Deramakot, Borneo 2015 – Jon Hall
Upper Kinabtangan River, Deramakot
In the early 2000s some Australian birding friends delighted in telling me they had seen a Sun Bear at Way Kambas in Sumatra. Bastards. The National Park has been on my radar ever since. Over the past few years it began steadily moving up the ranks of places I had to visit. First came Richard Web’s reports of Marbled Cats and Banded Palm Civets. Next came reports of Otter Civets and Pen-tailed Tree Shrews. And then, at the end of 2014, Jason Woolgar’s report of a visit to Deramakot Forest Reserve in Sabah arrived in my inbox. Jason saw Sun Bear, Banded Palm Civet and Marbled Cat in just a few days. I could resist the call of South East Asia no longer.
A week later Tomer Ben-Yehuda and Jean-Michel Bompar had signed up for a trip in May 2015. We chose late May because it was a period when the weather ought to be OK. Hari, the legendary Way Kambas guide, would also be available to guide us.
Colugo, Deramakot (photo Jean-Michel Bompar)
I am not aware of any field guides to the mammals of Indonesia so we used Charles Francis's Field Guides to the Mammals of Borneo and Mammals of South East Asia figuring that most of the Sumatran mammals ought to occur either on Borneo and/or the mainland.
Dermakot Forest Sunday 17 May: It took 22 hours to fly from Newark to Kota Kinabalu via Hong Kong and 12 time zones. And so I was a little woozy when I met Tomer and Tom Hewitt - the owner of Adventure Alternative Borneo - at KK airport. We’d booked the Deramakot leg of the trip through Tom because he seems, for the moment at least, to be the only operator running trips into the park. It worked out well: he was easy to deal with, laid back and gave us a very reasonable price. He also assigned us Michael Gordon, an expat Scot, as guide together with Lang, as driver. Lang owns an impressive 4WD, His truck might not have been the most comfortable vehicle I’ve travelled in (especially for 5 of us) but it was extremely useful for navigating some of the Deramakot mud and was well set up for spotlighting.
Lang's truck
Michael will readily explain he is more of a jungle/adventure guide than a naturalist but he is learning - and keen to learn more - about the local fauna and flora. More importantly he was a truly excellent spotter, picking up a ton of stuff with the spotlight and apparently never losing concentration (even after 3 hours sitting on the roof spotlighting in torrential rain he was still finding eyeshine). Lang too was happy - or seemingly happy - to follow our insomniac itinerary. I’d recommend asking specifically for these two if you visit.
The drive to Deramakot from KK took 7 hours, the final 2 of which were along dirt roads through plantation and into the forest reserve. Jean-Michel had arrived in Borneo a couple of days before Tomer and me, and he’d headed to the Kinabatangan River (where he saw a Tarsier among other things). So we picked him up at Telupid Village to save him backtracking all the way to KK. The only mammals along the highway were a few Long-tailed Macaques but, thirty minutes after joining the dirt road - at about 5pm - we saw the first of two groups of Elephants. We were off to a flying start.
Bornean Elephants (photo Tomer Ben-Yehuda)
The Deramakot accommodation is a great base for a field trip. The forestry HQ there is much bigger than I was expecting: more like a military base than the sort of small forest HQs I'm used to in Thailand for example. We were staying in a new house at the edge of the camp. We had 3 bedrooms, AC and hot water: more luxury than I was expecting.
Long-tailed Macaque
The reserve itself is traversed by one well-maintained road that runs 32km from the accommodation to the upper Kinabatangan River. There are a network of other smaller roads, largely cut for logging trucks, that were not well maintained. We only ventured along a couple of these and got bogged along one of them. However I didn't see much point in leaving the main road: it is quiet, and its width makes for a better field of vision than the narrower side roads. Deramakot appears to be the jewel in the Sabah forestry department’s crown, and they proudly describe their sustainable and selective logging management that they operate here. Judging by the amount of wildlife we saw it seems to be working, and Jason’s report explains more about their management practices.
Deramakot HQ
We arrived close to 9pm and Michael cooked up some noodles. Despite the long day’s drive, he and Lang were ready to take us out spotlighting that evening (I was reluctant even to ask them but Tomer had no such hesitation).
Our first night drive was fabulous. One of the best I’ve ever taken outside of Africa. In 2 hours or so we had Common and Small-toothed Palm Civets, a distant Binturong (which I refused to believe was a Binturong until examining Tomer’s 100x zoom picture), several Thomas’s Flying Squirrels, a Leopard Cat walking on the road, a Bornean Slow Loris, and then, best of all for me, my first Banded Palm Civet. We had a short but very clear and close look at the animal as it walked in front of the car. A really lovely looking beast.
Leopard Cat
Heading home we stopped to look at yet another Thomas’s Flying Squirrel and a Colugo glided straight over our heads. The landing Colugo flushed a smaller flying squirrel which flew to another tree (I’ve no idea which species.) Back near the HQ we saw several Sambar. All in a couple of hours. Great night.
The Bugosphere Every mammal watcher knows that each forest has its own unique bugosphere of annoying things that bite, sting and generally get in the way of a happy night's spotlighting. If there aren’t ticks, there must be leeches. If there aren’t mosquitoes then there are army ants. Most forests house at least one of these pests in biblical proportions. In Deramakot the leeches and mosquitoes have made way for a battalion of enormous flying bugs, many of which sting like psychopathic wasps on steroids.
This makes spotlighting something of a challenge. Especially if, like Tomer, you don’t get on well with insects. The soundtrack to our evening was a succession of screams and yelps, coupled with violent leaping and hand flapping, as Tomer battled to keep one hand on the spotlight and one foot inside the truck. If James Brown had been watching he’d have gotten some inspiration for his next routine.
Sambar
Monday 18 May: After 6 hours of sleep - little did we know this was to be the longest night’s sleep of the trip - we left at 6.30am for a drive and walk. There were few mammals save for the beautiful pluto race of Prevost’s Squirrel and what, we decided after much debate, was an Earspot Squirrel (the small spot behind the ear was a barely visible but constant feature in every picture).
Ear-Spot Squirrel (top photo Jean-Michel Bompar)
After a few hours’ rest and lunch we drove the 32km to the Kinabatangan river, arriving in the late afternoon for a 2 hour cruise on the reserve’s boat.
The light was fading fast as a thunder storm approached, and we didn’t get very far along the river, stopping to take pictures of Long and Pig tailed Macaques and Proboscis Monkeys (not always spotted this far up the river according to Michael).
Proboscis Monkeys
We ate by the river and then set out for the long spotlight home at around 8pm. The first hour of the night drive was spectacular. We had 9 species with many Thomas’s and a few Red Giant Flying Squirrels (the easiest way to separate these species is to check the tip of the tail, which is red on Thomas's and black on the Red Giant), a Slow Loris, a great - but hard to photograph - view of a Yellow-throated Marten, a Malay Civet, a Common Palm Civet and then a Leopard Cat. In an hour!
Red Giant Flying Squirrel (note the black tip to the tail)
We also saw the back half of something rather small and grey with a short rounded tail move off of the road. Both Jean-Michel and I thought it was too short-legged to be a cat and the tail and colour suggested Otter Civet, but Michael - who had had a better view than us - seemed sure it was a cat. Thomas's Flying Squirrel
But at 9pm the heavens opened and that was pretty much the end of mammal watching for the next 25 kms. Not that Michael stopped trying: he insisted on sitting on the roof in the stinging rain, but not suprisingly saw very little save for a flying squirrel and some Sambar back near the house.
Tuesday 19 May: We started at dawn and found an Orang Utan mother and baby next to the main road. Orang Utan nests are everywhere throughout the reserve.
The other highlights of the morning were two separate troops of Bornean Gibbons.
Bornean Gibbon (Photo Jean-Michel Bompar) We also saw another squirrel - I think it must have been a Low's Squirrel though its hard to be sure and for a while we thought it was a Selnder Squirrel though according to the Phillipps fieldguide they do not occur in Sabah. There were more Prevost’s Squirrels too.
Low's Squirrel?
Back at the house we caught a Ricefield Rat (Rattus argentiventer), a lifer for me.
Ricefield Rat
The weather was looking good for the night, so we talked to Michael and Lang about the possibility of taking a very long night drive. They were ready participants, especially after we promised that, if we stayed out till 3am, they could take the following morning off. The conditions were pretty much perfect: no wind, no rain, no moon. And even though it felt like it was a few degrees cooler than the night before , the temperature must still have been in the mid 20s.
But the going was much slower than the previous 2 nights. Interestingly there seemed to be far fewer insects flying around, which was something of a relief for Tomer. There seemed to be few bats too, perhaps as a result. But although the sightings didn’t come as thick and fast as they’d done the previous 2 evenings, we still found 11 species, which is pretty incredible for a night drive in this part of the world or anywhere come to that.
Malay Civet
We had several Common and Small-toothed Palm Civets, a Malay Civet. and great views of three Colugos.
Colugo
We also saw another Binturong, this time out in the open for a few seconds, as well as multiple Thomas’s and Red Giant Flying Squirrels and our first Black Flying Squirrels of the trip.
Black Flying Squirrels
None of us saw properly a small cat on the road but Lang, behind the wheel, got the best view and seemed pretty confident it was another Flat-headed Cat. We saw what was probably a Leopard Cat shortly after.
As well as driving for 5-6 hours, we spent a couple of hours on foot, primarily looking for Tarsiers which we didn’t find though Michael had spotted them in the area before. Tarsiers seem to spend most of the night within 2 metres of the ground so we were focussing on that sort of height and Michael spotted a pretty Grey Tree Rat, my third lifer of the trip, that was unfazed by the torch beams,. Perhaps because of the light it looks much browner in the top picture than it did in the bottom (and in reality).
Grey Tree Rat
We were home by 4am after an epic 8 hour night drive. The significant difference in sightings/hour between this and the previous two nights led to much speculation about the reasons, none of which seemed all that convincing. But I’m beginning to doubt whether the moon really does have much of an effect, at least compared to other mysterious factors. Had this happened with a full moon we’d have blamed the lower mammal count on that.
Binturong
Wednesday 20 May: We caught a Malaysian Wood Rat (Rattus tiomanicus) back at the house but otherwise did very little all morning.
Malaysian Wood Rat
We had a lazy day. Tomer and Jean-Michel spent time on the back porch, staring into the edge of the forest where they spotted a Long-footed Tree Shrew and a Plain Pygmy Squirrel. An effective way to see Treeshews is to find a thicket of vines and wait.
Plain Pygmy Squirrel
We took a shorter (4 hour) drive for our last evening. We began by driving back up the road that runs out of Deramakot, via the local rubbish dump. The rubbish dump was mammalless, with all the trash buried deeply, but the road out of the park was pretty good for spotlighting.
Small-toothed Palm Civet Despite intermittent heavy rain we had 11 species again, with more Common and Short-toothed Palm Civets, a pair of Binturongs (with another lone animal later on making it 5 in 4 days), another Banded Palm Civet, a Malay Civet, a Leopard Cat, a Slow Loris, more Sambar and my 5th lifer - and 1400th mammal - some Spotted-Winged Fruit Bats feeding on figs. These were only identified after the intrepid Jean-Michel managed to photograph them. No mean feat in the heavy rain, with the bats typically landing on the tree for less than a second to grab a fig.
Spotted-Winged Fruit Bats (at first we thought the spots on the wings were rain drops) Thursday 21 May: Tomer and I staked out the forest behind the house for an hour at dawn and saw both Long-footed and what I think must have been Slender Tree Shrew. It seemed considerably bigger than the Lesser Treeshrews we would go on to see at Way Kambas and lacked any rufous on the belly.
Long-footed Tree Shrew (photo Tomer Ben-Yehuda)
By 7.15am we were on the road, arriving back to KK - via some Rafflesias and Pitcher Plants at Poring Hot Springs - in good time for out 17:10 Air Asia flight to Jakarta. Way Kambas awaited us.
Pitcher Plants, Poring
Stuff we Missed I was hoping we’d find at least one mega-mammal at Deramakot. We didn’t, though we did see a lot of species including several that are not easy to see, such as Banded Palm Civet.
There is no doubt that Deramakot has huge potential. The density of mammals suggests that this place ought to be as good as most for Clouded Leopard, Marbled Cat and Sun Bear. If you combine that animal density with the solitude of the park and freedom to spotlight then it ought, in my opinion, be near the top of the “Where to find a Clouded Leopard?” list. Having said that, Clouded Leopards are not spotted often so far as I could work out, nor are Sun Bears. And perhaps Jason Woolgar was extremely lucky to see both Sun Bear and Marbled Cat in a few nights. Bay Cat is reported occasionally though there is scope to misidentify that species so I am always cautious about records. Pangolins are still present too with an outside chance for the fabulous Tufted Ground Squirrel (a camera trap photo of it is in the office), and Tarsiers ought to be findable with some luck.
As more mammal watchers visit we will hopefully develop more intel about how best to see some of those species in the park. I hope to return before too long.
Rafflesia, Poring
A big big thanks from Jean-Michel, Tomer and me to Michael Gordon, for his talented and tireless spotlighting, and to the indomitable Lang for driving so long and so late.
Species List (lifers in bold) 1 Ear-spot Squirrel Callosciurus adamsi 2 Plantain Squirrel Callosciurus notatus 3 Prevost's Squirrel Callosciurus prevostii 4 Least Pygmy Squirrel Exilisciurus exilis 5 Low's Squirrel Sundasciurus lowi 6 Red Giant Flying Squirrel Petaurista petaurista 7 Black Flying Squirrel Aeromys tephromelas 8 Thomas' Flying Squirrel Aeromys thomasi 9 Rice-field Rat Rattus argentiventer 10 Malaysian Field Rat Rattus tiomanicus 11 Gray Tree Rat Lenothrix canus 12 Malayan Civet Viverra tangalunga 13 Asian Palm Civet Paradoxurus hermaphroditus 14 Small-toothed Palm Civet Arctogalidia trivirgata 15 Binturong Arctictis binturong 16 Banded Palm Civet Hemigalus derbyanus 17 Leopard Cat Prionailurus bengalensis
Long Tail Macaque