#2 ~ The Research Project

What is actually bringing me up on this mountain? Well, allow me to introduce you to a special person that asking me to join her trip. I get to know a very nice lady and she is a great person, Missy Roberts. She is doing her PhD on genetic study with small mammals as her target species mainly treeshrews and squirrels. To be more specific, she is studying the altitudinal difference within a species on Mount Kinabalu and Mount Tambuyukon, Sabah. I met her for the first time during her first visit to Sabah with her supervisor Dr. Jenn during my tenure at Forest Solutions Malaysia S/B (FSM) at Kota Marudu. Getting to know people with same interest and same passion is a blessing to me. Why? Because I can talk anything and share everything about what we think and what we do in the forest.

After quit my job at FSM, I take a break for about two weeks before I join in her research project. Missy and her friend Miguel arrived in Sabah on 19th Feb and stay at Kota Kinabalu for two days before head off to Kinabalu Park at Kundasang on 21st Feb. Missy and I will set a traps at Mount Kinabalu, meanwhile her friend, Miguel with his technician will set up a traps at Mount Tambuyukon at Monggis, another 3 hours drive from Kundasang.

The Tomahawk & Sherman Traps that we use.

This is how we place the traps; under fallen log, on fallen log, beside streams etc etc. 

We will use two different types of traps known as Tomahawk (60 units) and Sherman trap (20 units), so total traps are 80 traps. Since this is the altitudinal study, we will set traps at different altitude across the height of this mountain. 1st altitude at 1,700m a.s.l at Kinabalu Park (KP) headquarters, 2,200m a.s.l at KM2, 2,700m a.s.l at KM4 and 3,200m a.s.l at KM6.

So this is a little bit info about the research which I may not share the details here. I will tell you more stories about my experience when I am up on the mountain in my next post. Stay Tune! Till then!

#1 – Conquering Mount Kinabalu the Series

It has been a while I am not writing anything in this blog. I traveled a lot these past few months and doing so many interesting adventures with nature. I love what I am doing even though it’s did not give me a good return in term of salary but the exposure and learning experience is priceless.

Photo taken in front of the Kinabalu Park Office

Mount Kinabalu…. Did you ever heard about it yet? If not, then allow me to bring you walking through my journey up on the mountain started from 21st February until 19th March 2013.

Let’s talk about the mountain first because I really want you guys out there to be familiar with this mountain before I continue with my whole journey.

Mount Kinabalu located on the Borneo Island, the third largest island in the world. The Borneo Island comprise of three different countries, Indonesia (Kalimantan), Brunei and Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak). On which land of these three countries is this mountain located? Well, it’s located in Sabah, Malaysia which is also known as the Land Below the Wind. There is 13 peaks of this mountain (which I already forget the names most of it and I apologize for that) with the Low’s Peak is the highest peak with 4, 095 m above sea level. So with this height, it makes the Mount Kinabalu is the highest peak in South East Asia (I am proud of it, I am telling you, very very much proud!) Locals that lives in this land believes this mountain have its own story (like a myth stories, a legend). The local community resides around this mountain is the Dusun people. So, who took care of this mountain? The entity that becomes the guardian of this mountain is the Sabah Parks. Almost all the staff that working with Sabah Parks is the Dusun people, one of the indigenous people of Sabah.

The Mount Kinabalu is one of the famous attractions for the mountain climbers, naturalist, researchers and photographers. Just to let you know, Sabah is very famous with the nature attraction for tourist. If you want to see nature, you must put Sabah in your list and of course Mount Kinabalu (ehem… am I doing my job as Malaysian by promoting this Mountain? I think so!). Wanna know more about Mount Kinbalu? Just Google it and you will find thousands of people taking about it and to let you know too, there is about 70,000 climbers climb this mountain annually. Therefore, I am sure a lot of people write a story about it with astounding photographs.

I think this is the beginning story of my journey. Keep an eye for my new posts about this marvelous journey on this mountain. I have lots of stories to share. Till then!!!...