Photo update 8: Personal grooming

Hey Rimba followers, it’s been awhile…what did we say about February being hectic??? That continued all through March, as the Kenyir Wildlife Corridor Project wrapped up its field sampling in Terengganu and prepared to start on their next sampling site, in Perak. So the old research station in Kampung Basung has been packed up and a new field house was found in Gerik…hopefully a new Project Update will be coming out soon with more info!

In between, we’ve had a lot of delays due to some intensive travelling and Reuben‘s nasty brush with scrub typhus! So the updates have been a little slow in coming…and we ask that you bear with us while we sort out our latest operations.

In the meantime, to make sure you don’t forget us just yet, here’s another ‘video’ we produced by stitching together multiple camera-trap shots. It features one of the prettier denizens of the jungle – the Golden Cat (Pardofelis temminckii). It’s a fairly easy species to catch on camera-trap, but this was the first time we saw one sitting right in front of the camera, happily grooming itself without a care in the world, just like a house cat – which is why we simply couldn’t resist showing you this charming video!

More updates coming soon…

Special update: Terengganu protects flying foxes!

We’ve got some happy news from Malaysia to help celebrate the Year of the Bat! We’re very pleased to announce that the state government of Terengganu in Peninsular Malaysia has just agreed to protect flying foxes!

Under Peninsular Malaysia’s Wildlife Conservation Act 2010, flying foxes can be legally hunted by applying for a licence from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN). Concerned by the amount of flying foxes being shot by hunters for sport and fun, we submitted a proposal and met with the state executive councillor in charge of environmental affairs. We lobbied for a moratorium on hunting flying fox in the state. We argued that these wonderful creatures need to be given better protection.

And the state government said yes!

From now on, indefinitely, the Terengganu PERHILITAN will no longer issue licences for people to hunt flying fox. They have also been directed to beef up monitoring and enforcement, and to gazette roost sites and important flying fox habitat (e.g. swamps) for protection.

Bats-1; Hunters-0. Thank you Datuk Toh Chin Yaw!!! And thank you PERHILITAN!

We asked the wonderful folks at the environmental desk of The Star if they could help us highlight the issue. They decided to give it extensive coverage. Read more about it here:

Terengganu bans hunting of flying fox

Gliding towards the brink

Hunting rules

The timing of this positive development couldn’t be better. Did you know that 2011-2012 has been declared the Year of the Bat??? Click on the official logo below to find out more about it and what’s being done across the globe to help bats!