Advertisement
(this post covers three days – the 4
th, 5
th, and 6
thand so it’s a long one at a little over 4300 words. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.)
Epigraph: In mammal watching, there are some species that are legendary. Species that you sometimes wonder about with awe because in theory you know they're out there somewhere but in reality? You can't help but think of them more in terms of unicorns and the Lock Ness Monster than animals that you really see. Malayan Tapirs are a zoo animal. Big funny looking black and white things in paddocks. Not wild animals in forests. Sure, you might sometimes see a camera trap photo but can they really be out there? Somewhere? In the vast darkness of the forest at night? It can't really be possible to see a wild tapir can it?
---
I started the morning on the departure day with the usual morning birding around the Swamp Loop, River Trail, Tahan Hide, etc. although the birding was a bit quiet in the morning with less bird activity than there had been. It had rained a bit the night before
which is unfortunate as it had been completely dry for the last few days and I was hoping for no rain so the path up to the Kumbang Hide would be easy. Most excitingly with the morning birding, I got a decent look at a Lesser Mouse Deer as it ran away from the Swamp Loop in full daylight. I also heard gibbons closer than I have been hearing them for the last few days, although I couldn’t find any visible. There is really amazing woodpecker diversity around here and lots of really cool species. I do particularly like seeing woodpeckers.
I went back across the river at about 11:30 to sort my backpack out, buy a few last things, and have lunch before the boat to Kumbang Hide in the mid afternoon. I got permission from the shop owner downstairs who knows the hostel owner (who I haven’t seen around at all) to leave some things in a corner in the dorm so I wouldn’t have to take everything with me up to the hide. I’m still taking my big 70l backpack, but I’ve removed a bunch of heavy, non-valuable and relatively unimportant things to leave in a
big plastic bag labelled and tied up in the corner which I’ve been told is fine. I can also now fit my day back into the big backpack so I’m not carrying two backpacks up to the hide (when I’m just walking around birding and such I just have my day bag and when I’m moving between places I have my big backpack on my back and my day bag on my front.
Despite leaving quite a bit of weight, my backpack to go to the hide is still quite heavy because I’ve got to carry food for the duration and also water. I haven’t taken enough water to last for the duration but enough so that if the worst comes to the worst I’m thirsty and a bit dehydrated but not dead. I’ve been told that there’s a stream near the hide where I can drink the water if I boil it or use purification tablets: I have Aquatabs. (I’ve written up to here before I go, obviously).
After lunch, I went to get the boat to go to the hide. It was quite a nice ride, 45 minutes in the boat, with great views of the
jungle and Orang Asli villages: the indigenous people who still live in the national park, there’s actually a village only about an hour’s walk from the hide apparently. There were also a number of rapids that had to be negotiated to get up stream which was quite fun too with lots of manoeuvring, splashing, and sudden bursts of acceleration to get over the rapids. The boat to go to the hide drops you off at the ‘village’ of Kuala Terrangan (spelling?) which is just a single abandoned house and a jetty and from there there’s a sign pointing towards the hide which is another 2km walk. I had been told that it wasn’t a very difficult walk although I did find it fairly tough. I’m not sure if that’s because the path had gotten worse, I’m not fit enough, had too much stuff, or had unrealistic expectations for what a path in the remote jungle would be, but it’s probably all of those factors. There were a number of streams that required fording where you had to descend down into the stream bed got across the water and go back up and some of these seemed to have had wooden
plank bridges in the past that had broken down. There were also quite a few fallen trees across the path to traverse and lots of muddy patches. But I made it to the hide tired but fine. The other problem is that my plan of leaving after lunch, while good for reducing the number of meals at the hide and at the same time making sure I got there early enough, did not take into account that I would then be travelling at the hottest possible time of day which was not a good decision it turns out.
The hide itself is a largeish tower with a concrete floor up on concrete supports with wooden walls and a corrugated iron roof. It overlooks a very small clearing with a fair bit of secondary growth in it which as a salt lick and spring. Inside the hide is a bench overlooking the spring and wooden plank bunk beds with 12 beds. There is what appears at one point to have been a toilet at the top of the stairs which seems to have had running water in the past and a sit-down toilet, but that’s completely abandoned and broken and
the water source for both drinking and washing is a stream nearby. The hide wasn’t empty when I arrived and there was a group of two women with their guide and a bit later a group of three men and their guide arrived as well so there were eight people in the hide for the first night. Kumbang Hide is used as a stopping point for people doing jungle trekking as it’s just over 12km if you do the walk all the way form Kuala Tahan which is about the most you can do in a day given the quality of paths. All of the people were actually quite interested in what I was doing and the guides were impressed with it as well and they asked to be woken up if I saw something interesting (you know, so that they could see the cool mammals without doing any of the hard work staying up all night for it!).
There were a few interesting birds around too, most notably and quite unexpectedly, a Green Broadbill which is a bird that’s very high on my want-list and quite uncommon here. There was a Horse-tailed Squirrel as well which was cool.
There is of course a gourmet meal service at the hide, provided of course you lugged the gourmet meal service through the jungle and cook it yourself. My 5 meals at the hide consist of various sorts of cereal/granola/etc. bars/biscuits, various sorts of nuts, bread and peanut butter, limited rations of very heavy UHT milk, and of course a few chocolates and sweets and biscuit type things.
So of course the main purpose of coming to the hide is to look for large mammals at the salt lick at night and there are quite a few possibilities. That does, however, of course mean staying up throughout the night which is quite challenging beyond about midnight. My method of staying awake involved having my phone vibrate at maximum strength in my top pocket every 30 minutes. The first interesting animal didn’t show up until 01:10 which was a huge lone male Gaur. The guides said it was quite unusual for Gaur to be seen here and one of the guides in particular was very excited about the Gaur indeed. It showed very nicely too. The same large male Gaur appeared again for a second time at 03:20. Apparently, tapir can
normally be seen easily starting from about 1AM and then through until about 5AM according to the guides, although I didn’t have it this easily. Maybe it was because of the number of people in the hide and the quite loud snoring that came from the three men, but I didn’t see any tapir all night until, at 04:50 (somehow I was still awake then) I got a glimpse of what I
think was a tapir through the trees just behind the salt lick. It was moving about quite noisily in the forest, but was completely unwilling to come out into the clearing despite the fog that had rolled in at about 03:30. I gave it some time with the torch off, but it stayed just inside the forest only just visible. I really think it was a tapir, but I can’t count it. With a mammal as cool and as high on the hit-list as that, I need to see it properly and I’m ‘almost certain’ but not sure enough to add a lifer. I’m really hoping for more views tonight, I don’t want to have gone to the ‘tapir hide’ and missed the tapir. The guides said that
normally you see tapirs more easily than this although apparently it’s getting harder and harder to get good views as the forest is starting to encroach on the clearing and it gets filled with secondary growth so part of the salt lick is not in the forest edge and the animals don’t have to come out into the open. The guides think the new growth ought to be cleared to keep the clearing open. Surprisingly, there were no rodents at all at night in the hide although I had baited them with biscuits in the corner. Too many people I think. Lots of interesting sounds at night too including a Wood Owl, Reddish Scops Owl and Gould’s Nightjar all heard (I knew the calls after going owling with the birder the other night with callback) but all distant and there was the distinctive call of Argus Pheasants throughout the night. Plenty of insects and frogs too of course as well as the amazing night sky of moon and stars.
At 6:30, as it was just starting to become lighter, I decided that it was time to go to sleep. All of the other people left the next morning, the
trekking-types just spend a single night in the hide as a stop-over, but just before they left one of the guides woke me to say there was a rare kind of bird in the clearing, he though it was called an egret in English but wasn’t sure. It was actually a Storm’s Stork! Fantastic bird! At about 9 I went down to the stream to have a morning wash which is quite nice. There are a whole load of interesting looking barbs in the stream where the females are brown with a black spot near the tail and the males are bigger with bold black and orange markings. I might try and identify them at some point, because they’re nice looking fish. There was a Lesser Shortwing by the stream too which is a great bird but I didn’t have my camera with me then obviously. I had a bit of breakfast and had intended to go for a bit of late morning birding as there seemed to be a fair bit of activity but I was too tired so fell asleep and slept until after 1PM. The wooden plank beds aren’t as uncomfortable as they first seem and with
a mosquito net to keep the insects off I could sleep quite well. I didn’t bother hiring a mattress of sleeping bag because I didn’t want to carry them and that was fine. I got up in the early afternoon and sat around in the hide because it was still too hot (and wrote this). There were various interesting things about though including various smaller birds like a few species of near-identical bulbuls and such as well as a water monitor and flyovers from some birds of prey and most interestingly and another bird high on my to-see list: Rhinoceros hornbill. Lots of massive, annoying wasp-things though. A fair few squirrels of different species around too as well as a brief pass through the trees on the edge of the clearing by a White-handed Gibbon. I used up all the water that I brought with me by the morning (I just brought 3.6l) so I’ve been drinking stream water treated with Aquatabs which tastes a bit like swimming pool water but is fine.
I went out for a bit of birding along the access trail in the late-afternoon/early evening and there were a few birds about. Lots of Asian
Paradise Flycatchers was especially nice, although I found that just staying in the hide and birding across the clearing was better. There was a stunningly showy pair of Red-bearded Bee-eaters flying pack and forth across the clearing and quite a few hornbills flying across too and I found what must have been a fruiting tree 50m or so from the hide on the other side where the hornbills all seemed to be gathering at. I couldn’t see the tree very well though, so I just saw them in flight arriving and leaving.
Down at the stream again for an evening wash and to gather some more water, I noticed that there were quite a few Cryptocoryne plants which I have kept before in aquariums so it was really interesting to see them growing in the wild. Today I also filled up my first (of three) 32GB SD cards. I do have lots of photos of various interesting things to upload when I get the time and internet connection. Some of them are pretty good I think, for my standards.
It seems that I’m on my own tonight as I write this as the sun is setting and I
look out across the clearing (I have a powerbank which is how I’m keeping my phone charged). No one else has arrived and I think anyone arriving would have done so in the daylight. It’s been nice having the hide and the local area to myself since the others all left this morning. I really like it in the hide, I’m in the middle of a fantastic old growth rainforest with my nice homely hide. There’s only one thing stopping me from wanting to spend, say, a week in the hide. It’s not the lack of running water or electricity or comfortable beds like I thought it might be. The latter is an annoyance that you have to accept and the former two make the experience just that much better. If you’re prepared enough with torch batteries and power banks and things, the lack of electricity is no problem and the lack of running water and using a stream for drinking and washing is quite fun. I’ve got used to the taste of aquatabbed water now. It’s also certainly not boredom because you know, I’m in a wildlife-filled rainforest. The only problem is food and although I could probably manage
for a couple more days, just eating snacky-type granola and nuts and things is tiresome. What I would quite like to do is bring a camping stove, some rice and/or noodles, and some tins of different things to put in the rice/noodles and then I’d be fine here indefinitely. It’s potentially doable, maybe some time in the future. Anyway, it’s lovely here in the remote forest.
I’ve baited the rodents again with biscuits in different corners of the hide (I’m on my own now so I’m not restricted to just my side like I was last night) so I’ll have to see what happens tonight! Tapir I hope!
With just one person in the hide it was obviously much quieter than it had been the previous night and at 8:30 I saw my first mammal: an Indomalayan Pencil-tailed Tree-mouse. It was nice to be able to listen to the proper quiet and rainforest sounds and there was an amazing atmosphere with eerie distance lighting and thunder as well as the calls of Reddish Scops Owl and Argus Pheasant, a mouse and Tokay geckos scurrying on the corrugated iron roof as well as the frog and insect sounds and
the fireflies over the clearing. It was very difficult to see the rooftop rodents though because they were scurrying about in the rafters with lots of holes for them to be able to get out onto the top of the roof. I think what will be most interesting is if I just copy out the notes that I wrote throughout the night from my notebook which I wrote out in some detail:
20:30 Indomalayan Pencil-tailed Tree-mouse
21:00 Gaur, probably same one as yesterday
21:10 extensive movements in the vegetation coming towards clearing. Tapir?
21:40 Malaysian Eared Nightjar flew up from by water +still hear sounds but probably not seen
21:55 Very loud noise in the distance, probably elephants
22:05 same Gaur seen returning in the open
22:15 Gaur passes by the left of hide completely hidden in vegetation
22:40 Gaur returns moving about very noisily for a while
23:00 Temminck’s Flying Squirrel seen in flight + binocular view upon landing on tree
23:40 Dark-tailed Niviventer in tree but won’t come out to bait, runs away from light
00:10 more movement/sound at clear edge
00:30 Gaur returned, staying in
clearing wallowing and drinking noisily for a few hours
02:20 Gaur still around
02:50 Malay Civet directly below hide
03:30 small fully dark fruit bat around back of hide, seem to be 3 species possible
04:00 TAPIR! Quickly and purposefully ambles down, loudly gulps water, loudly scrapes at rocks making crunching/chalkboard sounds, looks about, waves trunk, quickly walks back away. 10-15 minute sighting. Lots of photos.
05:20 Gaur returns
So I saw a tapir! It took long enough, but it was an absolutely amazing sighting. It was quite surreal, it suddenly appeared out of the forest and just looks weird and sounds weird. Such a cool sighting and the sort of mammal you only dream about seeing in the wild. Certainly one of the most amazing wildlife sightings I’ve ever had and definitely the most work I’ve ever put into seeing once specific target mammal. I’ve seen the black and white ghost of the forest, I still can’t quite believe it. The most numerous wildlife at the hide on my second night though were the midges and flying ants. There weren’t too many about on the first night but huge swarms on the second
night so that at some points they completely blocked my torchlight and I had to turn it off so they would dissipate. It seemed that every midge and flying ant in the whole of Taman Negara had gathered in front of my torch at points. Still, a tapir. A real, wild tapir. Amazing. Gaur and Malay Civet and everything else too of course.
The next morning after getting two hours of sleep, after sunrise, I had to get up to get my boat in time. I left two hours for the walk which turned out to be more than enough as I had a lighter pack and knew how far and where I had to go. I passed a group of indigenous Orang Asli people on the way too with their blowpipes etc. which was cool. I was and am of course exhausted from a lack of sleep. While waiting for the boat, I saw an as yet unidentified gliding lizard glide past right in front of me which was nice to see. Surprisingly enough, the boat was quite prompt, getting here only a couple of minutes after the agreed time and it was a nice boat ride back
to Kuala Tahan and the rapids were good fun again although I got splashed quite a bit. There was a Grey-bellied Fishing-eagle over the river too. The boat driver was very impressed that I had seen a Gaur, much more so than the Tapir and said that he has hardly ever seen one.
Overall though, the hide was an absolutely amazing experience though. I’m so, so pleased that I did it. It was the cheapest night’s accommodation so far too at RM5 per night (while I try to ignore the fact that I spent RM240 on the boat of course).
When I got back, I went to drop my stuff off at the hostel, have a shower and go for lunch. Before lunch though, I had to deal with my laundry as I had managed to go through effectively all my clothes and I can’t really do any clothes washing with the dorm set up as it is so I’ve had to go to a laundry shop in town. I was charged 7 ringgit per kilo for 5kgs of clothes and I think I might have been overcharged but I’m not sure. The guy was quite insistent that
that was the price, but it seems a bit high so if anyone knows if that is about right or not then I would appreciate if you could let me know for future.
I think I’m going to stay here three more nights including tonight which will give me two more full days in Taman Negara. I could stay a fourth night, but I think I would rather spend two nights in KL before flying to Sabah rather than just one to make sure I do definitely make it for the morning flight and I do definitely find a Western Union that’s open so I can get some money. I should then be able to visit Zoo Negara as well.
Anyway, in the afternoon, despite being exhausted, I decided to head over the river just for a couple of hours of very relaxed birding along the boardwalked paths which was a nice end to the day. I was far too tired to do anything too strenuous or stay out too late for anything after dark (and I’ve done plenty of after dark stuff these last two nights). I had to come back over to pick up my clothes
too.
The afternoon birding was pretty good. The best bird was a great view of some Black-and-Red Broadbills until that was surpassed by a Buff-necked Woodpecker until that was further surpassed by a pair of bulbul-sized Black-thighed Falconets in a tree above the campsite. Such nice birds. I then headed back across to pick up my laundry.
I had written almost all of the above before having dinner, but while I was at dinner the boat driver who brought me back on the boat from the hide bumped into me. He was still very impressed at my sightings and asked to have a look at my pictures etc. and he seemed genuinely impressed at my wildlife knowledge. He then asked if I would like to join his night cruise for RM40. I had actually checked the price beforehand at was told that it would be RM60 so he was giving it to me slightly cheaper and when opportunities like that present themselves, you’ve just got to do them. I was always intending to do a night cruise on one of the nights, just not tonight but whatever. I can sleep another time. (This is why I have to leave nature places to catch up on sleep, I just can’t help myself when there’s wildlife to be seen)
The night cruise thing wasn’t bad. It ended up lasting for 3 hours and ending at 11:30 and it makes a change for things to go on longer than expected, although I was quite tired by the end and we did stop at an Orang Asli village for about 20 minutes to inexplicably change boat. Going up and down the river we saw a pair of Brown Wood Owls and a Long-tailed Giant Rat which were new for me as well as a number of Red Giant Flying Squirrels and a Slow Loris. How am I seeing so many of those two species? They’re everywhere! I finally saw a Red Giant Flying Squirrel gliding today too which was cool as I hadn’t seen that yet and it is impressive. Towards the end we also stopped at an island in the middle of the river (as in, actually pulled up and walked on the island) which was covered in nightjars of two different species (both new, in addition to the one seen last night at the clearing). They would sit pretending to be rocks until you got right up close and then suddenly explode into the sky. Great birds. So, not a bad night cruise although I will admit that I may have overdone it a teeny tiny little bit today. The next two days should be more relaxed (I know I keep saying this) where I’m just planning to bird the trails around and do a bit of spotlighting on my own.
Anyway, I really must go to bed now. I still can’t believe I’ve seen a wild Malayan Tapir. That really is a dream mammal.
New Birds:
Bamboo Woodpecker Orange-backed Woodpecker Blue-banded Kingfisher Maroon Woodpecker Chestnut-breasted Malkoha Green Broadbill Indian Cuckoo Storm’s Stork Changeable Hawk-eagle
Rhinoceros Hornbill White-bellied Munia Rufous-crowned Babbler Chestnut-rumped Babbler Olive-winged Bulbul Cream-vented Bulbul Ruby-cheeked Sunbird Gold-whiskered Barbet Red-bearded Bee-eater
Verditer Flycatcher Wreathed Hornbill
Dollarbird
Black Hornbill Puff-backed Bulbul Slender-billed Crow Grey-headed Fish-eagle Buff-necked Woodpecker Grey-breasted Spiderhunter Red-eyed Bulbul Red-crowned Barbet Black-thighed Falconet Yellow-breasted Flowerpecker Brown Wood Owl Large-tailed Nightjar Savanna Nightjar Heard at the clearing (not counted)
Gould’s Frogmouth
Argus Pheasant
Reddish Scops-owl
Brown Wood Owl
New Mammals:
Red Muntjac
Lesser Mousedeer Horse-tailed Squirrel Gaur
Low’s Squirrel Three-striped Ground Squirrel Indomalayan Pencil-tailed Tree-mouse Temminck’s Flying Squirrel Dark-tailed Niviventer Malay Civet Malayan Tapir (!) Long-tailed Giant Rat Tokay Gecko
Hemidactylus type gecko
Draco (gliding lizard) sp.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.152s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0775s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mother!
non-member comment
Glad you got your laundry done!
What a great adventure. Glad the tapir made an appearance after all that effort. The Guar is pretty impressive as well. Catch up with some much needed sleep! ? ?