Wildlife week celebration at Zoo Melaka

The Department organized a wildlife week celebration at Zoo Melaka on 24-25th October 2009. Various events were organized, from coloring contest, wildlife photography, wildlife talk, wildlife race, exhibition etc. The finale was the introduction of Ady Fashla as our wildlife conservation ambassador. Despite the short preparation time, the two-day event was quite a success. We knew what to do the next time around. Hopefully, next year's celebration will be on a bigger scale with more events and sponsors. The wildlife photography will be opened to all interested amateur photographers with exciting prizes ( digital camera perhaps?), the wildlife race will be at night and focus on nocturnal wildlife, etc. I supposed the location will still be at Zoo Melaka unless there are others who offer their venue. Perhaps Adib is willing to organize the wildlife week celebration at Penang national park. We'll see next year.

The selection of Adi Fashla as our wildlife conservation ambassador is right based on his interests in the outdoor and wildlife. For a start, he managed to spend some time with one of the orangutan...something that he always wanted to do since the first day I met him at ASTRO. I am looking forward to this exciting collaboration. We have various plans planned for him and some lucky individuals. Trips are being planned for Adi to visit Kuala Gandah, Penang National park, hornbill watching, wildlife breeding centers etc. At the same time, Adi will help the Department enhance public awareness when he is on-air at Radio ERA.

Many people contributed to the success of the wildlife week last weekend. My colleagues from JP, Suzi and Zolkefly who did most of the background work, the energetic and hardworking staff from KBD, Zoo Melaka and IBD. The cheerful and fun loving gurls from admin ( Amelina, Syikin, Fadilah), Kazidi, Zeti and others. (sorry if I missed anyone). We'll see how things developed from here. To era.FM, thanks for the support.

Purple swamphens of Paya Indah Wetlands

Do you know that the swamps of Paya Indah Wetlands support a breeding population of the Purple swamphen? It's interesting to observe and photograph these birds during their breeding season. They would flatten the grass and built mounds out of the grasses. The whole area is transformed from a grassland into an open area with many mounds. I am always fascinated with these birds and photographing them would give me great satisfaction.

Sorry for the long absence. I was occupied with the manuscript for the coffee table book which is due before the end of the year. Read the annual report from 1975 to 2008. Amazing what you can find the the reports. I am also compiling historical photographs of the activities from various people. Sharif will provide me with some photographs after he come back from Sungai Ketiar. Dr. Abdullah and Dr. Zainal will pass me their photographs later. Can't wait how the book will turn out. Sugawara and Miss Lim will assist me with the photos and layout of the book. Talking about Sugawara and Miss Lim, they have been my close companion since I met them more than a decade ago. We would travel everywhere in the country taking photographs or just enjoying the outdoor. They came along with me during my trip to South Africa, Australia, US and other destinations but miss the trip to Mongolia. We plan to take the train from Ulanbator to Moscow after I retire from work. Should be fun travelling from Mongolia to Moscow in a train. They travel a lot more than me and I believed they had ben to most places in the word.

We went to Tasek Bera a couple of years back. Did some photography on the lake and the peat swamp at Fort Iskandar. Very interesting place especially the peat swamp vegetation. We met a Semelai boat maker near the village. Very interesting to watch him working on the boat using simple tools. The peat swamp of tasek bera supports diverse flora and fauna. It is also the source of water for some families. The village consists of modern and traditional houses. I supposed the traditional houses are for tourists. Planning to visit Tasik Bera in the near future to photograph the flora and fauna of the peat swamp.

our netball team in the 80s

The Department's netball team in the early 80s. Recognize anyone in the picture?

Bird survey on the Layang-layang atoll

I had the opportunity to conduct a bird survey on Terumbu layang-layang off the coast of Labuan in the early 1990s. As a matter of fact, I went there on two occasions. The first time to survey birds while the second time was to do a documentary on migratory birds with RTM. I enjoyed both trips. It's like heaven for migratory birds, just like being on Galapagos Island. Imagine being surrounded by colonies of brown boobies, noodies, crested terns etc. You can practically sit among the colonies watching the chicks on the ground while the adult birds flying above your head, sometimes bombarding you with fish...what a feeling. Guys, we should plan to visit this place sometimes.
My first trip to Terumbu layang-layang was with Dr.Tajuddin Abdullah (UNIMAS) and Mat Isa Marzuki who is retired now. We were there to study the impact of constructing an airstrip on the bird population and the potential danger to the airplane should the project proceeds. The only way to get to the atoll at that time was either take a Nuri helicopter ( 2 hr+) or Royal Navy Ship ( 18 hr+ depending on the weather and sea condition). We opted for the first choice but had to standby at the TUDM base everyday until the weather permits us to fly. So there we were, waiting at the base every day until 1:00pm before the army personnel would come to us and said " sorry guys, no flight today. Weather doesn't permit flying. Come back tomorrow". So off we went, to our hotel. Labuan was still developing during that time. The best hotel in town belongs to one of the senior politicians in the state. Nothing much to do except window shopping for duty free items. A can of beer costs the same as coke....We were on standby for three days before the weather permitted us to fly to Layang-layang atoll. After safety briefing, we walked to our waiting nuri with our field equipments. The army also sent the week supplies for the personnel on the atoll as the ship that was supposed to carry the supplies had to turn back due to engine problems. At last we took off from the TUDM base in a Nuri, flying above Labuan town before flying above the ocean. We flew above the ocean for more than one hour. You only see the blue ocean everywhere. It's quite frightening to imagine what would happened if the Nuri was to make an emergency landing in the ocean......Alhamdullilah, we reached Layang-layang safely. As we approached the atoll, we saw a small patch of sand surrounded by deep blue ocean. Everyone was excited and looking forward to the new experience. We landed safely and the personnel crowded the Nuri to unload the supplies that we brought along with us, especially the cigarettes. After lunch in the fully air-conditioned mess, we went out to the bird area. You can hear the sound of birds as you approached the area. And suddenly, before your eyes.... thousand of terns, boobies, nodies etc flying just above your head. We set our transect lines amidst the cries of the birds, as if telling us to leave them alone. while setting our transect lines, we came across eggs, chicks and dead chicks. After surveying the transects, we decided to just sit down and enjoyed the scenery with birds flying just above our heads. As usual I took the opportunity to photograph the birds using my faithful Nikon SLR. (I hope I can still find the slides of the birds). We left the atoll after completing our task. Spend a couple of days in Labuan (for duty free shopping) before departing to KL. It was truly an unforgettable experience for me to be surrounded by birds just like what you normally see on the telly. My second trip to Layang-layang was more relax as the air strip was completed and we took a small plane instead of the Nuri. Personally, I enjoyed Nuri compared to the light plane as you can see more with the door opened on the Nuri..I'll write about my second trip next time. In the meantime, all the best to our representatives to the sports meet. Remember, good sportsmanship is more important than winning. Go out and enjoy yourselves and please do not show your faces at the office on Monday if you fail to win anything...hahhaha

More photos from Kapar trip

More photos from Kapar trip as requested by Nosrat. However, they're not as good as my sifu's, Sugawara. Sorry for the arrangements as I am not sure how to resolve the layout problem yet. Nevertheless, enjoy the photos
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Waders photography at Kapar Power station

A group of us went to Kapar power station to do waders photography. The trip was organized by Rahmah of KBD (thanks for the arrangements Rahmah) and the group consisted of myself, Sugawara, Miss Lim, Sam, Nosrat, Suzi, Shidah, Mariani, Dr. Abraham and Lilia, and of course Rahmah. We left KL in the afternoon around 2 pm and would assemble outside the Kapar power station around 4:00 pm. After getting our visitor pass from the security, we were met by Mr. Nagaraju(if I am not mistaken) from the PR section who later took us to the briefing room where the temporary pass valid for a year were prepared and given to us. With the pass, we should be able to visit the ash pond in the power station without much hassle in the future. This was my first waders trip to the ash pond as my previous trips covered other areas in Port Klang, Pulau Ketam, Pulau Angsa etc. We finally arrived at the ash pond around 5:30 pm. Luckily it was sunny and we saw groups of waders resting near the water edge. We quickly set up our equipments and soon were engrossed in waders watching. Abraham and Lilia decided to go near the water edge as his camera lens didn't permit him to take close-up shots of the birds. Sugawara brought his 800mm nikon lens and have no problem. Nevertheless, the temptation of photographing waders up close took him and Miss Lim into the ash pond behind Abraham and Lilia. By the time I realized it, everyone was inside the pond except me. So I set up my 400mm lens and decided to photograph the waders from the pond perimeter. The sight of waders taking off was too awsome for me to describe. I could hear the wings flapping as the flocks flew above me. Waterfowl watching has always been my passion eversince I was in the states during the late 80s. We travelled all the way to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland to survey waterfowl in winter. It was an unforgetable experience for me and the love for waterfowl grew in me. But alas, we don't have waterfowl in the country and waders provide the same opportunity to me. I also enjoyed watching belibis on several occasions in Paya Indah, Sungai Dusun and Kampar. Ta Le Noi in Southern Thailand is another superb location for watching waterbirds. Went there on several occasions in the 90s and the waterbirds population in the lake is much higher compared here. And the lake is also temporary home to commorants. You should try to visit Ta Le Noi if you have the opportunity. Best time to be there is December when migration is at its peak. Perhaps Rahmah can arrange the trip to Ta Le Noi end of this year?

Looking outside the perimeter fence around the ash pond, I saw debris washed up behind the row of mangroves. Truly a sad scenario. Wonder what it takes before all the dumping will finally stop.....Time really flies whenever you enjoy doing something that you like. Before long, it was already 7:30 pm and too dark for photography. So we finally packed up our equipments and left the ash pond. Nosrat and the gang went to Subang Jaya to try out the ayam pepek while Sugawara, Miss Lim and went back to KL. We hope to go to Tasik Bera on our next trip next month. It was a day well spent for me.

otter survey from Pantai Remis to Penang

I did an otter survey along the west coast, from Pantai Remis to the islands around Penang way back in the early 90s. An amateur otter breeder from England, Elizabeth Joy, requested my help in locating the hairy-nosed otter. In those days, the hairy-nosed otter was thought to be extinct as it was never seen for more than 20 years in the region. So based on the old records by Medway, we decided to look for the species along the west coast. Elizabeth hired a live-on diving boat from Penang for 10 days to enable us to survey along the coastline. The boat has three crew members, a pilot, co-pilot and a helper. The boat will be our home for the next 10 days. I met Elizabeth when the boat stopped for supplies and freshwater at Port Weld. " Elizabeth Joy I presumed?" That was my introduction upon seeing a middle-aged English lady standing on the jetty. " You must be Bond. Boy, am I glad to see you. Welcome aboard." I found out that two of her friends, a husband and wife, followed Elizabeth on the trip. Life on the boat is a luxury, lots of fresh seafood and cigarettes. Elizabeth likes smoking and she normally bought Benson and Hedges by the carton. " They are mighty cheap here compared to London" was her remarks everytime she bought a carton of Benson and Hedges. The boat was very spacious for us. It has a lower and upper deck. I stayed on the lower deck with the crew while Elizabeth and her friends stayed on the upper deck. Our pilot turned out to be an excellent cook and this made our trip an enjoyable one. From Port Weld we moved to the mangroves in Matang Forest. We took a fibreglass boat and search for otters in the small rivers among the mangroves. We only saw smooth-coated otters and small-clawed otters but no hairy-nosed otter. Actually I am not sure how the hairy-nosed otter looked like as I have never seen them before. For all I know, the rhinarium is shaped like a shield and is fully covered by hairs. (Only after I caught the hairy-nosed otter in southern Thailand did I understood what it meant by the rhinarium being covered by hairs). Later, we went further down to Teluk Intan. We stopped at Telok Intan to buy udang galah from several boys who were fishing at the jetty before going up the Perak River. Initially we planned to go up the river but had to turn back as the river was too shallow for the big boat to navigate. We spent the night in the river before going back to the sea the next day. We stopped at Pantai Remis to make a phone call to Hifni of USM. He was supposed to join us but could not do so due to other commitments. Elizabeth took the opportunity to restock her B&H supplies. On our way out to the sea, we decided to check out several sites along the mudflats. When we went out to the shore in the fibreglass boat, the tide was still high. I supposed we got carried away looking for otter signs and scats that by the time we realized it, the tide was out and the fibreglass boat was a couple hundred meters from the shore. Either we wait for the tide to come in (6 hours) or wade across the mud flats. Finally we decided to take the second option. So there I was, with two English ladies trying to cross the mudflats to our boat. Both are heavy and kept on sinking into the mud. We barely moved as we spent most of the time trying to free ourselves from the soft mud. The two ladies kept dragging me down with them every time they tried to move. Finally, I asked the two ladies to lie on their back and do a backstroke on the soft mud. So there we were, the three of us doing backstroke on the mud, moving slowly towards the awaiting boat. And the sun was not in a cooperative mood, shining its rays directly on the three of us. I managed to see several fishermen on their fishing boats grinning when they saw us swimming on the mud, facing the sun and inching our way towards the boat. "What kind of idiots would do such thing under the hot sun!" that's what they said I thought. I told the two ladies that the mud would be excellent for their skins and they didn't have to go to a health center for the treatment. My words made them cheerful I think as none of them grumbled. Personally, I like the smell of mud especially the unpolluted ones. They have a conspicuous smell that reminds me of my early childhood days. I think I can easily differentiate a clean mud from a polluted mud just by smelling them. By the way, you can also distinguished the otter species from the smell of their faeces. Therefore, it is not surprising to see otter researchers picking up otter fresh faeces and smelling them. It happened during my workshop in Korea. One of the participants found fresh otter scats and the whole group scrambled to get a piece of the fresh scat to smell it. If you are planning to study otters, then you should familiarize yourself with the smell of otter faeces. It's not that bad.

Anyway, by the time we get to the boat we were covered in dry mud. So we spent the afternoon peeling off the dried mud from our skin. Nevertheless, it was a good experience for the two English ladies. Elizabeth Joy, by the way, operates a small travel agency in London. She normally brings a small group of tourist in her van to Europe. She breeds small-clawed otter in her free time. After ten days, there were no signs of the hairy-nosed otters. However, I found that the smooth-coated otters in Pantai Remis are used to the fishermen schedule. They knew when the fishing boats would be back everyday and would wait by the river bank for fishes thrown out by the fishermen. Otters are intelligent animals apart from being opportunistic. We ended our trip at the harbour in Penang. I went back to KL the next day while Elizabeth and her friends continued their vacation in Penang. She visited Pantai Kerchut but could not find any signs of the elusive hairy-nosed otter. Wonder what Elizabeth Joy is doing right now......

Some Photos of JICA Training course in Japan

My first earthquake experience

I attended a JICA training course on wetlands and migratory birds in Japan way back in 1994 (picture below). It was a 6 weeks course on wetlands and migratory birds conservation. Not sure whether JICA is still organizing the course now, but if they still organize it, do make it a point to attend the course. This is for Rahmah and gang who are involved in migratory birds studies. You'll get to see how the Japanese scientists are doing their work especially their dedication. Not forgetting the local community involvement in conservation. Above all, you get the opportunity to travel around Japan. I've been to Japan for quite a number of times over the years, mostly to attend conferences and meetings on wetlands. And I enjoyed every single trip. The people are friendly and warm. Anyway, it was during the course that I experienced my first earthquake...real earthquake. The second one was in Taiwan. Hokkaido experiences tremors every now and then. The port in Kushiro has a wall which will close in the event of an earthquake to prevent Tsunami from hitting the city.
I was resting in my hotel room watching TV when I started feeling slight tremors in the room. I thought it was normal but the tremors started getting stronger until I feel the whole room shaking. When I looked outside my window I saw the TV antennae on the building opposite my room shaking vigorously. The hotel was shaking badly and all my things on the dressing table started falling to the floor. I crawled and sit under the dressing table for safety until the tremors subsided. For your information, all hotels in Japan has a notice on what to do in the event of an earthquake. Even if you don't understand Japanese, just study the diagram and follow the instructions. Unlike in Korea, the hotel room that I stayed has a gas mask and a rope for you to climb down from the window. There is also a notice which started with " Due to the close proximity of our hostile neighbour......". During the tremors, an announcement (in Japanese) was aired. Later I found out that the announcer asked all hotel guests to stay calm and stay in their room until the tremors stopped. The elevator will stop at the nearest floor and will open automatically to let the guests out. There are several "safe locations" on each floor that you can seek shelter should you not able to get into your room. After the worst was over, our course interpreter went to each of us to make sure that everyone was okay. So, this is how an earthquake feels, I told myself. Later I found out that the magnitude of the earthquake was 6.4 in Kushiro. All TV channels showed emergency program, only announcements and a map showing the magnitude of the earthquake in various locations on the island. The wall around Kushiro port was closed until the tremors were over. The hotel that I stayed in Kushiro was still in one piece, no cracks at all. Only the ground around it cracked, forcing the management to put a plank to enable guests to go out of the hotel. After a couple of days, the cracks around the hotel were repaired and no sign of earthquake was evidenced. ....We continued staying in the hotel until the end of the course. Everything is back to normal. Apparently, my hotel was constructed with a huge absorber to withstand strong tremors. Later in the week, during our trip to places outside the city, we witnessed destructions of roads and railway tracks. In some places, you can even get into the cracks (picture). But I supposed earthquakes are normal in Japan and the people are used to this unlike us in Malaysia. A slight tremor can create panic. So, if you want to experience real earthquake go to Japan, Taiwan, Philippines or Indonesia ( I recommend Japan because their buildings are much safer compared to Philippines or Indonesia). It's a good experience, make you appreciate life and humble (if you survive the earthquake). Cheerio

wildlife training center part 2

The power to the whole training center was provided by a generator located behind the resthouse (the unhaunted one). We took turn switching the generator on and off. The generator was switched on from 5:00AM to 8:00AM and 5:00 PM to 12:00 AM. Our faithful jeep was used to ferry 200 litre of diesel from Temerloh every week. Switching the generator on was no problem however, switching off at midnight can be an experience. Once the generator was switched off you can hear all the sound in the forest and sometimes no sound at all, giving you the eerie feeling that something was watching you closely and following your every foot step back to your house. Nevertheless, the forest was very alive at night after the generator was switched off. You can hear barking deer along the trail to the waterfall. On several occasions, I was lucky to get near a couple of sambar deers by the roadside (near Deerland) at night. They were blinded by the lights from the Jeep and you can touch them with your hands. Leaf monkeys were also plentiful but they started disappearing once the Orang Asli started passing the center. The river that forms the reserve boundary was full of fishes including the tiger fish? ( not sure the exact name but the body has several vertical black stripes over the yellow body). I tried to catch the fish for my aquarium on several occasions but were never successful as they were really wild and fast. The waterfall at that time was more than 1.5 meters deep at several spot. The pool bottom was full of dead leaves which provide habitat for the small shrimps. We usually have our weekend lunch at the waterfall. Our maggi normally has more shrimps than noodles. These shrimps are very sweet and tasty and can be eaten raw. Try this the next time you visit the waterfall at Bukit Rengit.
The first few months were spent planting grass (the whole complex was barren with no grass), planting trees, repainting the building as the color was not what the office wanted), conducting resource inventories around the center, constructing new trails and so forth. No training course was conducted as the access road was still very bad. Sometimes we went to the Kg. Sokmek to collect cow dung to fertilize our trees and grass. The dung were mixed with water in a large tank and the mixture was then used to water the plants and grass. Nobody complained and everyone seemed to enjoy doing all the work at the center. After more than 20 years later, the fruit of our labor can be witnessed at the center up the hill. Ficus trees growing, green lawn etc. Syukran I am still alive to see changes that the center from day one. The center holds many memories especially for the pioneer group.
The standard equipment in our jeep include a cangkul, spade, chainsaw, parang, wire, nails, and hammer. Without these you wont be able to cross all the obstacles along the way out or in. There should be at least two persons in the jeep everytime we use the road. Almost everyday there will be a tree obstructing the road. You have to clear the tree before continuing your way. It normally took a longer time if the chainsaw was too small for the tree. Driving along the logging road was a real challenge for us. I improved my 4WD driving skills while working at Bukit Rengit. The obstacles that we faced were real and we did not look for them. As far as possible we tried to avoid the obstacles. So whenever I see 4WD adventures going through the jungle and crossing obstacles I usually said to myself " if only you were in my shoes when I was at Bukit Rengit, I don't think you want to join any 4WD expeditions anymore. What you experienced is nothing compared to what we had to face everyday. So don't brag about your 4WD adventures. Personally, I feel that 4WD adventures should only be allowed in a special trail built for the purpose. Travelling in a large convoy along old logging road can cause damage to the regeneration plants which in turn provides food to wildlife. (to be continued...)

Sorry I have not been able to upload the photos yet. I hope to do it this weekend..

My first trip to Myanmar 1994

I had the opportunity to visit Myanmar way back in February 1994. I attended a mangrove workshop organized by UNEP. There were three of us from Malaysia, Dr. Zaaba, Dr.Wan Sabri Wan Mansor (UPM) and me. The trip was a new experience to me although I went back to Myanmar at least 4 times after that for official business. I will write about my other trips to Myanmar later insyallah. Actually we were invited to attend the workshop by U Wai Lin who was working with UNEP Bangkok at that time. We met U Wai Lin when we organized an international course in Sabah the previous year. I supposed he was impressed with our work and decided to invite us to Myanmar. When I first step down in Yangon, U Wai Lin was there to greet us. Since the workshop was jointly organized by UNEP and Ministry of Foreign Affairs Myanmar, we were given special treatment. No need to que to have our passport stamped. Someone from the Ministry did that for us. The airport was the old one which is located beside the new airport. It looked like the airport in Lahad Datu. We were taken to our hotel in Yangon. It was a small but comfortable hotel opposite a Buddhist Monastery. My room has a window facing the monastery and that's where I spent my early morning watching monks walking along the street in a straight line and the nearby residents giving them food. During my first trip to Myanmar, there were not many hotels yet. In fact our hotel was actually a double storey bungalow converted into a hotel. Forgot the name of the hotel but I think it was Green Jade or something. Exchange rate was 1 USD to several hundred Kyat. And the rate of exchange keep on getting bigger when the value of Kyat keep on falling. Almost every man I saw in Yangon wear Longyi or sarong. Even the contract workers who were building a new hotel in front of my room wore Longyi. It's amazing how the Longyi can cling to their waist despite the squating, carrying bricks, climbing ladder etc. During my 5 days watching them working, never did I see any Longyi dropped down. But I supposed they must be wearing something underneath.....

Our workshop was held at the World Trade Center in Yangon. We also had part of our workshop on a riverboat which cruised along the Irriwady River from Yangon to Bogalay. It took three days to cruise down to Bogalay and back. Our riverboat was modified to include an open air bar with karaoke and live band performance and dining area. It was an excellent trip and you should experience this if you visit Yangon. I saw a lot of waterfowls in the river during the trip. It's a wonder that big ships can reach Yangon port which is 60km upstream using this canal. Central Yangon has quite a few colonial buildings, most distinguished by large columns in front of the buildings. Most of these buildings are painted white and were used by government departments in Yangon. The interior are still the same, high ceiling fans and large open space, each separated by high wooden racks. One can imagine the scenario in the early 1900 once you stepped into one of these buildings.

Apart from the riverboat cruise, the Forest Department made arrangements for the three of us to visit Popa Mountain Park. We took a domestic flight from Yangon to Bagan. It was a Foker but was flown like a fighter jet. We found out later that the pilot was an ex-fighter pilot. The ticket has no seat number- free seating. But for the VIPs, they can send someone to book their seat before the other passengers started boarding the plane. During check-in, you have to stand on a large scale with your luggage. Usually only your luggage is placed on the scale but here both the luggage and the passenger. You won't believe how the duty free shop in Bagan airport looks like! The whole duty free shack was made of thatch and no floor. But I supposed things have changed over the years. Bagan is an ancient city, some say that it is more ancient than Angkor Wat. I called Bagan the land of pagodas. There are thousands of pagodas, big ones and small ones. Some of these pagodas are still being used to this day. Someone told me that if you were to jumped out of a plane over Bagan, the possibility of you landing on top of a pagoda is 99.99%. Don't believe me...try jumping out of a plane over Bagan. Another interesting fact is that every pagoda in Bagan has a story. Normally, the scriptures will tell about the owner of the pagoda, date built, number of slaves used for the construction and what kind of donations received from friends etc. I find this very interesting and amuzing but very informative. The trip to Popa Mountain took several hours. We passed stretches of dry and barren area. Apparently, a reforestation project was being carried out during our visit which involved the local villagers. Each household taking part in the project was given rice in place of Kyat. Toddy palms can be seen along the road to Popa Mountain park. We stopped to buy a bottle for our host. We also stopped at a village for a drink. We saw a crowd gathering around a large well filling their container with fresh water. Later we found out that the well was the only source of freshwater for the villages around the area. People come in bullock carts twice a day to get their water supply. Bagan is located in the dry and arid zone. We arrived at Popa mountain park early evening. There's a temple on top of a volcano plug which is frequented by pilgrims from all over Myanmar especially during certain months of the year. The few days in Popa mountain park were spent visiting traditional villages and handicraft centers. The houses in the village were mostly made from thatch or dry grass with a simple wall. Bagan is also famous for its lacquer wares. If you ever visit Bagan, don't miss the traditional villages (if they are still around). We finally flew back to Yangon and stayed a few more days before leaving Yangon for Kuala Lumpur. I will write more about my other trips to Myanmar in the future. I will try to post some photos of my trips. I need to scan my photographs and slides. The scanner is still under my eldest son's bed covered by dust I think. See you soon.

Wildlife Training Center 1984

Before the Wildlife Training Center at Bukit Rengit, Lanchang (currently Institute of Biodiversity) was completed in 1984, rangers training was conducted at an old bungalow located at Jalan Wise, Seremban. The building was an old wooden double storey bungalow. One side of the ground floor was used as the administration office while the opposite was the classroom. The first floor was utilized as the hostel for the participants. The hostel can only accommodate 15 participants at any one time. Several cages to keep birds and animals were located behind the building. As far as I can remember, the only permanent resident of the cage was a white-rumped vulture ( hereng tongkeng putih). It was still there when the training center shifted to the present institute at Bukit Rengit. We had a 20 seater minivan to ferry the participants around. It was an old minivan which maximum speed limit seldoms reached 70 km/hr. Imagine the van crawling up the road to Genting Highland in those days. But alas, that was the only transport that we had. Normally, the trip to Labis would take the whole day with no aircond. There's only a small fan on the dashboard for the driver and front passenger as the engine was located under the front seat. Without the fan, you'll get a hard boiled egg by the time you reach Labis. However, the van served the training center well until the very end. During that time, every one of the instructors can drive the minivan. In fact, we were the instructors and driver at the same time. When I joined the Training Division of the Department in 1982, there were only a few instructors, Zeti, Bob, Zubir, En. Mohamad Nor(Wildlife Assistant), Dr. Abdullah and Rahman Ismail. Cik Zaiton Aman was the Division Director then. When the Wildlife training center at Bukit Rengit was completed in 1984, the bungalow was still used as a transit for wildlife.

When the training center at Bukit Rengit was completed in 1984, several families moved there. Myself and Zeti (we got married before the center was completed. So the DG decided to send us there), Norizan (PIW) and family, Hamidon and family, En. Mohamad Nor and wife, the late Ismail Singah, Ramli Deris the chargeman, and Rafar. The other PRA quit as he could not stand the remoteness of the center. The only access road to the center was a logging road used by the contractors to built the center. There were more than 40 potholes or gullies along the road ( from the junction to the top of the hill). The only vehicle that we had was an old Jeep CJ4. By the way, the area was still a black area and we had to get a permit from the District Police Station in Temerloh to stay at Bukit Rengit. The permit had to be renewed every 3 months. Apparently, the PKM members used the ridge above the center as their highway. The police came and visited us only once. They came in a 3-ton truck fully equipped with firearms.....and that was their first and last time to Bukit Rengit. The center was just completed when we moved in. Every family was allocated a quarters. The rest house was only used by guest lecturers. We spent the first 6 months planting grass and plants around the complex, repainting the building and constructing trails around the complex. There were no regular training course yet as access was difficult especially during raining season. JKR was still widening the road to the center and it became extremely slippery after a brief rain. Wildlfe such as sambar deer, barking deer, leaf monkey, birds and fishes were still abundant. You can easily meet these animals along the road even during daytime. You can hear barking deer around the complex almost every night. That's how remote the center was in those days. The bridge across the river was made of logs tied together using cable. The log bridge was swept away during one of the floods and we were cut off from the outside world for a few days until a contractor was called to rebuild the bridge. The only communication that we had was a Simonsen ATUR phone used by NATO. (to be continued..)

This is the article that I wrote in the Asian otter webpage on my experience capturing the elusive hairy-nosed otter in Thailand. It was the first hairy-nosed otter caught alive and we did it. Unfortunately the two otters managed to escape from the enclosure after I left Thailand. We ( Me, Din Stone and King) went to Patani, Thailand to assist my Thai counterpart, Budsabong to capture the hairy-nosed otter with Sasaki from Japan. Stayed there for a couple of weeks until we managed to capture the otter. I will post more pictures as soon as I managed to locate the diskettes containing the photos. Those days we used Sony digital camera with diskettes ( one 1.2 MB diskette can capture a few digital images. I normally brought several boxes of diskettes for photography. How lucky you people nowadays.....Nikon D60, Canon etc. Capturing the elusive Hairy-nosed otter by Burhanuddin Hj. Md. Nor, Department of Wildlife & National Parks (Perhilitan), West Malaysia "I was in Narathivat, southern province of Thailand recently to capture the elusive Hairy-nosed otter (Lutra sumatrana).This species was thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered by Budsabong Kanchanasaka from the Royal Forestry Department, Thailand. Her study on this species led us to Narathivat province in southern Thailand. The Hairy-nosed otter is currently confined to the Maleleuca swamp near the beach. Our capture team consists of Hiroshi Sasaki from the Otter Research Group, Japan, Budsabong and two of her staff, King and Stone who assisted me in the capture program. The first thing that we did was to locate fresh signs of otter ie. through their faeces and footprints. Once we located the two most recent signs, the traps were set. We used softcatch traps (a modified leg-hold trap) to catch these otters. The signs indicated that there are three animals in the area. We set a total of 4 traps, 2 at the toilet sites and the remainder along the trail. A telemetry device was attached to the traps using nylon string. The transmitters act as an alarm once the traps are closed. The traces of the traps were hidden using mud and leaves gathered from the surrounding. We took turns to monitor the traps via the transmitter receiver. Nothing happened during the night. But to our surprise, we found two Hairy-noed otters caught in the traps the next day around 1100 hrs. The two staff who had monitored the traps during the night informed us the they saw the three otters in the vicinity but did not expect them to get caught in the traps. As we approached the traps we heard the otter call. Approximately 50 meters from the traps we saw all three otters at the toilet site. Close observation showed that only two were caught in the traps while the other one was trying to free the two caught otters. Seeing this we knew that we had to act fast as the day was geting hot. The two assistants went back to the truck to bring back the net and cage while we prepared the drug (Zoletil) to sedate the otters. Our group was divided into two groups of three persons. Two person would cast the net over the otter while the third would try to inject the drug into the animal. We approached the animal at the same time reduce the anxiety and stress to the animal. Everything had to be done in the quickest time possible. As we approached the two otters, the third one sneaked back into the swamp. Finally we managed to sedate the otters in less than 5 seconds and the drug took less than 5 minutes to fully sedate the animals. Once they were unconscious, we removed them from the traps and checked for injuries to the animals. Luckily we found no serious injury except for swollen palms due to the traps. The otters were then measured and blood samples taken before being kept in the cages that we had brought.We took the otters to the captive breeding center belonging to the Forestry Department of Thailand where a veterinarian was called to treat the swollen palms. Apparently, the otters that we caught were the only two in captivity in the world. - from Burhanuddin's webpage

Left, squatting - Burhanuddin Nor; Standing w/light green uniform - Budsabong K; standing w/camera - Hiroshi Saski (photo courtesy of Burhanuddin Nor, 12 Sep 1999) Close up of head, Lutra sumatrana (photo by Burhanuddin Nor, 13 Sep 1999)