My Big Playground - Jungle and Rivers of Borneo! by Michael Lo

My Big Playground - Jungle and Rivers of Borneo!

by Michael Lo
of Sarawak, Malaysia
From his website: http://www.ibanorum.netfirms.com
Aquarticles

When I was 4 or 5 years old I lived in a wooden house near a Malay village, and I started to develop an interest in small insects and invertebrates. There was much wildlife to observe in that area, since at that time most of Kuching was still underdeveloped.

When I was in junior school I began to collect butterflies, moths and insects. I even tried to preserve a dead bird I found near the roadside. I loved the epiphyte plants growing on the trees, and started to search for those plants in my junior school compound and planted them at home. I loved gardening too.

During my early teenage years I read a lot of books about the jungle, and began to explore the "jungle" near my grandmom's house. It was an abandoned rubber plantation, and a secondary forest was growing there. I found a lot of interesting wildlife and plants inside that "jungle." I also collected fish in the forest streams. One day I went to find the waterhead and was shocked to find that it was polluted because of a few poultry farms located there! Luckily I did not swim in the jungle stream, although it looked very "clean" to me. I was disappointed, and I started to become aware of environmental issues. That was my first "playground," and the place where I first encountered wild mammals - two species of big civet cats.

I still remember some things that happened in my childhood and teenage years, such as when I was stung on my neck by a swarm of bees when I was trying to catch white-breasted waterhen chicks (Amaurornis phoenicurus), or when my leg accidentally touched some caterpillars in the jungle and caused such intense pain in my leg that I could hardly walk! These were bad experiences and yet I still loved Mother Nature so much !

During high school I learnt to drive, and began to explore further and further. I went to search for caves, waterfalls and deserted beaches in remote areas around Kuching.

Exploring a cave 12 miles from Kuching with my friends when I was about 18.

CLICK ON THUMBNAILS FOR ENLARGEMENTS, THEN GO "BACK."

Then I spent 7 years in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, in peninsula Malaysia. I did not explore much of the jungle there. Most of the area is developed, so if I wanted to explore I would have had to travel very far away from the city.

After returning to Kuching, East Malaysia in Borneo, I did not explore much at first. I only started to explore the jungle and the jungle streams to look for fish and aquatic plants when I faced some emotional stresses. That was during the Dry Season 2003, my most depressing time. I found peace of mind each time I visited Mother Nature. When I acquired my first digital camera I started to learn photography. From then on I took hundreds of photos of wildlife and Mother Nature herself.

I found out that different species of flora and fauna can be found in different types of habitats. There are many types of forest in Borneo. Some of the flora and fauna are endemic to certain areas only, and because of that, some of the wildlife is rare and endangered. Once humans come to develop a piece of land, or land is cleared for agriculture purposes, those species may become extinct due to human activities. The majority of people in developing countries do not really care much about extinctions of flora and fauna as long as they get food to eat and money for a better life. They are paying a very heavy price for the destruction of the environment. The next generation is the one that will suffer the most.

One of the interesting places in Borneo is the peat swamp forest. There I find lots of beautiful fishes and most of them are very colourful! I also find a lot of different species of aquatic plants. It is not easy to walk in the peat swamp. The peat soil is very soft and smells bad, and you will get very dirty if you walk in it. Worse still are the "blood sucker" leeches that can be found almost everywhere in the swampy area! I hate this creature because it looks gross and sucks lot of your blood! The water in the peat swamp forest is black coloured and very acidic (low pH).

Another place blackwater can be found is Kerangas Forest. The soil of this forest is very sandy, and poor in nutrients. This is a better place to collect fish as the soil is not too soft and it's much cleaner than the peat swamp. This is also the place where you can find those beautiful pitcher plants! The pitcher plant is a carnivorous plant!

A neon coloured fish called Sundadanio axelrodi, found in peat swamp blackwater streams and Kerangas Forest of Borneo.

The most exciting place to collect fish is in brackish water, where you need to watch out for crocodiles. Most of the brackish fish are difficult to keep in aquariums. You need to add some salt in order to keep them healthy. I have found a lot of colourful gobies in brackish water streams.

In the fast-flowing clearwater streams I have found other species of fish which do not live in blackwater or brackish water streams, such as the funny looking Borneo sucker, and hillstream loaches. You do not find many aquatic plants in fast-flowing streams because they would be washed away too easily.

Borneo sucker

Most of the aquatic plants, such as Cryptocoryne species, are found in slow moving, blackwater streams.

Rainforest and a jungle stream of Borneo

The wild betta is one of my favorite fish. They are not fast swimmers like rasboras or barbs, hence they are endemic to only certain areas of Borneo. Most of them do not like hard alkaline water, so you won't find them in limestone areas, except for some very unique species which can adapt to hard water, such as Betta taeniata.

If you are interested in snails, you can find different species of snails in limestone areas. Snails need calcium to develop their shells, and to obtain calcium they prefer to eat plants which grow in high calcium areas on limestone hills. According to a friend of mine who is a mollusc expert, some species of snail are endemic to just one particular limestone hill only. If people were to clear a hill for agriculture or mining purposes, the snails on that particular hill would be gone forever. Unfortunately, most people do not care about this small problem, and every year a few species of flora and fauna become extinct due to loss of habitat or other reasons due to human activity.

As I get closer and closer to Mother Nature, I feel sad that She is not as healthy as before.

Every single creature created by God has its own purpose in this world. Once one species of flora or fauna becomes extinct, there is an imbalance in the ecosystem, which can be a problem or a disaster for other species whose survival was dependant on the extinct species. For instance, if a wild betta in a slow moving stream in a peat swamp area disappears due to pollution caused by humans, there will be no other species in the wild to control mosquitoes. (Assuming the water is so polluted that no larvae eating creatures, including bettas, can survive). Humans destroy the ecosystem, but in the end they are the ones who suffer when diseases such as malaria or dengue fever get out of control! Perhaps there are other ways to control these diseases, but I believe natural biological control is the best.

Most people believe that flora and fauna of value should be protected. Value to them is contribution to human society. For example, some herbs found in the jungle with pharmaceutical value to humans should particularly be protected because they are valuable to humans. However, even this does not always occur. Large areas of jungle may be cleared for development or for other purposes before scientists are able to do their research. Some species are endemic (localised) to single areas and they may be gone for ever before we have the chance to get to know more about those species. Despite the designation of Forest Reserves and National Parks in recent years, some wildlife species are only found outside these protected zones, and are still facing extinction.

Trees are being cut down because they have commercial value. But it would take hundreds or thousands of years for those trees to grow back as they were. By that time, our world will be polluted and the climate will have changed drastically due to this deforestation. Less trees mean our world is getting hotter, and with less oxygen (which is produced by trees during the photosynthesis process).

Erosion is another problem caused by deforestation. When there is no tree cover, the ground is exposed to erosion especially during the rainy season. Waters become very turbid, and some fishes in clearwater rivers are very sensitive to this, and their gills cannot function properly. Hence some may face extinction. Reduction of fish means reduction of protein food for people living near rivers. But in the end who should be blamed for all the changes?

A tree standing alone where all the other trees have been cleared for large scale agriculture.

Shifting cultivation or slash and burn agriculture has long been practised by farmers in Borneo. In the past when the population was very low, this was sustainable. Now, population is increasing and more and more forest is being cleared for agricultural purposes, which has become a problem not just for the wildlife but for humans too. The smoke has caused the air quality to drop to a very dangerous level, and every year during the dry season a lot of people in Borneo have breathing difficulties. Some of the airports are closed temporarily because visibility is too low for aircraft to take off or land.

Clearing the forest for shifting cultivation or slash and burn agriculture.

In the next few years I will dedicate some of my time to exploring and photographing the flora and fauna that I find in Borneo, before some of the rare species are gone forever.