click here:
Rafflesia keithii - also on top of my target list. But damn difficult to find and photograph.
It is a parasitic flowering plant in the genus Rafflesia, which are the largest flowering plants on earth. Rafflesia keithii is endemic to Sabah in Borneo. The flowers can grow up to one metre in diameter, only flowering some days and the rotten smell attracts loads of pollinating flies.
Sitting in KL airport waiting for the flight back to Sabah, Borneo.
Here is a shot from some days ago, with a Proboscis Monkey (näsapa) jumping from one tree to another. This is a very agile monkey and a fantastic jumper. It will even some time drop 15 meter down, jumping in between the trees. And it is endemic to Borneo (occurs only there) and is endangered.
A walking stick insect - or rather - a walking branch is entering my face. Cameron Highlands, Malaysia.
Another target species from Borneo was the Proboscis Monkey (näsapa) at the Kinabatang River.
Here two youngsters are wrestling and playing the game of staying as the winner on the branch, trying to push the other down. They had really fun!
Me too….
More eyes in the night and frogs in heaps.
The night in Danum Valley primary forest is full of frog-sounds from many different species. Here is one of the large frogs: The Borneo Eared Tree Frog (Polypedates otilophus).
One of my absolute target species came through - Western Tarsier (västligt spökdjur) at Danum Valley, Borneo.
It is just so difficult to find, but our “super”-tracker Duanis found it at our final night.
It is smaller than my fist and only night active. jumping from tree to tree in the under-vegetation of the rainforest where it hunts for juicy insects and can even take small snakes and bats. And it is distantly related to the monkeys.
Whiskered Treeswift (mindre trädseglare) waiting out one of the many rains in Danum Valley, Borneo. It is a wonderful colored swift and it hunts insects in the open areas, like over streams, in the rainforest.
Rain is like poetry for a photographer, fantastic low light and soft colors. We had rains and leeches in plenty in this marvelous primary rainforest.
It has been many extremely intensive days with loads of wildlife since the last post. More will come - so stay tuned ;)
Semi-big Orang-utan male reaching out for the right fruit. We are finally on Borneo, and right after entering the Danum Valley area yesterday, we found this big wild “forest-man” feasting on ripe fruits in the rainforest.
What a smack start for us to encounter a wild orang-utan, not a released animal or one at a feeding site - and to it all a big male. When he changed tree and came down on the ground we rugged away since he was quite massive.
We followed it up with 4 other monkey species – and on top of that: heavy rains for an entire day and loads of tiger-leeches (tiger-iglar) trying to feast on us.
Wonderful magic - mossy - cloud forest at nearly 2000 m. The enchanted forest was full of orchids and pitcher plants. Elfin forest, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia.
We climbed up here through the most steep, or elevated, rainforest I ever sat foot in. Even Kristian was dead tired after ;)
Picher plant (Nepenthes (kannranka)) from the mossy forest in the Cameron highlands of Malaysia.
Im now in a new world with new rain-forests, and with my other son Kristian I hiked , more-less climbed, one of the most strenuous trails in my life in a mountain cloud forest = mountain rainforest = elfin forest.
Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants who are trapping inects in a deep cavity filled with “digestion” liquid.
Bramblings (bergfink/kvækerfinke) from last winter. Its snowing every day in Stockholm now (nearly ;)) - and Im “cooked” up inside finishing one new bird book and writing 2 new wildlife books.
But Borneo is coming up soon !
As Im working though my Costa Rica material- little more than a week old, many images are being processed. Here is a Mantled Howler monkey eating a “cecropia” leaf.
(mantelvrålapa)
Collared Araçari (halsbandsaracari) - a small toucan -it is one the most striking birds from my last tour to Costa RIca.
Home now and working my way through the immense amount of images and writing on new books. Soon I will be packing for Borneo…..
