Malua Forest Expedition

I have just returned from expedition to Malua Forest Reserve where there are 2 grids of cameras that needed checking, the SD cards changing and new set of fully charged batteries putting in them. The cameras are laid out in grids of 6x6 cameras and are there is 500m between each camera, so the past week and a bit has involved a lot of walking.

We spent 3 days checking the first set of cameras and staying in a field checking station on the edge of the forest next to the palm oil plantations then four days at an identical looking forest checking station but at a different side of the forest by the Kinabatangan river! The stations are little green bungalows on stilts, they have 3 little bedrooms, a main living area, a kitchen, a wet room and a lovely balcony on the front where Naomi and I have sat and watched the lightening and attempted to take photographs!! The first one had a generator so we had electricity at night but at the second one the generators was broken (it has been for 6 months apparently) so it was torch and candle light only after 6.30pm. We also ran out of water at the second station so washing was done in a little shower room on stilts at a house down by the river, the shower used water which was pumped from the river but it had a great view out over the river and the forest so running out of water had its perks!

The forest where the cameras are set is all secondary forest and has been logged in the first grid terrain had lots of vines, roots and thorny plants on the floor, this made finding a month old trail difficult at points but meant my parang-ing skills improved. Some of the cameras are set on the old logging road which was easier going on the legs but very hot out of the canopy cover.  The second grid was more entertaining with the first day spent walking two transects of the grid through knee deep swamp land and crossing a river that was meant to be shallow but actually ended up being waist deep for me but shoulder deep in one part where Rusdi tried to cross (photo to follow!!), the other days were back in the thick forest but with some steep slippery slopes to climb up and down... or crawl and slide!!

Whist we were on expedition the other boys from the team phoned to say there had been more cases of hunters and that some more of or cameras had been stolen after assessing the sites of the missing cameras we returned to Lahad Datu to where our new house is, the new house is on the edge of town on a site with other wildlife staff and researcher’s houses and it means we can walk into town to get shopping and use the internet instead of having to wait until we pass through town in the car, it also means we get ‘mains’ electric, although i’m not sure what is more reliable a generator or Malayan mains!! Last night we had pizza hut for dinner... its only just made it to Lahad Datu along with KFC which serves chicken with rice!!

Currently i’m sat in a cafe in town going through the photos that we collected on our and so far there are no Banteng but some gorgeous photos of a clouded leopard, a sunbear and her little cub, lots of elephants and small calves and lots of very playful baby pigtailed macaques, which think our cameras make great toys.