Bats, Butterflies and AMAZING Clouded Leopard Tales!

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We woke up early and walked to the Visitor Center where we saw several visitors with scopes and bird books out and gesturing wildly. “Hornbill! Hornbill!” said their guide, Mr. Jeep. He let us look through his scope to get a closer look.

Then we went over and met with the WildAid staff Warapol, Saiyan, Songkran, Kanda and Waraporn as they reviewed the Clouded leopard Educator’s Guide. Curriculum guides are not common for teachers, so they have invited Green World Foundation to come to talk to the teachers about how to use a curriculum guide. We went through several of the activities in the guide, including a food web activity. We also did a Clouded leopard costume activity where a volunteer is dressed feature by feature in a Clouded leopard costume. This time I was the lucky volunteer Wendy dressed in a child-sized leopard vest, plastic nose, hood and tail. They seem to think that young people up to about age 15 will enjoy this activity. (It’s hard to imagine an American 13-year-old we could dress in this costume who wouldn’t die from the uncoolness of it all!)

Mr. Sayan told us through Kanda about his amazing clouded leopard sighting. About 6 or 7 years ago, he was working near the visitor center at the park entrance. It was about 9:00 at night and he heard a noise and looked up. High in the trees, a clouded leopard and a pig-tailed macaque were fighting and making a huge ruckus - the macaque was growling and the clouded leopard made noises he was unable to describe. As they fought, they fell about 20 meters on to the ground below. The fall killed both of them. He taxidermied the Clouded leopard and skinned the macaque. For a long time, they lived in his house with him although they’ve since disintegrated.

In the afternoon, we went on a short hike to a waterfall. At the top of the waterfall, a flurry of colorful butterflies of several species dipped in and out of the forest over the water. We then hopped back in the truck and a ranger named X took us out of the park to see a bat cave, home to 2 million wrinkle-lipped bats that emerge at dusk every night. (I just wish I could see their lips! What does a wrinkled bat lip look like, anyway?) We knew we must be in the right place when we spotted our birdwatching pals from the morning with Mr. Jeep. The man from Hong Kong who had hired Mr. Jeep the guide was eager to see some raptors try to catch some of the bats flying out from the cliffside cave.

They flew out in a steady stream, black dots darkening the sky in a ribbon of whirling, spinning bats. The noise of them leaving was palpable and difficult to describe. After it became too difficult to see, we headed back for dinner and then into the park. On the side of the road, two spotlighting trucks were pulled over with the light fixed in a tree - a rustling, moving tree. Binturongs! Until we built the Asian Forest Sanctuary at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, they were another unknown animal to me. Although plans changed and we ended up not including binturongs in the Asian Forest Sanctuary exhibit complex, it was fun to see a live binturong in the tree. I only saw one of the four that had been spotted, but they were very active.

Tomorrow is the big teacher’s workshop for 30 teachers from 15 schools in the area. Karen has been practicing her presentation while I’m trying to drive the evil ants from our room. I foolishly left my snack bag on the foot of my bed and now there are ants everywhere! I just wish I could send them off to Leanne in Vietnam to feed to her little pangolins.

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Photos

Beautiful waterfall
For some reason, the butterflies loved the top of the waterfall.

One of many pig-tailed macaques by the road
I won't name any names, but I did laugh when someone muttered, "It seems like only the stupid animals hang out by the road." I don't know how smart macaques are, but they do spend a lot of time by the road.