The Fluffy Squirrel Eater: Crocker Range Park

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Sunrise over the mountains was spectacular, probably the best sunrise of this trip, and I started the day birding the trail. It was really birdy around l and mostly with common species that I've seen before but I added a couple of things and if this was nearer the start of the trip rather than at the end, I'd have added loads. I was a bit worried at one point because I thought I could hear a large dog barking (domestic dogs are the only animal that actually concerns me when I'm in a forest) but I never saw any dogs and I wonder if it was an odd sounding muntjac barking. A particularly nice mammal from the morning birding were Four-striped Ground Squirrels which I saw two of. They’re a fairly restricted range species so that’s nice.



There are lots of Sociable Bulbuls around which are almost certainly a future armchair tick. They're a split from Cinereous Bulbul which is itself a split from Ashy Bulbul and if you completely (over) lump Ashy then I can see the the Bornean subspecies remaining a subspecies, but no that Cinereous has been split, you really can't keep the Bornean ones as the same species as the Sumatran and Malay Peninsula ones. They certainly look totally different to the Cinereous bulbuls on the Malay Peninsula and they seem to behave and sound different too. Sociable Bulbuls look like a cross between a Flavescent Bulbul and an Ochraceous Bulbul and area really quite cool. I think this will definitely be a good split. I give it five years max before it's universally accepted as a Bornean endemic species. I'm tempted to just split it on my own and count it because it so should be, but since as far as I can tell none of the major checklists have it as a split yet, I suppose I just have to leave it as a future armchair tick. It's still a Bornean endemic as Sociable Bulbul in my head though. My field guide also has a note about it as a potential future split.



There weren't any Rafflesia flowers at the plot, as expected because the flowers open randomly and briefly. There were not buds either which is surprising because they grow for a while before opening but I don't think anyone is maintaining the plot anymore. To actually see a Rafflesia flower you've got to put a lot more effort in, and I just want to see whatever plants and other nature things that I happen to see along the way looking for birds and mammals. There was a beautiful view of the waterfall down near the Rafflesia Plot though. (Did I mention the waterfall yesterday? Well there's a waterfall)



With the leeches, I thought I could get away with just wearing normal long socks and tucking my trousers in and this is fine mostly but you still get an occasional leech biting through a normal sock and they're considerably more difficult to remove since you can't slide your finger nail under the mouth as easily which is my preferred leech removal technique. Some people faff about with lighters or salt to remove leeches but that's inefficient when you've got loads of them and it's not necessary. The best technique in my opinion is to slide your fingernail under the rear sucker end of the leech and it will immediately stick onto your nail, then firmly push forward under the head biting part of the leech to remove the biting bit without yanking so you don't rip the skin then you can flick the leech off. The technical terms for the ends of the leech are the sucky end and the bitey end. Once you've got over the grossness of the leeches and of having your shoes and clothes soaking in your own blood, they're not a problem to deal with. In terms of other much friendlier invertebrates, I found a trilobite larva today which I had looked for on Kinabalu and never found. They're just really cool looking and the name says it all really.



After lunch, I went to have a look at the other major trail, the 1km Pine Trail. This trail is pretty rubbish for birding because it just goes through the totally disturbed forest along the edge of the resort/park HQ area and it's all secondary growth and bamboo along with some non-native and planted pines. Basically just Chestnut Munias and nothing else. It's really totally overgrown too.



However, just before the entrance to the trail, as I was walking along the road to get to it (the road inside the resort with no cars, not the main road) I suddenly saw a flash of orange/yellow as the hind legs and tail of a small animal disappeared into the shrubbery and my jaw just dropped. It actually took me about a second to reingage with what was happening and try and search the shrubbery and forest edge for the animal but it had totally vanished. It was a mammal that I always had at the back of my mind as a possibility and an especially awesome animal to see but didn't really expect, especially this late in the trip without seeing any sign. I had just seen a Malay Weasel! It basically looks like a normal weasel that's been dipped in highlighter ink halfway between orange and yellow highlighter, fading to a paler colour for the tip of the tail. (With a white head too, but I didn't see the head) Though it doesn't actually look too ridiculous on the ground in the midst of vegetation. I still can't quite believe that I've actually managed to see one. I think this place is probably a particularly good spot because there are lots of rodents and the bird guide who I spoke to at Kinabalu said that he's seen them here and once at Poring. Just two nights here two and I've seen what is probably the best mammal I could have hoped for from here! Naturally I waited around that spot and looked along the pine trail with the hope that it would reappear but no luck. I'll try again tomorrow because I would love to get some pictures! I don't think they're all that rare, just difficult to see because they move so quickly in the undergrowth. And quietly too! I didn't hear any crackling of dead leaves sounds despite it running under an area of thick bamboo shrubbery with the ground covered in dry leaves. Wonderful animal, and worth coming here just for that brief glimpse alone! Malay Weasels, Four-stripes Ground Squirrels, and some great hill and submontane birds. Why aren't there more birders and mammal watchers here? The title is obviously in reference to the Malay Weasel although I think ground squirrels are probably too large to be prey for these and I think they're probably eating small mice and things. I actually suspect I may have seen another one a bit before sunset, but I just saw the tip of a tail disappear and it could have been a treeshrew or something but it looked very similar indeed to the weasel from earlier.



Naturally, after a dinner overlooking the twinkling night lights of Keningau down below, I went for a bit of spotlighting. I didn't do the whole 4km down and back up but just went about halfway. There were plenty of different bats, microbate and megabats, and plenty of rodents too including one that looked new but I couldn't identify. Not much else though. I'm surprised at the lack of palm civets of any kind here.



Tomorrow I'm headed back to KK. I think if I had unlimited time I'd spend another night or two here because the forest is nice, the view is wonderful, and the common birds here like White-breasted Woodswallow and Chestnut Munia are particularly lovely species to watch. And it's really relaxing and chilled out too. But I don't feel like I really need longer here in terms of getting more species. I don't need to do anything at KK tomorrow though so I'll bird here until lunchtime and go down to the road to flag down a bus in the afternoon. I don't want to leave it until too late though, because I need for there to be enough buses still that one will stop for me since I'll just be getting one from the roadside again. I've got three nights at KK giving me two full days before I fly out and just in case anyone is interested my plan for those two days are one day for a Manukan Island day trip with the parrots at Tanjung Aru beach that afternoon and Lok Kawi Wildlife Park the other day.



In other news, today was the last day I had to take a malaria tablet for a while which is good because I dislike having to take prophylactic medication . I only really needed antimalarials for Danum and Taman Negara and I've been out of malarial zones for a week now. I'm sure my liver will be happy with this development. Although my feet aren't very happy at the moment, I think I did too much walking up and down to Timpohon Gate at Mount Kinabalu because my feet are mostly blisters at the moment although having the entire bottom of your foot as a blister is less painful and annoying than single blisters as it turns out. I suppose that is what blisters are supposed to do though: act as cushioning.



Oh, and a fun things to note: this blog post brings the total combined word count of all the posts above 50,000 words! That's fifty thousand words!

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