he said, adding that they claimed that the authorities were informed about such incidences.“But these claims were never supported with proof, and the authorities would not investigate. That’s why these activities never stop,” he said.
isn't it sad  that we, human is already seize their home-right, pollute their water, invade their habitat and yet it is not enough, some of us still need to kill and abandon their remain them in such disrespectful and inhumane way.
***

Actually, I was not so surprise to hear, last year there's news where they found at least 14 dead pygmy elephant in a plantation area, suspected as poisoning. There are only one surviving baby Elephant on the pack, his name is Joe, or Baby Joe. There's a lot of video about his survival and rescuer in YouTube and Facebook.

Full news and picture here: 14 Pygmy Elephants Die Mysteriously in Borneo
More about Baby Joe story here. 



We need more people who cares about them, the ones that could not fend for themselves, speak for themselves for our future.

Thank you for Borneo wildlife team!
Thank you Augustin David for fostering Baby Joe!
Thank you for all of those that still care and fighting for the survival of all the WildLife!

Lok Kawi Wildlife park visit !

Last year, 1st Nov 2013, went for a visit a wildlife park located in my hometown area ; Lokkawi wildlife park !
I drag my cousin Azrin and Nadia for the visit, cause I never been there before so it's gonna be my first. My cousins went there few times before.. My family actually have a thing about going to 'zoo' cause they do not support any animal to be caged up for display. But since it is a wildlife park I decided to give it a try, the mission for this WildLife Park are very humble actually, they wanted to raise awareness among the people of the unique and amazing animal treasure in Sabah. Here; they also provide rescue and rehabilitation to any injured/sick animal and release them back to the wild when they are ready.

The Lok Kawi Wildlife Park is located along the Penampang-Papar old road, about 25 kilometers from Kota Kinabalu. It was officially opened to the public on the 17th of February 2007. The park is fully developed by the Sabah Wildlife Department.

Here are the objective of the WildPark, note they call this center as Wildlife park instead of Zoo.
  • To raise awareness of the value and importance of conserving the natural heritage.
  • To provide educational facilities and resources to conduct environmental education programmes for visitors.
  • To conduct research on captive management and reproduction of endangered species.
  • To breed rare and endangered species of indigenous wildlife.
  • To provide a facility where rescued native animals can be treated and rehabilitated.
  • To provide captive-bred and rescued/rehabilitated Bornean animals to the world's major non-profit zoos for additional captive breeding. 
source here 

When going to the Wildlife Park, remember to;
-Bring sunscreen, umbrella or cap/hat
-if you don't mind bring along water to drink
-wear comfy comfy shoe/slipper/sandal
-it's gonna be warm and you gonna be sweaty, wear comfy clothes too
- money, in case you decided not to walk and take the train car instead. I think it is RM2 or RM5 per ride.
-expect mosquito and other insect in vicinity, wear a mozzie cream/spray repellent !


 Here we go!


The fee for going into the Zoo is RM10 for MyKad holder and RM20 for non-Malaysian. 
For Student(with uniform), senior citizen and disabled person, admission is FREE.
Btw, before going inside the Zoo, visit the toilet, HAPPY TO TELL YOU GUYS, ITS CLEAN ENOUGH TO BE USE ~ 
There will be brochure for you upon admission with the map and animal allocation, but since the visit is like, last year, I don't have the brochure in hand anymore >.<

 Was greeted with this Rhino's Bones at the entrance. COOL eh?


 I got separated with one of my cousin, he bring along his Girlfriend(duh) so I hang out with my other cousins, we starts with the aviation are but how unlucky I am, that area was close for renovation. They also have elephant riding and some event-USUALLY- but me, being the misfortune me, went to the wildpark on a 'FRIDAY' where ALL EVENT IS CLOSED. They should have give a pre-warn-that-no-event to be held of Friday in the website, right? Grr

Caught a glimpse of the peacocks, they are so lovely ~ 

Group of pygmy elephants was there, they have huge area to wonder around. OMG, how they smells :/ 
Kinda remind me of my hometown when we passby the area where the water buffalo (kerbau, or in our kampung word KARABAU XD) 
Maybe it's because of their diet, consisting mostly with grasses, they smell almost similar. the dump. lol

 And the pretty tiger. There's 2 tiger there. And they even have a small pond to take bathe, spend some time watching them. Such magnificent creature.

There are two observation area where you can watch the tiger, from above, and from inside(below), which is behind a glass area near the pond, Picture above taken from the up(outside) area while down here from inside(below) ; near the pond.

The observation place is quite far from the tiger area , just to make sure we human wont kacao ,disturb, them much




 After his quick bathe, he scroll around and mark his territory xD
spraying and rubbing his face with pheromone everywhere. lols 

By the way, this is my pretty cousin. Nadia Crista ~
Me
Cuzzie with a pony. At least, I think it is a pony :/


There's also a flora and fauna area on top of the site, walk abit up a hill, you can see 'Periuk kera' or Pitcher Plant, scientifically called as Nepenthes rajah . I didn't have the picture cause I didn't went to the botanical area. Below are flowers around the wildpark. I'ts pretty so i took the pictures.

 At the Botanical area, you can see a small stream of river there. There are still up up the hill more, i just walk along the path and walk back to the wildlife area :/

.




This picture below is an Emu, not ostrich, the Emu is so near I could take a close up picture of them. 



My cousin keep warn me not to get near them in case they, well, attack me or get distress or something. 
I kept my distance .



 I forget what bird is this, but my mom says this may be some type of 'Bird Of Paradise' 
I Google it, seems accurate.
 The birds is in the aviary area which still under renovation, we cant see all the birds, just those near the walk-path.



 Assorted birds, including owls.



 And I spend a bit more time with the Sun Bear. Another protected animal of Borneo. 





They have few of them there, maybe about 3 or 4, SunBear are smallest of all bear. Also known as Malayan Bear or Honey Bear. They feed on honeycomb and honey. Remind you of Winnie the Pooh, eh?
They are located nearby the Tiger location. 

There's also all type of monkey and orang utan there. Including the famous proboscis monkey ! 

Here the Orang Utan. In malay Orang Utan literally means 'Human+Jungle'
Go figure XD


There's a scene(in the orang utan location) where me and my cousin saw a mama orang utan and her baby run to each other to embrace. Such a sweet moment ~
I SHOULD have take video but I'm stingy with my memory card capacity . lol 
At first the mama was pacing here and there, and then they catch each other eyes and ran toward each other.

Aww <3 br="">






 Here are the proboscis monkey, look at the nose. LOL 
According to my mom, there's these folklore legend saying these monkey are actually cursed 'ang-mo'. Cause of their big nose, we all know most ang-mo punya hidung manyak basar. wakakakka.
These monkey are sneaky little beast, the Park Ranger warn us not to stand near the fence area cause they might just decide to pee on you. EUW(!) 





Snap Snap, Cute monkeys I remember my uncle used to have a monkey in their house, he get the baby monkey from somewhere and raise it till it grown. Not sure what happen to the monkey :/ 





Flat-headed cat or kucing hutan 
Prionailurus planiceps

 This little guy just sat there watching us. pretty lil thing, the size is like an ordinary house cat, but with smaller eyes, and distinctive wild pattern. 
SHOULD NOT BE KEEP AS A PET !! 

Harimau dahan, clouded leopard 
 Neofelis nebolusa  

 Amazing creature to be observe with great admiration , they are protected creature, as well as the SunBear, Pygmy Elephant and Proboscis Monkey.





Despite my bad luck for going to the Wildlife Park on a "Friday" I was lucky enough to visit the otter during their feeding time. 
Oh. My. God.
They can be SO DARN CUTE. I even shot a short clips of them fighting over the fish. 
I think these are River Otter.







One of them get stung by a bee or wasp and try to fix itself on the grassy area, poor thingy, but not-so-long after, went back to the water to play.
They eat, wrestle abit while eat, and them groom each after after. It was so SWEET to see them. 
-smell awfully of fishes, but oh my, they are just so cute to be ignore-











There's a lot of animal that I did not bother to upload, like numerous number of ox/buffalo(aint sure which is which) ,crocodile, deer, reptiles 
But I have a lot of fun, walking and looking around the area. Wish I can go again, once the aviary is done maybe ;)