My New Life......Just Begin....

One month has passed by and I am still searching for my new career direction. Where is actually I am heading to? After a month of struggling in adjusting myself in this new working environment I want to share a little bit about what I feel and what I have in my mind.

My first visit was to a rural area and meeting the local villagers that still use almost all the natural resources around them, I am back on track again. I talk to them about animals and asking where they found them. They are very keen to share their experienced and knowledge. It is the matter of how I lead the conversation and reach their interest on sharing their experienced in hunting and harvesting the wildlife and plants. But, there is a problem with me. Language. I have to do something about it because most of them are not really good in Malay language. They use their own mother tongue and I don't even know a word of it. I have to do something about it. I have to learn their language so that our conversation will become easy and we understand each other. Till next visit.

My next visit was to a primary forest where the waterfall was. It is just like I am HOME again when I can heard the sounds of hornbills, barbets, bulbuls and lots more birds singing. Smell the fresh air with the cold and misty surroundings. It is a hilly area and it was so amazing being there. Lots of things come up in my mind. There are so many things have to discovered in this area. What animals are actually we have inside this deep forest with this interesting landscape? A hill range with waterfall that surrounded by tree plantation. What will lives there? But….I was frustrated because my task here was no longer as a field biologist. My dream job. My passion.

Do I have to give up on my passion? I will not give up just like that. I challenge myself on this new task. I give myself one year to prove myself that I will do something extraordinary. I will share more if my feet moves one more step from where I am standing now.

It is a.......Sambar Deer (Cervus unicolor)

Thanks a lot guys for participate in this game. It is fun right. The answer that given by all of you is almost correct.

This is the Sambar Deer (Cervus unicolor) in captivity. It is very tame because they rear it since it was very young, about three weeks after birth. This female Sambar is pregnant and i think by now she alreday delivered a baby Sambar.

For further reading, some information can be get from Wikipedia.

Guess....Who Am I??

Let us play a game here....

Do you know what animal is this by seeing it's face only. Dare to take
a challenge but i think this is easy..hehehehe..

Have fun guessing...:)

Rough-necked Monitor (Varanus rudicollis)

During my first visit to the waterfall area, it was very interesting because we have to walk about 1.348km to reach it. A very nice board walk is the path way to reach there but the condition of the borad walk was not properly maintained.

My curiosity is very high because this is a new place for me. I keep doing my observation trying to find something interesting with my camera in my hand. I did heard a lots of birds singing along the way and it was so peacefull with the misty environment.

While we are walking the field guide keep explaining and describes about trees and plants along the way. We stop at one of the hut and suddenly my friend pointed something quitely to me. It was a monitor lizard and i never seen it before. It did not moves and keep silence in it position as if its doesn't want us to notice he is there. I try to take a photo of it and yes i got one but that is the only one because after that it quickly ran away.

So, i ask our field guide and he explain to us that monitor lizards called "Biawak Punggur" and it lives in the tree holes. To confirm this identification i ask one of my friend from museum and he told me, yes it was.

I am lucky to have this chance. Seeing something new is very exciting.

To see more information about this animal visit this site: mampam Conservation

Speckled Piculet (Picumnus innominatus)

I woke up early every morning because i have to catch up 6.45am bus to reach to my work place. As i waited for the bus, my eyes saw something interesting on the tree bark. It keeps moving and i get closer to make sure what is that.

Oh my!! It's a woodpecker and as far as i know i never seen this one before. I thought it was a Rufous Piculet because it was as small as Rufous Piculet. I don't have my field guide book in my hand so i tried to memorized all the colours that i can see on it's body.

So, today i add one more bird's species in my list of obesrvation.

To see more information of this bird, do visit this site: BirdLife International

Rocky Stream

I Learn Something......

On the way back from sending four villagers that we invited to exhibit their handicrafts during the carnivals, my friend and I saw one small creature on the gravel road. We stop by and I am curious of what is that thing. As we stop, I quickly get out from the car and get to that little thing. I can't see its head so I am not sure what was at first. I take a stone and try to squeeze it because from its bad condition I thought its dead with all flies eggs on its body. When I squeeze it suddenly it moves and I am surprised that it was still alive with that worse body condition. As its head appear I saw both of its eyes already full of maggots and I can say it is blind. I am very clear that this animal has faced a very horrific time with both hands and one leg injured badly. I wonder how it still can survive.

I decided to take it back home since it is still alive even though I am not sure if I can save it with the chronic stage like that. When we get back home, I ask my friend what I should do to this animal. I take it home with me and I make some sugar water and try to take out the flies eggs from its fur. It wants to sip the water from the straw and I feel a little bit relief because it still wants to drinks. Then I try to take out the maggots but, it was very difficult and I only can take out one of it. Then I put some medication on its wound on the leg and hands. Then I realize one hole on its left thighs and full of maggots too. How pity and horrible is this animal feels when it is still alive but its body starts to rotten because of those maggots. After put all the medications I put it back in the box and I went to sleep.

This morning when I woke up for work I look into the box and I feel so sorry because it's already dead. I can't save it but I am happy that at least I have done something to help it.

Actually it was a male Slow Loris and I named him HOPE. I am not sure what caused those injuries to him. By the way, if it was caused by snares trap that local people set up so this is my call to educate people something about wildlife.