Pulau Jong is alive!
wild shores of singapore
Read more!
Singapore launches S$150m research initiative to improve living environment
Rachel Phua Channel NewsAsia 29 Jun 17;
SINGAPORE: The Ministry of National Development (MND) launched a S$150 million initiative on Thursday (Jun 29) aimed at developing Singapore’s urban planning research capabilities.
The initiative, called the Cities of Tomorrow R&D Programme (CoT), aims to address key challenges facing Singapore such as climate change, ageing infrastructure, resource constraints and demand for space. CoT will support basic research, applied research, and small-scale demonstration projects, the ministry added.
Speaking at the opening of the fourth Urban Sustainability R&D Congress on Thursday, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said the research under CoT will help Singapore deal with the "increasing complexities" of running a city-state, which require greater coordination and better integration of research efforts.
“We’re also looking for research that can be translated from the lab to real-world deployment … so as to reap tangible social and economic benefits,” he added.
Funding for the project will come from the S$900 million allocated to the Urban Solutions and Sustainability sector under the S$19 billion Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020 plan announced last year.
The programme will be a multi-agency effort led by MND, and focus on six research areas: Advanced construction, resilient infrastructure, new spaces, greater sustainability, urban environment analytics and complexity science for urban solutions.
For example, under the "new spaces" theme, researchers can look at how to develop tools to improve underground mapping accuracy or reduce the cost of developing underground. They can also look at how to move functions such as utilities, warehousing and storage facilities underground in order to free up surface land for other activities.
At the congress, the Housing and Development Board will also sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Imperial College London and A*STAR’s Institute for Infocomm Research.
They will collaborate on a research project to expand the capabilities of sensor networks, strengthen the use of analytics and predictive modelling for better planning and resource optimisation in an urban environment, optimise estate maintenance and enhance the quality of the living environment, MND said.
S$150m set aside to create ‘Cities of Tomorrow’: Lawrence Wong
NEO CHAI CHIN Today Online 29 Jun 17;
Singapore – The Government will set aside S$150 million to conduct research and development on construction and infrastructure, and create new spaces and a more resource-efficient living environment integrated with nature.
Announcing the new initiative called the Cities of Tomorrow on Thursday (June 29), Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong said the S$150 million kitty will come from the S$900 million set aside for Urban Solutions and Sustainability under Singapore's Research Innovation and Enterprise 2020 plan. Announced last year, the plan sets aside S$19 billion to drive innovation in Singapore's economy and society.
Firstly, research and development (R&D) on advanced construction and resilient infrastructure will boost construction productivity and use smart technologies to maintain buildings well, said Mr Wong, who was speaking at the Urban Sustainability R&D Congress organised by his ministry with 16 government agencies, involving more than 1,000 participants from government, research institutes and the private sector.
For example, the Housing and Development Board is looking at ways to move towards a more predictive and proactive approach to maintain towns and estates, using sensors, the Internet of Things and big data. It will sign a memorandum of understanding with Imperial College London and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research for its project.
Secondly, research into new spaces aims to create more usable underground and sea space in a cost-effective and environmentally sensitive way.
Singapore's priority is to move functions like utilities, warehousing and storage facilities underground to free up more land on the surface. Safety is a key aspect, and research is being done by JTC and Nanyang Technological University on life and structural fire safety of underground caverns.
The third key R&D area of the Cities of Tomorrow programme will be on building a more sustainable city. Research will delve into ways to enable residents to interact closely with greenery, and live in a cooler and quieter environment.
For example, the Building and Construction Authority and National University of Singapore are working on nanocomposite films that can convert heat to energy for more effective indoor cooling in the tropics while improving air quality.
Cities of Tomorrow will enable Singapore to deal with the increasing complexities of running a city state, said Mr Wong. This requires greater coordination and better integration of research efforts to reap synergies, he said.
Read more!
Cambodia conservationists find rare cache of crocodile eggs
Associated Press Yahoo News 28 Jun 17;
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Wildlife researchers in Cambodia say they've found a clutch of eggs from one of the world's most endangered crocodiles, raising hopes of its continuing survival in the wild.
The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society said in a statement Wednesday that its researchers, along with Fisheries Administration employees and local residents, found six eggs of the Siamese Crocodile in Sre Ambel District in the southern province of Koh Kong as they were exploring for tracks, signs and dung of the reptile. It said it was the first Siamese Crocodile nest recorded in six years of research and protection in the Sre Ambel area.
The group says the crocodile, with an estimated global population of around 410, is found only in Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, with the greatest number in Cambodia. The species is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature because its numbers are rapidly shrinking
"To avoid any threats, we moved the eggs to a safe place to hatch and track their progress," the statement quoted In Hul, a staff member of the Fisheries Administration, as saying.
Such threats, said the statement, "include illegal hunting of adults and hatchlings and collecting of eggs to supply crocodile farms in Cambodia and Thailand, especially during the last two decades."
Other threats include the "degradation of habitats, decrease of natural food, low chance of breeding in the wild due to low number of individuals in the wild and weak law enforcement such as regulations on crocodile farming and trading."
Read more!
A million bottles a minute: world's plastic binge 'as dangerous as climate change'
Annual consumption of plastic bottles is set to top half a trillion by 2021, far outstripping recycling efforts and jeopardising oceans, coastlines and other environments
Sandra Laville and Matthew Taylor The Guardian 28 Jun 17;
A million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute and the number will jump another 20% by 2021, creating an environmental crisis some campaigners predict will be as serious as climate change.
New figures obtained by the Guardian reveal the surge in usage of plastic bottles, more than half a trillion of which will be sold annually by the end of the decade.
The demand, equivalent to about 20,000 bottles being bought every second, is driven by an apparently insatiable desire for bottled water and the spread of a western, urbanised “on the go” culture to China and the Asia Pacific region.
More than 480bn plastic drinking bottles were sold in 2016 across the world, up from about 300bn a decade ago. If placed end to end, they would extend more than halfway to the sun. By 2021 this will increase to 583.3bn, according to the most up-to-date estimates from Euromonitor International’s global packaging trends report.
Most plastic bottles used for soft drinks and water are made from polyethylene terephthalate (Pet), which is highly recyclable. But as their use soars across the globe, efforts to collect and recycle the bottles to keep them from polluting the oceans, are failing to keep up.
Fewer than half of the bottles bought in 2016 were collected for recycling and just 7% of those collected were turned into new bottles. Instead most plastic bottles produced end up in landfill or in the ocean.
Between 5m and 13m tonnes of plastic leaks into the world’s oceans each year to be ingested by sea birds, fish and other organisms, and by 2050 the ocean will contain more plastic by weight than fish, according to research by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Experts warn that some of it is already finding its way into the human food chain.
Scientists at Ghent University in Belgium recently calculated people who eat seafood ingest up to 11,000 tiny pieces of plastic every year. Last August, the results of a study by Plymouth University reported plastic was found in a third of UK-caught fish, including cod, haddock, mackerel and shellfish. Last year, the European Food Safety Authority called for urgent research, citing increasing concern for human health and food safety “given the potential for microplastic pollution in edible tissues of commercial fish”.
Dame Ellen MacArthur, the round the world yachtswoman, now campaigns to promote a circular economy in which plastic bottles are reused, refilled and recycled rather than used once and thrown away.
“Shifting to a real circular economy for plastics is a massive opportunity to close the loop, save billions of dollars, and decouple plastics production from fossil fuel consumption,” she said.
Hugo Tagholm, of the marine conservation and campaigning group Surfers Against Sewage, said the figures were devastating. “The plastic pollution crisis rivals the threat of climate change as it pollutes every natural system and an increasing number of organisms on planet Earth.
“Current science shows that plastics cannot be usefully assimilated into the food chain. Where they are ingested they carry toxins that work their way on to our dinner plates.” Surfers Against Sewage are campaigning for a refundable deposit scheme to be introduced in the UK as a way of encouraging reuse.
Tagholm added: “Whilst the production of throwaway plastics has grown dramatically over the last 20 years, the systems to contain, control, reuse and recycle them just haven’t kept pace.”
In the UK 38.5m plastic bottles are used every day – only just over half make it to recycling, while more than 16m are put into landfill, burnt or leak into the environment and oceans each day.
“Plastic production is set to double in the next 20 years and quadruple by 2050 so the time to act is now,” said Tagholm.
There has been growing concern about the impact of plastics pollution in oceans around the world. Last month scientists found nearly 18 tonnes of plastic on one of the world’s most remote islands, an uninhabited coral atoll in the South Pacific.
Another study of remote Arctic beaches found they were also heavily polluted with plastic, despite small local populations. And earlier this week scientists warned that plastic bottles and other packaging are overrunning some of the UK’s most beautiful beaches and remote coastline, endangering wildlife from basking sharks to puffins.
The majority of plastic bottles used across the globe are for drinking water, , according to Rosemary Downey, head of packaging at Euromonitor and one of the world’s experts in plastic bottle production.
China is responsible for most of the increase in demand. The Chinese public’s consumption of bottled water accounted for nearly a quarter of global demand, she said.
“It is a critical country to understand when examining global sales of plastic Pet bottles, and China’s requirement for plastic bottles continues to expand,” said Downey.
In 2015, consumers in China purchased 68.4bn bottles of water and in 2016 this increased to 73.8bn bottles, up 5.4bn.
A worker sorts plastic bottles at a recycling centre on the outskirts of Wuhan, Hubei province, China
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
A worker sorts plastic bottles at a recycling centre on the outskirts of Wuhan, Hubei province, China. Photograph: Jie Zhao/Corbis/Getty Images
“This increase is being driven by increased urbanisation,” said Downey. “There is a desire for healthy living and there are ongoing concerns about groundwater contamination and the quality of tap water, which all contribute to the increase in bottle water use,” she said. India and Indonesia are also witnessing strong growth.
Plastic bottles are a big part of the huge surge in usage of a material first popularised in the 1940s. Most of the plastic produced since then still exists; the petrochemical-based compound takes hundreds of years to decompose.
Plastic population
Major drinks brands produce the greatest numbers of plastic bottles. Coca-Cola produces more than 100bn throwaway plastic bottles every year – or 3,400 a second, according to analysis carried out by Greenpeace after the company refused to publicly disclose its global plastic usage. The top six drinks companies in the world use a combined average of just 6.6% of recycled Pet in their products, according to Greenpeace. A third have no targets to increase their use of recycled plastic and none are aiming to use 100% across their global production.
Plastic drinking bottles could be made out of 100% recycled plastic, known as RPet – and campaigners are pressing big drinks companies to radically increase the amount of recycled plastic in their bottles. But brands are hostile to using RPet for cosmetic reasons because they want their products in shiny, clear plastic, according to Steve Morgan, of Recoup in the UK.
In evidence to a House of Commons committee, the British Plastics Federation (BPF), a plastics trade body, admitted that making bottles out of 100% recycled plastic used 75% less energy than creating virgin plastic bottles. But the BPF said that brands should not be forced to increase the recycled content of bottles. “The recycled content ... can be up to 100%, however this is a decision made by brands based on a variety of factors,” said Philip Law, director general of the BPF.
The industry is also resisting any taxes or charges to reduce demand for single-use plastic bottles – like the 5p charge on plastic bags that is credited with reducing plastic bag use by 80%.
Coca Cola said it was still considering requests from Greenpeace to publish its global plastics usage. A spokeswoman said: “Globally, we continue to increase the use of recycled plastic in countries where it is feasible and permitted. We continue to increase the use of RPet in markets where it is feasible and approved for regulatory food-grade use – 44 countries of the more than 200 we operate in.”
She agreed plastic bottles could be made out of 100 percent recycled plastic but there was nowhere near enough high quality food grade plastic available on the scale that was needed to increase the quantity of rPET to that level.
“So if we are to increase the amount of recycled plastic in our bottles even further then a new approach is needed to create a circular economy for plastic bottles,” she said.
Greenpeace said the big six drinks companies had to do more to increase the recycled content of their plastic bottles. “During Greenpeace’s recent expedition exploring plastic pollution on remote Scottish coastlines, we found plastic bottles nearly everywhere we went,” said Louisa Casson, oceans campaigner for Greenpeace.
“It’s clear that the soft drinks industry needs to reduce its plastic footprint.”
Read more!
World has three years left to stop dangerous climate change, warn experts
Former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres among signatories of letter warning that the next three years will be crucial to stopping the worst effects of global warming
Fiona Harvey The Guardian 28 Jun 17;
Avoiding dangerous levels of climate change is still just about possible, but will require unprecedented effort and coordination from governments, businesses, citizens and scientists in the next three years, a group of prominent experts has warned.
Warnings over global warming have picked up pace in recent months, even as the political environment has grown chilly with Donald Trump’s formal announcement of the US’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement. This year’s weather has beaten high temperature records in some regions, and 2014, 2015 and 2016 were the hottest years on record.
But while temperatures have risen, global carbon dioxide emissions have stayed broadly flat for the past three years. This gives hope that the worst effects of climate change – devastating droughts, floods, heatwaves and irreversible sea level rises – may be avoided, according to a letter published in the journal Nature this week.
The authors, including former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, argue that the next three years will be crucial. They calculate that if emissions can be brought permanently lower by 2020 then the temperature thresholds leading to runaway irreversible climate change will not be breached.
Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, under whom the Paris agreement was signed, said: “We stand at the doorway of being able to bend the emissions curve downwards by 2020, as science demands, in protection of the UN sustainable development goals, and in particular the eradication of extreme poverty. This monumental challenge coincides with an unprecedented openness to self-challenge on the part of sub-national governments inside the US, governments at all levels outside the US, and of the private sector in general. The opportunity given to us over the next three years is unique in history.”
Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, added: “The maths is brutally clear: while the world can’t be healed within the next few years, it may be fatally wounded by negligence [before] 2020.”
Scientists have been warning that time is fast running out to stave off the worst effects of warming, and some milestones may have slipped out of reach. In the Paris agreement, governments pledged an “aspirational” goal of holding warming to no more than 1.5C, a level which it is hoped will spare most of the world’s lowest-lying islands from inundation. But a growing body of research has suggested this is fast becoming impossible.
Paris’s less stringent, but firmer, goal of preventing warming from exceeding 2C above pre-industrial levels is also in doubt.
The authors point to signs that the trend of upward emissions is being reversed, and to technological progress that promises lower emissions for the future. Renewable energy use has soared, creating a foundation for permanently lowering emissions. Coal use is showing clear signs of decline in key regions, including China and India. Governments, despite Trump’s pronouncements, are forging ahead with plans to reduce greenhouse gases.
The authors called for political and business leaders to continue tackling emissions and meeting the Paris goals without the US. “As before Paris, we must remember that impossible is not a fact, it’s an attitude,” they wrote.
They set out six goals for 2020 which they said could be adopted at the G20 meeting in Hamburg on 7-8 July. These include increasing renewable energy to 30% of electricity use; plans from leading cities and states to decarbonise by 2050; 15% of new vehicles sold to be electric; and reforms to land use, agriculture, heavy industry and the finance sector, to encourage green growth.
Prof Gail Whiteman said the signs from technical innovation and economics were encouraging: “Climate science underlines the unavoidable urgency of our challenge, but equally important is the fact that the economic, technical and social analyses show that we can resoundingly rise to the challenge through collective action.”
While the greenhouse gases poured into the atmosphere over the last two centuries have only gradually taken effect, future changes are likely to be faster, scientists fear. Johan Rockström of the Stockholm Resilience Centre said: “We have been blessed by a remarkably resilient planet over the past 100 years, able to absorb most of our climate abuse. Now we have reached the end of this era, and need to bend the global curve of emissions immediately, to avoid unmanageable outcomes for our modern world.”
Read more!
Malaysia: Critically-endangered hawksbill turtle rescued at Melaka beach
Kelly Koh New Straits Times 28 Jun 17;
MELAKA: A hawksbill turtle was found stranded on the shores of Pulau Melaka here, yesterday evening.
A member of the public who was fishing nearby found the turtle, which is listed as a critically-endangered species, in difficulty among some rubbish and rocks.
The man then alerted the Civil Defence Department (APM).
Melaka Tengah district civil defence officer Capt (PA) Aljibin Suddin said four APM personnel rushed to the scene and arrived at 5.44pm.
“The turtle was trapped behind some rocks. We believe that it became stranded because of the high tide,” he said.
APM personnel took an hour to rescue the turtle. It was then released back into the sea.
Melaka is the biggest nesting population in Peninsular Malaysia for the critically endangered hawksbill turtle, with average of between 400 and 450 nestings annually.
Read more!
Malaysia: Rescued green sea turtles in Mabul released into the wild
KRISTY INUS New Straits Times 28 Jun 17;
SEMPORNA: Two rescued green sea turtles were successfully released back to the sea in a ceremony at Mabul island here last weekend, after being in the care of the Mabul Turtle Rehabilitation Centre for a month.
The Sabah Wildlife Department’s Wildlife Rescue Unit (WRU), in a joint statement with the Scuba Junkie and Marine Research Foundation (MRF), said the turtles were successfully released with satellite tags on Saturday.
“The two turtles, in a weak state, were rescued back in May. They were cared for by the WRU.
“The turtles recuperated well under the critical care given by Scuba Junkie staff of the Mabul Turtle Rehabilitation Centre,” the statement said.
Before the release, the turtles were given a final medical check, tagged and also had satellite tags placed on them.
The satellite placement was done under collaboration with MRF executive director Dr Nicolas Pilcher.
Rescued green turtles released into the sea
RUBEN SARIO The Star 29 Jun 17;
KOTA KINABALU: Two rescued green turtles have been nursed back to health and released into the sea near the diving haven of Pulau Mabul in Sabah’s east coast.
The turtles, weakened by illness, were found in May and since then have been nursed back to health by the Sabah Wildlife Department’s Wildlife Rescue Unit (WRU) personnel, WRU acting manager Dr Diana Ramirez said.
They were kept at the Mabul Turtle Rehabilitation Centre and also cared by staff of diving operator Scuba Junkie SEAS for nearly two months before their release on Saturday, she said.
Before their release, both turtles were given a final medical check and WRU personnel placed satellite tracking tags on them.
The tagging was a collaboration between the Wildlife Department and NGO Marine Research Foundation (MRF).
MRF director Dr Nicholas Pilcher said the tracking of the rehabilitated turtles would enable researchers to see how well they re-adapt in the natural environment.
“It will also let us know the areas the turtles inhabit, allowing us to concentrate conservation efforts in those areas,” Dr Pilcher added.
Scuba Junkie SEAS conservation manager David McCann said it was the responsibility of dive operators to promote marine conservation and protect endangered species such as turtles.
“This is why we have a turtle hatchery and rehabilitation centre. It allows us to contribute to turtle conservation in this area in a practical manner,” he said.
Dr Ramirez said partnerships between the unit and the private sector such as Scuba Junkie and NGOs such as MRF augured well for conservation efforts.
Read more!
Malaysia: PhD student first Malaysian to get UK award for hornbill research
AIDA AHMAD The Star 28 Jun 17;
THE floor of the dense forest off the Kinabatangan River in Sabah is the playground for Ravinder Kaur, who maps her grid in search of natural cavities for hornbills among the thickets of the big trees.
She eats, sleeps and breathes hornbills, and for good reason too, as she and her team have just been honoured with the 2017 Future Conservationist Award by UK-based Conservation Leadership Programme, the only Malaysian to receive the award for 2017.
Her hornbill project is a long-term commitment towards building artificial nesting boxes for hornbills and studying the nest-hole crisis.
Her focus is now on Kinabatangan, in Sandakan, Sabah. It is a degraded forest, she said, as there was a lack of big trees, but it is also a regenerating forest.
“We find bigger species of hornbills living here,” she said, referring to the Rhinoceros and Helmeted Hornbills.
Helmeted Hornbills are heavily hunted in Indonesia for their solid keratin casques, worth four times more than an elephant’s tusks, while other hornbills have a hollow casque.
The illegal demand for this “red ivory” has the independent campaigning organisation Environmental Investigation Agency investigating it as a threat.
Together with her husband, multi-award-winning wildlife photographer Sanjitpaal Singh, Ravinder actively seeks out natural cavities in the trees.
So far, the ones they found could only accommodate the smaller species such as the Oriental Pied and Bushy Crested Hornbill.
In Kinabatangan, 27,000ha of the lower floodplain have been gazetted as the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary since 2005.
“That is a great step but they are conserving a forest that is highly degraded because of intense logging.
“The patch of primary forest is only about 15,000ha.
“We have to do something. With the lack of natural cavities, building nest boxes is the best option,” Ravinder said.
Being secondary hole-nesters, hornbills do not create tree cavities. They are dependent on primary cavity-nesting birds such as woodpeckers or naturally occurring cavities for their breeding needs, she explained.
Ravinder and Sanjit have come to the conclusion that natural cavities don’t last long.
They are susceptible to issues such as the tree falling, the cavity floor caving in or the nesting hole closing up, in other words, when the tree heals itself.
“We restore these cavities and plan to look for unoccupied natural cavities to ‘renovate’ them to become hornbill suitable.
“It is not good if the entrance is too big, because Rhinoceros Hornbills prefer narrow, vertical entrances, which can also deter other creatures such as monitor lizards from going in,” Ravinder said, adding that the Helmeted Hornbill needs a specific, knob-shaped nest hole, often found in 50m high trees.
“Normal nests won’t work because its casque is solid, and it needs to perch on the protrusion,” she said.
In 2013, five artificial nest boxes, courtesy of French non-governmental organisation HUTAN, as well as Chester Zoo and Beauval Zoo from the UK and France, respectively, were set up along the river in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Reserve.
They were made from plastic drums coated with cement, inspired by the ones in zoos overseas and Ravinder took on the task to monitor them.
She said they saw four species of hornbills visiting the boxes, and one female Oriental Pied tried to seal itself in by using mud on the entrance. Wasps also took over one of the holes and there were problems of other creatures crowding the space.
“The camera trap facing the box entrance was pushed up by monkeys so we have no idea the outcome of that, or whether the nesting was successful,” said Sanjit.
Unfortunately, the drums were not suitable for the birds as the interior temperature was too hot at more than 35°C.
“From the photos, it’s like the hornbills are saying ‘we are interested but they are not suitable. Work harder’,” Ravinder laughed.
Their next attempt was to build an artificial nest box made from marine wood with the local community in Sukau, attached with camera traps with motion sensors and data loggers to monitor the microclimate conditions.
Last month, the two new boxes were placed 20m above the ground in trees with the help of volunteers.
In natural cavities, the temperature is pleasant and “hornbill-suitable”, ranging between 25°C to 27°C, all day.
With the thicker and heavier nest boxes that weigh up to 100kg each, they provide a better climate for the hornbills as it offers protection from harsh sunlight.
Hard work it is, but Ravinder’s conservation battle goes hand-in-hand with her PhD thesis, of which some chapters include building nesting boxes for hornbills and monitoring their natural cavities and nesting behaviour.
So far, there have not been any systematic studies done to estimate the population of hornbills in Malaysia.
Some of the findings from the river surveys are also flawed.
“If you go around the river looking for hornbills, some species may be more common than others, such as the Oriental Pied Hornbill, which prefers the edge of the jungle.
“We could be missing species that prefer the interior. We need better population estimates and not just boat surveys.”
“In Kinabatangan, you may not be able to see any Helmeted Hornbills between 7am and 9am.
“We went out at 5am and we saw four of the birds,” Ravinder said, adding that the eight hornbill species in Borneo all have different biological behaviours,” Ravinder said.
The only Malaysian representing Asia at the recent international congress on Plants and Knowledge organised by French non-governmental organisation Plante et Planete, Sanjit presented his point of view as a photographer showcasing Malaysia’s natural heritage, and how research and art go together.
Of course, observing how the nest cavities change over time can only be done through photographs.
“I do this not so much for monetary gains but to help Ravinder and as my contribution to science and conservation,” Sanjit said.
He considers himself as the awareness arm of his wife’s hornbill project, to which Ravinder gladly agreed.
“Great photos appeal to potential funders as well,” she said.
For more information, visit xploregaia.com and jitspics.com
Behold, hornbills in TTDI
VIJENTHI NAIR The Star 28 Jun 17;
WHO would have thought a bustling city such as Kuala Lumpur could be a natural habitat for hornbills.
A pair of oriental pied hornbills have been roosting in Taman Rimba Kiara, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, for at least a decade now.
Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) president Henry Goh, who is also a birdwatcher, said the hornbills were among 42 bird species found in the park.
“Back then, there was an unlikely pair of hornbills – an oriental pied and a black hornbill.
“Although they were of two different species, both got along very well and park goers often spotted the birds foraging for food together.
“The black hornbill went missing some years back and, shortly after, another oriental pied hornbill appeared.
“So, there is a pair of oriental pied hornbills in the park now, ” he said.
Goh said it was not uncommon to find these species in lowland forests such as Taman Rimba Kiara.
“Malaysia is home to 10 species of hornbills. These species can also be found in Taman Botani Shah Alam in Selangor, Taman Negara in Pahang, Belum-Temenggor in Perak and Tasik Kenyir in Terengganu, among others.
“However, what makes the sighting in Taman Rimba Kiara special is the fact that this park is smack in the middle of a bustling city.
“The hornbills used to roost overnight on a tree near a Hindu temple.
“In recent times, it will visit the park at different times of the day.
“Residents have reported seeing it in and around Taman Tun Dr Ismail.
“Its presence at any one location is unpredictable but from the past record of sightings, the park has the highest potential of getting a glimpse of it.
“It takes a lot of patience and may take two or more trips to spot the birds,” he said.
Goh said these hornbills were highly likely to have been displaced from Taman Botani Shah Alam, which has a number of oriental pied, black and rhinoceros hornbills.
“There was a fire in Taman Botani Shah Alam in the mid-1990s and it is highly likely for big birds to have flown out of the forest to escape the fire and ended up here. I think that was how these hornbills ended up here.
“Although there are not many fig trees, which the hornbills love, Taman Rimba Kiara has many mature green trees including fruit, berry and seed-bearing species, which serve as a food source for the many residents, as well as seasonal migratory birds.
“In the wild, the birds also prey on insects, small reptiles and anything they can find. This may have been the reason they decided to make the park their home.
“Sadly, both the oriental pied hornbills have white eyes, which means they are females.
“The most distinctive feature on a hornbill to determine its gender is its eyes – males have red eyes and females have white eyes.
“So, it explains why the adult hornbills have not bred. Chances for these birds to find a mate is also very slim in this forest.
“Having said that, I believe the black hornbill last spotted a few years ago was a male but there is no record of the two species of hornbills interbreeding in a natural setting,” he said, adding that hornbills can live between 30 and 35 years.
Hornbill conservationist Ravinder Kaur said it was also not unusual to spot a couple of the oriental pied and bushy-crested in secondary forests such as Taman Rimba Kiara and Taman Rimba Ampang.
“But because of rapid development, they are rarely seen nowadays. There are a few big trees for them to nest, roost and fewer food sources such as fig trees. They also need large areas to forage,” she said.
Another avid birdwatcher and Taman Rimba Kiara nature blogger Roselyn Chuah, 58, who lives very close to Taman Rimba Kiara, said she too regularly spotted the two oriental pied hornbills.
“They do fly towards the Taman Tun Dr Ismail side. Sometimes, you can hear them but you cannot see them. There used to be another Black Hornbill too but it has not been seen for a couple of years now.
“I live at the edge of the park and I do get a lot of bird sightings as the park is practically my backyard,” she said.
Long-time TTDI resident Amy J Delph, 45, said she first saw a hornbill at the night market last year.
“I was walking along Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad 2 when I saw people pointing to a tree.
“When I looked up, I saw a hornbill perched on top of a tree.
“I was pleasantly surprised by its presence as I have never seen one, although I have lived here for more than 15 years.
“It was not very big but the distinctive features such as the long beak, black feathers and white chest made it stand out.
“Everyone at the night market was in awe at the sight of the bird.
“After that incident, I never saw the bird again until March this year.
“I was with my children in Taman Bukit Kiara for a scouting activity when I heard a bird call. I knew it was no ordinary bird by the loud sound.
“Moments later, I saw it fly past above us,” she said.
A post on the hornbill sighting by Goh on Facebook garnered about 4,000 likes with many making their way to the park in hopes of spotting it.
One of them was another long-time Taman Tun Dr Ismail resident C.K. Chan.
“Like many people in the neighbourhood, I too was surprised by the sighting of the hornbill.
“My wife and I regularly walk near Taman Rimba Kiara but never saw it.
“Maybe I need to be more alert to its calls and bring a binoculars with me just in case.
“The news definitely raised my interest in looking out for the birds every time I walk near the park,” he said.
Melaka residents surprised to see hornbills
Kelly Koh New Straits Times 28 Jun 17;
Melaka: The recent sighting of three hornbills in the coastal housing estate of Ujong Pasir has bewildered residents here.
The birds, believed to be Oriental pied hornbills, were spotted a week ago by a resident in Taman Aman.
“I spotted the birds roosting on the roof of my terrace house and was quite surprised as they were hornbills,” a resident known as Tan, in her 40s, said at her home near here.
She said the birds later flew off and she thought that was the last she would see of them.
However, on Monday, Tan said the birds were spotted perched on the branches of a Neem tree in front of her home.
“I have never seen hornbills in the wild in Melaka before and wonder how they ended up here,” she added.
Danny Soon, 54, a Klang resident who was visiting his in-laws here, was also surprised to see the birds.
“I have been coming to Ujong Pasir for the last 30 years and this is the first time I have seen hornbills,” he said.
The New Straits Times went to visit the neighbourhood yesterday but the birds were nowhere in sight.
The hornbills were recorded in a 20-second video clip while on the Neem tree in the housing area.
The birds were black and white with large, light-coloured beaks, which fit the description of the Oriental pied hornbills.
This hornbill species can be found in habitats such as broad-leaved evergreen forests, mixed deciduous forests, and island forests.
This species is found in northern India, eastern Nepal, southern China, Myanmar, southern Thailand, Indochina, Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, Java and Bali.
Read more!
Vietnam: Central province to protect endangered langurs
VietNamNet Bridge 27 Jun 17;
The central province plans to protect a herd of gray-shanked douc langurs (pygathrix cinerea) who have lived in a forest in Nui Thanh for 10 years.
Head of Quang Nam Forest Protection sub-department, Phan Tuan told the Viet Nam News that the herd, which was estimated to number around 50 individuals, was found living in a 10ha forest in Dong Co Village of Tam My Tay Commune.
Tuan said local residents could see them at close range in a forest near Hon Do Mountain, but their habitat has become endangered due to logging.
He said the sub-department had warned local residents of the existence of the langurs and moved to protect the endangered primates.
“We advised the local administration and people to help with protecting the langurs, as their habitat is disappearing due to increased logging of acacia – one of the most profitable woods in the central region,” Tuan said.
“The province will allocate a special protection zone to limit human activities and prevent illegal hunting and logging in the area.”
According to Tran Huu Vy, director of the Centre of Biodiversity Conservation, GreenViet, the langurs need special protection at the site as rapid logging damages the habitat of the endangered primates.
Vy said the province should call on support from biologists, international organisations and wildlife protection programmes in sharing experience and scientific measures on how to protect the langurs from extinction.
He warned that moving the langurs to another area would be harmful, as the primates were used to the stable environment of their current habitat.
He said the habitat needs to be isolated from human activities.
Experts from the Frankfurt Zoological Society’s Viet Nam Primate Conservation Programme said around 1,000 gray-shanked doucs were recorded living in forests of five provinces, including Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Kon Tum and Gia Lai, and Gia Lai’s National Kon Ka Kinh Park preserves the largest number of langurs.
Expert Ha Thang Long, head of the representative office of the Frankfurt Zoological Society in Viet Nam, who is an authority on gray-shanked douc studies, said the gray-shanked douc langur is listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUNC) Red List as one of the world’s 25 Critically Endangered primates.
Long said the conservation programme to protect the primate species was launched in Kon Ka Kinh National Park in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai in 2006.
Long said biologists counted 250 langurs living in the park – the largest troop in Viet Nam.
Long said the Frankfurt Zoological Society provides funding of between US$18,000 and $25,000 a year to support rangers at eight stations in the park in protection of biodiversity and the langurs since 2010.
Illegal logging and hunting is seen as the biggest threat to endangered species in the central region.
Read more!
India: Management plan to protect, recover dugong
Ramanathapuram The Hindu 27 Jun 17;
To be implemented jointly with Forest department and NGOs
The Wildlife Institute of India (WII), which was implementing dugong recovery project in Gulf of Mannar, would make ready the management plan to protect the endangered species in the Gulf of Mannar in three months, K. Sivakumar, head and scientist, WII, said.
Addressing the first stakeholders’ consultation workshop here on Tuesday, he said the management plan of Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park and Biosphere Reserve would be implemented jointly with Tamil Nadu Forest department and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
The WII would make ready the management plan to protect and recover dugong, the endangered marine mammal, protected under schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 in the Gulf of Mannar region, he said.
As part of the recovery programme, WII proposed to protect and recover dugong in the Gulf of Mannar region and other endangered species such as Gangetic Dolphin in the Ganges and the Bramaputra and Great Indian Bustard in the western region.
“For the first time we have introduced incentive programme for fishermen who saved dugong if they were caught in their fishing nets,” he said.
Thanks to the awareness campaign launched by the Forest department under the Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Conservation and Greening project, fishermen in the region had released and saved dugong entangled in the fishing nets, he said.
The WII honoured the fishermen with cash award and merit certificates at the workshop, he added.
In a bid to sensitise the children of fishermen in the coastal areas to the project, the WII proposed to conduct competitive examinations on dugong and biosphere in the Gulf of Mannar next month and award ‘dugong scholarships’ for 50 children, he said.
The scholarship would be paid for two years and each selected child would be given monthly scholarship of ₹500, Mr Sivakumar said. “Next year, we will extend the scholarship programme to cover 50 more children,” he said adding the examinations would be open to class IX and XI students.
The dugong scholarship and fishermen incentive programmes had been designed to motivate the fisher folk in protecting and saving the endangered species, he said. The dugong recovery project would be implemented for five years in the first phase, he said. The workshop was attended among others by Deepak S Bilgi, Wildlife Warden, Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park, and scientists from various research institutions.
Read more!
Best of our wild blogs: 27 Jun 17
Pulau Sekudu is alive!
wild shores of singapore
Logging in Malaysia’s Ulu Muda forest threatens wildlife and water supplies
mongabay.com
Read more!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
visitors since Nov 07