#4 - Walking Through Nature/ Villages

Hey guys! Quite a while i did not share my adventure with my dear mother nature right? Actually last week i have a trip to one of the rural area called Ulu Padas area within Sipitang District. Can i consider walking in those villages also close to nature? I may say, yes because these villages is adjacent to a very amazing and beautiful forested areas. So called Mother Nature.

Location of Long Pasia. Credit to Google Maps.

The first village we visited was Long Pasia. It is situated in Sabah, Malaysia, its geographical coordinates are 4° 23' 0" North, 115° 44' 0" East. This village is beautiful. If you not agreed with me, see this photo below. 

Village view from entrance of the village. 

What do we do at this beautiful village? Actually we are doing survey on herbal usage and hunting practices. It is quite interesting findings and it will be useful for our next programme. I will not elaborate further on that. What i want to share here is some of our findings on the herbal and animals that these people hunt. 

Not all of them use herbs as their traditional cures anymore after religion and clinic is built in the village. There are only two or three elderly people still practicing it. They are not really interested and aware of this practice/ traditional knowledge will disappear when these elderly people leaving them behind. 

One of the herbs that traditionally use to cure sickness. 

When comes to the hunting activities, people in this area really need protein from wild meat such as bearded pig, Sambar dear and barking deer. There is also human-animal conflict occurs such as this little fella. 

Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis)

This fella was killed because he disturbed villages chicken coop. He killed the chicks but then not eating them. This makes the owner of the chickens mad and killed him. Pity little fella. Actually i am not sure if it is the true story because, adjacent to this village is a vast, huge forested areas. Is there human activities that makes this fella enter their village? That is still a questions in my mind. Not only this wild cat but another things that happen in this village is they love to have young animals as their pets. Such as this bearded pig.

Sub-adult bearded pig (Sus barbatus)

So, that is my sharing or my walking to this village last week. Quite an interesting experienced and information right? I was happy because i have this chances but then, i am a little bit sad because these people not practicing sustainable hunting. There are excessive hunting activities in this village. I do hope our awareness programme will help them to start sustainable hunting practice. Till then guys!