Kinabalu Plants

Mount Kinabalu goes through 5 different vegetation zones, one of which is intermixed mossy forest with ultramafic soils.  Ultramafic soils are high in metals that are toxic to most plants, so unique plants grow in these soils - like pitcher plants!

This is a Rajah's pitcher plant.  They're the biggest species of pitcher plant, and they're beautiful!  Rajah's pitcher plants are endangered and are found only on Mount Kinabalu.  This one is ~10 inches long.  Pitcher plants are carnivorous, mainly digesting insects that fall in the "pitcher," but they're not picky and can even digest frogs and mice.  The large pitchers like this are quite old, possibly ~80 years.

We also saw lots of orchids (there are over 800 types on Kinabalu).  Many of them are epiphytes, meaning that they're not rooted in the ground but instead grow in moss along branches or trunks of trees, or in the crook where a limb meets the trunk.  I must have walked past hundreds of plants that weren't in bloom before they were pointed out to me.  A lot of them are surprisingly small!  I don't remember what this one was called but I liked the pic...  

Mount Kinabalu

So I'm a bit behind on the posting, but we just got back from Kinabalu.  It was great!  It's the fourth highest peak in SE Asia, and you don't need anything more than some determination to get to the top of Low's Peak (the main one).  There's tons of granite there, so if you'd like something more challenging I don't thing think that would be a problem.  

Mt Kinabalu hosts an impressive botanical display, there are between 5,000 and 6,000 species on the mountain!  There are over 800 orchid species, over 600 fern species, and is famous for its pitcher plants.  

Our first day we hiked up to a rest house at around 3,200 meters.  The trail was super, about 8km long and through tons of interesting stuff.  Here are a few pics from along the way.  Once you got out of the montane forest, there was some really neat vegetation.  The bright green trees are podocarps (southern hemisphere conifers).

They're pretty neat, they have that stunted, almost bonsai look.

A little further along and you get into the mossy forest, where trees have thick moss layers and lots of vines.

After about 6hrs of hiking, birdwatching, snacking, and general enjoyment, Kim and I reached the rest house at ~3,200m.

And there was a nice view of where we were headed the next day!  ok, so I can't actually find the pic of Kinabalu, but here are a few adjacent peaks.

The next day, we left pretty early to see sunrise from the top of Kinabalu.   It was great - lots of granite slab to walk up and a super-good time.  There were a ton of people... but I'm not sure there's any way to avoid that?  You're only allowed to head up w. guides, and you can only summit pretty early in the morning (you have to pass a checkpoint by 4:30am).  We got there early enough to shiver for an hour or so and watch stars before the sun came up.  I got to see the southern cross!  Here's a shot of some of us at the top: Kim, Ed, myself, Stephanie, Nathan, and Peggy in the front.

A neat place, Kinabalu was recently designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  If you get the chance to go, I definitely recommend it!

tree climbing and bird watching

We have to do a project for the tropical ecology field course I'm taking.  I've always wanted to learn about birds but have never really motivated to do it, so I though I could use this opportunity to work on my birding skills.  Brian is really pretty good with birds and was game to work on this with me, so I even have a tutor!

We've been birdwatching from different locations in primary and secondary forests and will see if there's a difference in the number or type of species in these two habitats.  A great way to bird around here at the Danum Valley Field Center is to use observation platforms to get up above the canopy.  It's amazingly hard to see things from the ground here...

Here's a look at a platform in primary forest.  This one is about 30m up, and you climb ladders attached to the tree to get to it.  

The view once you're up is amazing.  Yesterday, we were up to the top by 6am to catch the sunrise.  I think if you were good at identifying birds by call, this would be a fantastic time to be up in the platform.  There's little overlap between AK and Borneo, so Brian didn't know many of the calls, and I was way out of my league trying to id by sound.

The next platform we hit was in secondary forest. Climbing was a trip!  There was the same system of ladders attached to the tree, but the tree has grown so much the rungs are pretty useless in most places!  Roman fixed some ropes for us in case we slipped, so it's a-ok to give it a go.  Here's a look, I'm standing on the rungs of the ladder cage:

and here's Brian working his way up

We didn't see many birds, which was a bit surprising as this was a nice riparian corridor in primary forest.  Maybe we just hit a bad day?  Anyways, we did see a really cool snail and this lizard.  he's an agamid, they're the big diurnal lizard group in old world tropics.

So now on to the next tree...  Roman, our professor, rigged this big Koompassia excelsa for us.  These are the beautiful tall Dipterocarp trees with very smooth, almost white bark and no lower limbs.  The smooth bark and no lower limbs help keep them from getting covered in vines.  They're a climax species here, and pretty typical for southeast Asian rainforests.

Once Roman had the ropes up, Brian and I could jug our way up to see birds.  Pretty sweet.  Here's a view up the ropes to the canopy.  We saw some black-headed bulbuls, a black eagle, a serpent eagle, some sort of spidercatcher, a lot of little brown birds, and... an asian fairy bluebird!  (here's a link w. a pic, but it doesn't do justice)  

Here's Brian.  He had the shady side of the tree, but that's ok by me as it meant battling some brush with possible snakes/bees/nasties...  fortunately there were only a few ants.

and here's me on the sunny side of the tree.  It's finally not raining!

Carbon Offsets and Canopy Walk

Yesterday we went to see the FACE project, Forestry Offsetting CO2 Emissions. It's a collaborative project between Sabah, Malaysia and European nations that aims to restore logged rainforest.  The restored forests will sequester CO2, storing it in the woody tissue, and will not be logged for 99 years.  After 99 years, selective logging will be allowed if reduced impact logging techniques are used.

The nursery for the FACE project can house 1 million seedlings.  The rangers working with the project are quite impressive, being able to differentiate many different species of seedlings by leaves/vegetation only!

Later that day, we went for a canopy walk!  There's a pretty ritzy eco-tourism lodge near the field station (we're at the Danum Valley Conservation Area Field Station), I think it's called the Borneo Rainforest Lodge?  Anyways, pretty fancy, it's about US$350/night and has outdoor bathtubs so you can take a bubble bath and listen to the gibbons.  Needless to say we were only visiting to go on their canopy walkway.  No rickety ladders on this one, sweet solid steps to the platform and nice suspension spans!

As fancy as the ritzy lodge is, they have 3-horned rhinoceros beetles just like our hostel at the field center!  OK, the beetles at the field center were bigger...  they're pretty neat, can you believe these things can actually fly?  I heard if you put two together, they'll wrestle each other... 

Oh, and here's my new favorite food.  Rambutans are the greatest!

Ginabatong Caves

Catching up...  a few days ago we went to the Ginabatong Caves in Sabah, Malaysia.  Black-nest and white-nest swiftlets roost here, and the nests are collected for use in bird's nest soup.  This is big business for Malaysia, bringing in an estimated 3 million Malaysian ringits per year.   There is also a substantial cultural significance - historically, trading nests with the Chinese confered high status on Malays.

The nests are so valuable that workers stay in/near the caves year round.  there were nicer bunkhouses outside the cave, but this one really impressed me.

The productivity within the cave was amazing!  I've never seen (nor imagined!) so many cockroaches, centipedes, millipedes, or bats in one place!  All of the little orange things here are cockroaches.

I don't have any good bird or bat pics, the lighting was pretty bad (surprise, surprise) and my little point and shoot couldn't quite make it happen.  But here's an agamid we found hanging around outside the cave.

gibbons

If you don't know what a gibbon sounds like, listen to this.

We've heard bornean gibbons every morning for the past week, around 6:30 in the morning.  This morning, we actually saw one!  they're quite shy, and we were lucky to get the show we did.  I don't have any photos, I was much too busy enjoying the view. It was raining all day, and she was hunkered down in a tree near the veranda of the building we're staying in.  After 15 minutes or so, she started moving through the canopy, in full view!  

back on those internet tubes...

we were supposed to have internet in Danum, but alas, lightning struck and took it all out.  But it's back!!  Travel has been good, though it's quite rainy here.  There have been more leeches and biting things than you can count, not much of a tan, but still having a blast.  

Here are a few pics of the past week.

Stephanie and Nathan checking out birds near the Sepilok B&B

The trees here are amazing...  there are so many species they're discussed as families, perhaps as a genus, but rarely as a species.  For non-scientific types, that's like discussing people by their last name only, because there are so many you can't possibly know all of their first names.  Here's a beautiful tree of the Dipterocarp family.  This is the dominant tree family in southeast Asian rainforests.  They grow up above the top of the canopy and have this beautiful, almost cauliflower-like form.

the Segama River, near the Danum Valley Conservation Center

so it turns out that Roman is a master lizard catcher, this one is an agamid.  

Borneo!

Well, after numerous hours in the airport, I'm finally in Borneo! woohoo!  I'm having a few difficulties getting photos posted, but no worries, it'll be worth the effort.

We went to an orangutan rehabilitation center today and got to see orangutans, macaques, and tons of really neat tropical birds.  Not to mention the trees here are amazing!

and other happenings in 2008

school has been keeping me pretty busy...  my thesis project has been pretty neat, I've learned TONS!!! and have had the chance to work with some pretty smart, and pretty great, people.

Here are a few pics of where I spent most of my summer.  I'm heading out tomorrow to get in another round of CO2 flux measurements.  It's supposed to be cold (well, well below zero) but that should be ok, not more than a few hours worth of work.

low winter sun!!

Heath and I were flux measuring fools.  He's back in South Dakota now, finishing up his B.S.

and here's a pic of Paddy, looking all studious.  He's a post-doc who has been pretty instrumental in turning this from an idea into a killer project.

there was also a bit of fishing in '08.

Jon caught a nice halibut

and Thomas' fish was almost as big as he was!

all in all, a pretty good year. 

southeast ak

I went to Prince of Wales Island this summer for a work trip - southeast AK is beautiful!  Even when it's raining...

Here's Bobby, John, and I nearly missing our flight because we misunderstood the Ketchikan ferry schedule.   That bridge to nowhere was suddenly sounding like a very good idea.

Fortunately, we were most of the flight and our plane waited.  I got to ride in a float plane for the first time ever! 

The remaining old growth forests on Prince of Wales were pretty amazing.  I wish I had photos to do it justice, but these will have to do...

a very good place to start

The luddite in me can hold out only so long - I'm really going to give it a shot with the blog!  I'm taking off on a trip soon and this seemed like a nice way to get out a few photos and in general keep everyone up to date.  So hassle me when i'm a slacker about updating, and, yeah, here's to hoping I don't inadvertently delete all my pics!