Borneo!
Moderator: Scott Waters
Borneo!
I recently went over to Borneo with my brother for 2 weeks, we Clmibed Mt. Kinabalu and spent some time in Danum Valley. The herps in borneo are amazing, as are the birds and mammals which i spent a lot of time photographing, I've only included the herps here as this is what most people on this forum are interested in. Enjoy!
Frogs
Wallaces flyingfrog rhacophorus nigropalmatus
Meristogeny sorphnocnemis
Lowland litter frog leptobrachium abbottimale
Limnonectes leporinus
Spotted stream frog rana picurata
Rock skipper staurois latopalmatus
Limnonectes finchi
Duttaphrynes juxtasper
hylarana erythraea
Haelequin tree frog rhacophorus pardalis
green-spotted rock frog staurois tuberilingus
Dark eared tree frog
frilled tree frog rhacophorus appendiculatus
File eared tree frog polypedates otilophus
Agamids
Draco sp.
bronchocela cistatella
Monitors
Salvators water monitor
Geckoes
ptychozoon kuhli
cyrtodactylus consobrinus
gehyra mutilatus
cyrtodactylus cavernicolus
Skinks
apterygodon vittatus
Snakes
Waglers pit viper
Mangrove snake boiga dendrophila
Striped bronze-back dendrelaphis caudolineatus
Reticulated python python reticulatus
Banded coral snake maticora intestinalis
Gus
Frogs
Wallaces flyingfrog rhacophorus nigropalmatus
Meristogeny sorphnocnemis
Lowland litter frog leptobrachium abbottimale
Limnonectes leporinus
Spotted stream frog rana picurata
Rock skipper staurois latopalmatus
Limnonectes finchi
Duttaphrynes juxtasper
hylarana erythraea
Haelequin tree frog rhacophorus pardalis
green-spotted rock frog staurois tuberilingus
Dark eared tree frog
frilled tree frog rhacophorus appendiculatus
File eared tree frog polypedates otilophus
Agamids
Draco sp.
bronchocela cistatella
Monitors
Salvators water monitor
Geckoes
ptychozoon kuhli
cyrtodactylus consobrinus
gehyra mutilatus
cyrtodactylus cavernicolus
Skinks
apterygodon vittatus
Snakes
Waglers pit viper
Mangrove snake boiga dendrophila
Striped bronze-back dendrelaphis caudolineatus
Reticulated python python reticulatus
Banded coral snake maticora intestinalis
Gus
Re: Borneo!
Great post. Were you there for vacation?
- Getula Hunter
- Posts: 102
- Joined: November 4th, 2010, 2:36 am
Re: Borneo!
Amazing post!
loved that Mangrove Snake.
Thank you!
J.P.
loved that Mangrove Snake.
Thank you!
J.P.
Re: Borneo!
Yeah, this trip was just for a bit of fun! I visited 2 years back on a research trip, just as fun on your own though
Gus
Gus
Re: Borneo!
Looks like you found some great stuff, thanks for posting.
How on earth did you manage to grab a flying lizard. I find them practically impossible to photograph, let alone catch.
The leptobrachium was also interesting, very strange frogs - slow motion specialists.
Do you have any more photos of the polypedates otilophus you could share ?
Thanks again. Rags
How on earth did you manage to grab a flying lizard. I find them practically impossible to photograph, let alone catch.
The leptobrachium was also interesting, very strange frogs - slow motion specialists.
Do you have any more photos of the polypedates otilophus you could share ?
Thanks again. Rags
Re: Borneo!
Hey!! Great post, wonderful photos, post the birds and mammals too!!
- Viridovipera
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- Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:40 pm
Re: Borneo!
Such a great post. You killed it! I love the Starois amplexus, the retic shot, the fact that you found that coral... ah! All of it!
- Hans Breuer (twoton)
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- Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
- Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
- Contact:
Re: Borneo!
NICE!
Re: Borneo!
Beautiful post. I second the call for bird and mammal pics! This board has a birding forum, too...
- Berkeley Boone
- Posts: 878
- Joined: June 8th, 2010, 4:02 am
Re: Borneo!
Nice shots Gus. I'd like for you to post the birds and mammals as well!
Re: Borneo!
As I learned quickly after posting the Galapagos/Ecuador photos, don't shy away from the birds/mammals. Just put them after the herps and everyone will be satisfied. I'm interested in seeing the birds as well from over there, I'm sure there was some funky stuff.
Re: Borneo!
Since people asked, here are some non reptilian photos.
Rags, The draco we only caught because it was sleeping, I tried to catch them for hours on my first visit but didnt succeed. they were great to watch fly though!
Here are some shots of the polypedates otilophus
Gordon C. Snelling, unfortunately we saw very few inverts, it was scary how few we saw. we did see a single lantern beetle and a single tractor millipede and a pill millipede but really not much else. but here is some others
diplacadon sp.
insect moulting
a weevil
and we saw quite a few different pitcher plants. unfortunately i didnt see a raffelesia but my brother did after i left
For everyone else here are some bird and mammal shots. i've only used those that are easy to see. in the jungle it was amazingly difficult to photograph anything more than 5m away because it was so dark. even flash wasn't always helpful. It was much more dense than in the forests of Australias wet tropics that i am used to.
birds, i think i saw roughly 80 species i could ID, and here is some photos
yellow bellied bul bul
red legged crake
Red jungle fowl, i was happy to see this (although not endemic)
oriental pied hornbill, i saw 4 sp. of hornbill but only got dodgy photos of 2
ocharous bul bul
mountain black eye
indigo fly catcher
chestnut collared kingfisher
buffy fish owl, i think it was the same individual i photographed 3 years earlier
brown hawk owl,
bornean crested serpent eagle
blue naped parrots, virtually extinct. this population is a feral one but it thought to be almost the last 100 of its kind.
blue eared kingfisher
This was in KL, black naped oriole
Mammals
borean gibbon
(In KL) dusky leaf monkey
Giant squirrel
horse tailed squirrel
jentkins squirrel
long tailed macaque
malay civet
mountain tree shrew
orangutan with baby, the baby is still on the shoulder meaning its really young and unable to hold on fully by itself
pig tailed macaque
prevosts squirrel
ranee mouse
red leaf monkey with white baby
samba deer
silver leaf monkey
small toothed palm civet
and probably the trip highlight, a tarzier
And for anyone interested some scenery.
Mt. kinabalu
where you stay half way up mt. Kinabalu
from halfway
from the top
At danum there are viewing platforms, i probably spent 3-4 hours a day looking at this
Cheers
Gus
Rags, The draco we only caught because it was sleeping, I tried to catch them for hours on my first visit but didnt succeed. they were great to watch fly though!
Here are some shots of the polypedates otilophus
Gordon C. Snelling, unfortunately we saw very few inverts, it was scary how few we saw. we did see a single lantern beetle and a single tractor millipede and a pill millipede but really not much else. but here is some others
diplacadon sp.
insect moulting
a weevil
and we saw quite a few different pitcher plants. unfortunately i didnt see a raffelesia but my brother did after i left
For everyone else here are some bird and mammal shots. i've only used those that are easy to see. in the jungle it was amazingly difficult to photograph anything more than 5m away because it was so dark. even flash wasn't always helpful. It was much more dense than in the forests of Australias wet tropics that i am used to.
birds, i think i saw roughly 80 species i could ID, and here is some photos
yellow bellied bul bul
red legged crake
Red jungle fowl, i was happy to see this (although not endemic)
oriental pied hornbill, i saw 4 sp. of hornbill but only got dodgy photos of 2
ocharous bul bul
mountain black eye
indigo fly catcher
chestnut collared kingfisher
buffy fish owl, i think it was the same individual i photographed 3 years earlier
brown hawk owl,
bornean crested serpent eagle
blue naped parrots, virtually extinct. this population is a feral one but it thought to be almost the last 100 of its kind.
blue eared kingfisher
This was in KL, black naped oriole
Mammals
borean gibbon
(In KL) dusky leaf monkey
Giant squirrel
horse tailed squirrel
jentkins squirrel
long tailed macaque
malay civet
mountain tree shrew
orangutan with baby, the baby is still on the shoulder meaning its really young and unable to hold on fully by itself
pig tailed macaque
prevosts squirrel
ranee mouse
red leaf monkey with white baby
samba deer
silver leaf monkey
small toothed palm civet
and probably the trip highlight, a tarzier
And for anyone interested some scenery.
Mt. kinabalu
where you stay half way up mt. Kinabalu
from halfway
from the top
At danum there are viewing platforms, i probably spent 3-4 hours a day looking at this
Cheers
Gus
Re: Borneo!
awesome. love the tic shine, love the kingfishers. thank you
- Hans Breuer (twoton)
- Posts: 3230
- Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
- Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
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Re: Borneo!
Wow, again. The two nepenthes, for those who can't seem to get away from them, are (from top to bottom) N. villosa and N. tentaculata.
Re: Borneo!
Excellent, Gus. Those are some wonderful shots. I hope that I can see a few of those later this year.
Did you stay at the lodge at Danum or at the Field Centre?
That Rock Slipper is a little like our Waterfall Frog in appearance and habitat preference.
Gliding Geckos are high on my wish list. Did you find it by spotlighting trees at night?
You were so lucky to see the Red-legged Crake. They are one of the real skulkers and hard to come by. Looks like you spotlighted it at night?
I am not surprised to see you climbing Mt. Kinabalu. It is a beautiful place but I think that I won't head up above the resthouse. There are supposed to be a number of Nepenthes in that area as well as a bunch of unusual and endemic Rhododendrons.
Thanks for posting these!
Regards,
David
Regards,
David
Did you stay at the lodge at Danum or at the Field Centre?
That Rock Slipper is a little like our Waterfall Frog in appearance and habitat preference.
Gliding Geckos are high on my wish list. Did you find it by spotlighting trees at night?
You were so lucky to see the Red-legged Crake. They are one of the real skulkers and hard to come by. Looks like you spotlighted it at night?
I am not surprised to see you climbing Mt. Kinabalu. It is a beautiful place but I think that I won't head up above the resthouse. There are supposed to be a number of Nepenthes in that area as well as a bunch of unusual and endemic Rhododendrons.
Thanks for posting these!
Regards,
David
Regards,
David
- Hans Breuer (twoton)
- Posts: 3230
- Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
- Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
- Contact:
Re: Borneo!
That's where the most spectacular neps are: villosa, edwardsiana, and of course, rajah, the monkey catcher....moloch wrote:I am not surprised to see you climbing Mt. Kinabalu. It is a beautiful place but I think that I won't head up above the resthouse. There are supposed to be a number of Nepenthes in that area
Re: Borneo!
More great photos.
The Owls and kingfisher stood out for me. Blue-naped parrots, must be First Beach, KK. Great place for a sundowner whilst looking out over the islands.
Re: the Tarsier. Great find. Can you tell me, was there any strong aroma when you found the animal? We met a guy who told us ," you can smell them before you see them!" We never found any so couldn't say if he was right.
Rags.
The Owls and kingfisher stood out for me. Blue-naped parrots, must be First Beach, KK. Great place for a sundowner whilst looking out over the islands.
Re: the Tarsier. Great find. Can you tell me, was there any strong aroma when you found the animal? We met a guy who told us ," you can smell them before you see them!" We never found any so couldn't say if he was right.
Rags.
Re: Borneo!
Ahhhh got my Nepenthes fix for the day. Great stuff. The molting pic is a good one as well.
Re: Borneo!
Wow, you're hyped on the Civet and the Tarsier. Those were sick, loving the kinfisher photos too. Thanks for posting those.
Re: Borneo!
Thanks for the comments everyone.
Moloch, You should see a good number of things whilst your there, it is hard not to We stayed at the Field centre, costs roughly $40 australian a day inc. 3 good meals. where as they lodge is i think $200 a night and you have to stay minimum 3 nights...It very expensive in comparisson. The Research centre is amazing, and there is not much the lodge could offer that makes it worth it (my opinion).
The rock skipper i thought was exactly like our L. nannotis here in Australia. it was only ever in the splash zones and on the rocks and was very similar.
The flying gecko we found on a lookout tower in the forest, i think finding them on trees would be difficult. but apparently they are somewhat common.
The Red-legged Crake was found sleeping at night, we didnt see any during the day.
The walk above the rest house on Mt K. is much easier than the walk to the rest house, The hardest part is coming down. i advise not to carry to much gear with you, i carried roughly 18-20kg. most people carry a change of clothes and that is about it. If you ask the guides about the pitcher plants they can point them out to you, they are common at about the 4.5km mark just off the trail.
we also saw this one, any thoughts on ID would be appreciated.
Rags, that sounds right about the parrots it was about 10 min out of KK.
As for the tarziers i have also heard they have a very distinct smell. However we certainly couldnt smell them. we found 3 and got within 3m of two of them and couldnt smell them. I'd also think it'd be hard enough to get close enough to one without them moving away. they weren't fast, and quite happy to sit. Also they most certainly give off eye shine, I'd heard a lot that they dont give off eye shine but we spotted one from 30-40m. i would have thought if they couldnt give eye shine they would struggle being nocturnal.
Cheers
Gus
Moloch, You should see a good number of things whilst your there, it is hard not to We stayed at the Field centre, costs roughly $40 australian a day inc. 3 good meals. where as they lodge is i think $200 a night and you have to stay minimum 3 nights...It very expensive in comparisson. The Research centre is amazing, and there is not much the lodge could offer that makes it worth it (my opinion).
The rock skipper i thought was exactly like our L. nannotis here in Australia. it was only ever in the splash zones and on the rocks and was very similar.
The flying gecko we found on a lookout tower in the forest, i think finding them on trees would be difficult. but apparently they are somewhat common.
The Red-legged Crake was found sleeping at night, we didnt see any during the day.
The walk above the rest house on Mt K. is much easier than the walk to the rest house, The hardest part is coming down. i advise not to carry to much gear with you, i carried roughly 18-20kg. most people carry a change of clothes and that is about it. If you ask the guides about the pitcher plants they can point them out to you, they are common at about the 4.5km mark just off the trail.
we also saw this one, any thoughts on ID would be appreciated.
Rags, that sounds right about the parrots it was about 10 min out of KK.
As for the tarziers i have also heard they have a very distinct smell. However we certainly couldnt smell them. we found 3 and got within 3m of two of them and couldnt smell them. I'd also think it'd be hard enough to get close enough to one without them moving away. they weren't fast, and quite happy to sit. Also they most certainly give off eye shine, I'd heard a lot that they dont give off eye shine but we spotted one from 30-40m. i would have thought if they couldnt give eye shine they would struggle being nocturnal.
Cheers
Gus
- Hans Breuer (twoton)
- Posts: 3230
- Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
- Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
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Re: Borneo!
That's a Nepenthes tentaculata, discernible by the lozenge-shaped pitcher mouth.
- Hans Breuer (twoton)
- Posts: 3230
- Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
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Re: Borneo!
My pleasure. Just to bore you some more - that pitcher is a so-called "upper". Most nepenthes produce two kinds of pitchers. One, the "lowers", are close to the ground and take care of nutrition, while the rest of the plant - they're vines - climbs up the next tree in search of sunlight. On the way there, it produces "uppers". These are smaller than the lower pitchers, and their tendrils is attached to the back instead of the front like in lowers. Behind the pitcher you can see the tendril wrapped around a twig. This ensures physical stability for the pitcher and secures the whole plant, keeping it from getting pulled off the tree by external forces during the climbing process.
Yawn
Re: tarsiers; the last issue of Natural History Magazine has a fantastic cover story on them and their social behavior, which includes mass mobbing of approaching pythons, and setting up virtual kindergartens.
Yawn
Re: tarsiers; the last issue of Natural History Magazine has a fantastic cover story on them and their social behavior, which includes mass mobbing of approaching pythons, and setting up virtual kindergartens.
Re: Borneo!
*sigh* You're making me really nostalgic for our road herping trips...always an informative lecture even if the snakes aren't cooperating!Hans Breuer (twoton) wrote:My pleasure. Just to bore you some more - that pitcher is a so-called "upper". Most nepenthes produce two kinds of pitchers. One, the "lowers", are close to the ground and take care of nutrition, while the rest of the plant - they're vines - climbs up the next tree in search of sunlight. On the way there, it produces "uppers". These are smaller than the lower pitchers, and their tendrils is attached to the back instead of the front like in lowers. Behind the pitcher you can see the tendril wrapped around a twig. This ensures physical stability for the pitcher and secures the whole plant, keeping it from getting pulled off the tree by external forces during the climbing process.
Yawn
Re: tarsiers; the last issue of Natural History Magazine has a fantastic cover story on them and their social behavior, which includes mass mobbing of approaching pythons, and setting up virtual kindergartens.
- Hans Breuer (twoton)
- Posts: 3230
- Joined: June 8th, 2010, 3:19 am
- Location: Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo)
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Re: Borneo!
Thanks...I guess Hang in there, brother - another nine weeks, and we're out of this fix
Re: Borneo!
thanks for the info, on ID's and in general. Tis always nice to know something about what your looking at!
Gus
Gus
Re: Borneo!
Just how I always pictured Borneo
Full dose of great pics!
Was the Mangrove Snake pretty much as found in the rocky stream?
Are Dracos just flying around like birds?
Full dose of great pics!
Was the Mangrove Snake pretty much as found in the rocky stream?
Are Dracos just flying around like birds?
Re: Borneo!
The mangrove snake was found in a stream, it was somewhat rocky but i wouldnt have classified it as a rocky stream. These were very common along the kinabatangan river when i first went to borneo.
The dracos, we only saw one. on my first trip we found a spot where i would have seen 20 in a 100m square area. i chased one up a tree and it flew but other than that we didnt see them fly
gus
The dracos, we only saw one. on my first trip we found a spot where i would have seen 20 in a 100m square area. i chased one up a tree and it flew but other than that we didnt see them fly
gus
Re: Borneo!
Good show on the R. nigropalmatus- it was high on my list when I was down there but they didn't show themselves.
I think your Draco is D. quinquefasciatus. Very enjoyable post and excellent photo's
EW
I think your Draco is D. quinquefasciatus. Very enjoyable post and excellent photo's
EW