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.
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