The Jungle Times Independent newsletter of: Est. 2008 Issue: 98 Inside this issue: Page 4 Page 2: Visitors Page 3: Arrivals Page 4: Goodbyes Page 5: Kent Field Course Page 7: OSU Field Course Page 8: Clouded Leopard Page 7 Workshop Page 9: PhD update Page 10: Poaching in Sarawak Page 12: Borneo Jungle Diaries Page 13: Word-search! Page 14: Conservation Corner Page 14 Page 15: Photos of the month June 2017 Page 2 Visitors Renee Myers is the Executive Director of Forest Park Conservancy, Portland, Oregon. Renee has worked in the environmental conservation field for the past 15 years. Her background includes extensive experience in watershed management, working on large scale forest, stream, and river restoration initiatives. Renee was invited by U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia Joseph Y. Yun and his wife Dr. Melanie Billings-Yun. Accompanied by Shanon Phang of the US Embassy, Renee’s aim was to share and explore ideas and inspiration ranging from environmental protection and conservation, to economic and social innovations and impacts. She is also working with Dr. Benoit Goossens on a new recycling, composting and waste management scheme in the school at Batu Puteh. We wish her all the best in her further work. June 2017 Page 3 Arrivals Coline Monchanin, from France, arrived on the June 6th. She graduated last October with a Masters degree from the French Engineering School of Agronomy in Toulouse. Her previous volunteering experience includes a marine conservation programme in Koh Tao, Thailand. Volunteering at DG for 2 months, she is currently assisting with all the projects, working hard to expand her skill set in preparation for a potential conservation PhD. Eleanor Rankin, from the University of Kent, arrived on the 9th of this month, after participating in the Tropical Field Ecology Course run by the University of Kent, held at Danau Girang. Eleanor is a 2nd year Wildlife Conservation student and is here as a general volunteer for 6 weeks. She will also be undertaking her own project, investigating the potential variation in biodiversity between palm oil plantations of differing ages. Working with Kasia, our very own Masters student, Ellie will carry out a detailed habitat assessment of a range of palm oil plantations. We at DG wish her the best of luck with her project, and hope she enjoys her time here. June 2017 Page 4 Goodbyes This month we said goodbye to two of our PTYs. Toby Stock and Francis Roy have completed a year at Danau Girang, assisting with PhD projects, field courses and student projects. They also successfully undertook their own research projects, with Toby investigating growth of monitor lizards in palm oil and forest and Frankie using advanced camera trapping methods to establish Malay civet density in a number of lots within the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary. Both brought a hardworking but fun work ethic to Danau Girang, making daily life enjoyable. All at DG will miss these two great lads, and wish them the best with their travels around Asia and their final year of undergraduate. All the best, boys! June 2017 Page 5 University of Kent Field Course From the 8th – 18th of June, Danau Girang welcomed a group of 19 students from the University of Kent, led by Prof. Zoe Davies, Dr. Matt Struebig and Simon Mitchell. This intensive field course focused on a wide variety of conservation and ecological learning activities, including lectures and a number of practicals. The lectures, based mainly on conservation and tropical ecosystem biology were extremely informative and well received by all, including many DGFC students! The field course undertook a number of practical projects; ➢ Investigation into termite abundance in both oil palm plantation and forest using a number of different feeding substrates. ➢ Point count surveys for birds in both plantation and forest, led by Simon Mitchell. ➢ Botanic plots to measure the relative carbon stocks. June 2017 Page 6 On top of this, students also had the opportunity to take on their own projects, over the course of three days. Projects ranged from the activity patterns of long-tailed macaques, to the effect of litter depth on the abundance of Diplopoda, and were presented at the end of the field course. A particular highlight of the field course was the bat sampling, supervised by Dr. Matt Struebig, an expert in South-East Asian Chiropterans. Harp nets used in different areas of the forest around Danau Girang collected a wide variety of these unique creatures. Sampling, which included sexing, measuring and weighing, was fascinating to watch. Danau Girang researchers (especially the PTYs!) thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to see some of the forests more secretive creatures, and thank Matt for his detailed explanations. We would also thank all from Kent University for another pleasant field course, and look forward to welcoming a new group next year! Pictures: Two common woolly bats, handled by Dr. Matt Struebig. June 2017 Page 7 Oregon State University Field Course While only with us for a short time, the students and staff of Oregon State University packed a lot into their trip. Despite the extensive flooding around Danau Girang, the group was still able to see a lot of our bird and primate species during their river surveys. They also had great success with butterfly surveys along DG’s main path even able to capture 5 elusive Forest Nymphs and the uncommon birdwings! Oregon State University, as always, were a pleasure to have here. They were enthusiastic no matter the activity and never failing to ask insightful questions. June 2017 Page 8 Clouded Leopard Workshop The Sunda clouded leopard was the topic of a very successful workshop held on the 12-14th of this month. Organised by the DGFC team, the event saw a number of experts come together to give this iconic species a chance of survival in Sabah. The result of this conference will be a 10-year action plan, likely to be implemented in early 2018. An increase of enforcement activities surrounding hunting and poaching is likely to be seen. The leopards are especially vulnerable to these illegal activities, but are also affected by the domestic cats and dogs brought in by the hunters. Local education programmes, especially for rural schools, will also be introduced, to further drive home the importance of the need to conserve these rare animals, the largest wild cats in Borneo. June 2017 Page 9 PhD Update: Civets Long-time PhD student Meaghan Evans has had continued trapping success despite the extensive forest flooding recently. Working with Dr Sergio, our resident vet, Meg has been able to collar an additional two civets. A male Malay civet by the name of Montel and a common palm civet called Raya increase her total number of collared animals to a great total of seven. Now with only one spare collar left, Meg continues to take sample civets in the forests of the sanctuary. She aims to have sampled at least 100 individuals before her fieldwork concludes. With a sample size this large, Meg will hopefully be able to make conclusions on the impacts habitat fragmentation has on the health of these intriguing small carnivores and how they are surviving in the restricted space available to them. We wish Meg continued success with her project. June 2017 Page 10 Poaching in Sarawak Poaching Recently an alarming number of illegal hunting incidences have been found openly displayed on Facebook from protected forest areas in Sarawak. Unfortunately these pictures are all to stark a reminder that poaching is still one of the main threats to some of Borneo's rarest species. Iconic animals such as the sun bear, clouded leopard and pangolin are all hunted for their meat and for the sale of their body parts that are believed to have medicinal properties. It is now easier than ever for poachers to advertise on the social media to reach a larger clientele base . Under state law it is legal for natives to hunt, but only for non-endangered species, and only for consumption, not profit. Since the posting of these photos Sarawak Wildlife Protection agency has been looking into the sources and working with Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to apprehend the culprits. Sabah is currently classed a soft target for poaching meaning that is easy for hunters to get away with these crimes . June 2017 Page 11 These criminals must be persecuted to prove that there are consequences to their actions, and dissuade others from thinking poaching is worth it. At the same time however efforts must be made to educate the rural communities on the long term effects of unchecked poaching has on the biodiversity of the rainforest. Helping the local communities understand the effects of the actions on the environment will also help to reduce the danger to endangered species . June 2017 Page 12 Borneo Jungle Diaries Update June saw the premiere of Borneo Jungle Diaries, with the first episode shown on June 5th. This episode introduced Danau Girang Field Centre, and its director, Dr. Benoit Goossens. It told the story of Benoit establishing DG and his fight to protect the wildlife in Sabah. Beautiful shots of the elephants feeding on the river bank ended the episode perfectly. On June 12th, Episode 2 was released, highlighting the life and work of PhD student Elisa Panjang on the highly endangered Sunda pangolin. It also showed the fitting of a GPS tag and successful release of the world’s first tagged Sunda pangolin! Episode 3 was released on June 19th and was all about the arthropods found here at Danau Girang, and the work of PTY Jack Devlin as he tries to study these weird and wonderful creatures.