Wild Indonesia

Wild Indonesia part 1

 

This is a summary of the wildlife (mostly mammals) observed on a trip to Indonesia (Reef and Rainforest’s latest destination) in late June and early July 2014. I was joined by my partner and Steve Morgan, a fellow mammal enthusiast and friend for the second half of the trip. We first visited Tanjung Puting National Park in Indonesian Borneo and then spent ten days exploring the superb Way Kambas National Park in southern Sumatra in search of some of the rarest and most charismatic mammals in South East Asia. The sightings indicate just how exciting the wildlife potential is of Way Kambas in particular. I positively identified an incredible 32 species of mammal in Way Kambas National Park alone along with an additional 4 species seen only in Tanjung Puting National Park, plus over 80 bird species and at 19 species of reptile and amphibian.

(Mangrove cat snake © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

(Long-tailed macaque © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

My many personal highlights from this trip included walking side by side with a wild orang-utan in Tanjung Puting National Park for over 5 minutes and politely giving him the right of way when he decided to overtake us. Seeing an exceptional three Malayan tapirs and being left speechless as one calmly strolled to within just metres of our vehicle in Way Kambas. Admiring a curious slow loris skilfully manoeuvring along a power line minutes after our arrival at our lodge in Way Kambas. Documenting the very rarely observed and truly bizarre feather-tailed treeshrew deep in the Sumatran rainforest and peacefully watching wild Sumatran elephants drinking from the Way Kanan River blissfully unaware of our presence.

(Bornean Orang-utan © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

A rare forest that is still full of Orang-utans

(Wild Bornean Orang-utan © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

The first part of my trip took me to Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) and to its premium National Park; Tanjung Puting. The park is the largest protected forest in central Kalimantan and covers 3,040 square km of lowland dipterocarp and peat swamp forest and is probably home to highest density (over 6000) of wild orang-utans in the world. The best wildlife viewing centres on world renowned Camp Leakey. This site was set up in 1971 by Louis Leakey, to support research into wild orang-utans and over the years, scientists here have habituated and studied hundreds of the endangered apes. The chief researcher now is Birute Galdikas who, together with Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, worked with Leakey to form many of the current theories on primate behaviour and biology. This site was also one of the foremost rehabilitation centres for orphaned orangs. In 1995 new regulations in Kalimantan prohibited the reintroduction of orang-utans into areas already supporting healthy wild populations to prevent the risk of disease transmission, and there are currently now no new releases to the Camp Leakey area.

(Wild Bornean Orang-utan © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 (Pitcher plant © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

(Path in Tanjung Puting © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

The population of orang-utans at Camp Leakey is a mixture of rehabilitated, descendants of rehabilitated and truly wild but habituated orang-utans and almost certainly provides the greatest orang utan experience in the world today. It’s an easy 30 minute walk from the boat jetty to the feeding station in an area of open peat forest, where a mixture of fruit is put out to provide an extra food source for the great apes as it is thought there are no longer enough natural fruiting trees to support the healthy orang-utan population here.

(Wild Bornean Orang-utan © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

(Wild Bornean Orang-utan © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

We had every possible type of orang-utan encounter here including mothers with curious new-borns, infants and large (sometimes aggressive) males. On arrival on our first visit we had a young male actually pass us on the boardwalk, as he got closer I knelt down to seem less intimidating and encourage him to pass by. He paused right alongside us and actually looked into each of our eyes in turn with as much curiosity as we had for him. 
With the abundance of fruit on the feeding table at Camp Leakey, this area is also the best spot to see the aptly named and very entertaining agile gibbon and sounders of wonderful bearded pigs within the park. We had superb close views of both near the feeding station and along trails through the forest. We also saw a pair of tiny black-eared pygmy squirrels in the lower branches near the camp as well as many common sun skinks, woodpeckers and oriental pied hornbills. Entertaining Proboscis monkeys, long-tailed macaques and silvered langurs were all also easily seen each day on outings along the river. As these primates spend the night in the branches overhanging the river for safety from clouded leopards and other predators, dusk always produced the highest numbers and most entertaining behaviour of these monkeys.

(Agile gibbon © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

(Bearded pig © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

(Proboscis monkey © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

(Proboscis monkey © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

Another speciality of the park is the now very rare Malaysian false gharial crocodile. Its numbers are plummeting in the wild due to the rapid loss of its peat swamp forest habitat, but it still thrives in Tanjung Puting. We enjoyed some outstanding sightings of this charismatic species in the unpolluted black water rivers close to Camp Leaky, as well as great sightings of the much larger and more powerful saltwater (or estuarine) crocodile. My favourite reptilian sighting however was of the Sumatran spitting cobra was that swam in front of our boat!

(Malayan false gharial © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

(Sumatran spitting cobra © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

I also made a visit to the government run turtle conservation project at Tanjung Keluang near to Pangkalan Buun, the entry point to the National Park. Here I learnt of the struggle to boost the numbers of green and hawksbill turtles that nest on the beautiful golden sand beaches. Here guests can enjoy the unforgettable experience of releasing young turtles (in our case a beautiful hawksbill) back to sea. Some of the eggs are collected from the nests and the young tended to in captivity before being released when they are at an older age, helping to boost the much needed numbers.

(Hawksbill turtle © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

(Hawksbill turtle © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)