Malaysian Bat Education Adventure

Greetings all,

Not a great night last night in terms of numbers; it absolutely poured down at about 10.30 pm for several hours, giving 30.2 mm of rain. We are getting quite worried at the field station because we sit at the junction of two rivers, the Sungei Lompat and Sungei Krau and they have both increased in height by well over a meter in the last couple of days. If we get too much more rain, they can’t feed into each other fast enough, and the water tends to back up and flood the field station. So we are hoping that doesn’t happen!!!

Traps last night were KL0397, KL0399, KL0401, KL0403, KL0405, KL0407, KL0409., KL0431, KL0433, KL0435, KL0437 and KL0439. Despite the low catch rate we had ANOTHER really special species — Phoniscus jagorii. It looks like P. atrox but is bigger — forearm around 40 mm, and weight around 9-10 g. This was only the seventh individual since 1996! In fact the individual I caught back in 1996 was the first one ever found in Peninsular Malaysia, and there have been very few (if any) records for this species in other parts of the country. What was pretty interesting was that this was the first male, the other six were all females, and five of them were caught in Kuala Lompat, although the last one was in 2005. So although a wet and soggy night, it was worth it to have caught that species.

Here are the data:

Hi Folks,

Well because we missed a day last week due to the weather, we decided to run the traps last night, the 6th March. It was cloudy and thundery for a while, but it didn’t rain until after midnight, and we got about 23.8 mm of rain. We set traps KL0379, KL0381, KL0383, KL0385, KL0387, KL0389, KL0391, KL0393, KL0395, KL0499, KL0507 and KL0509.

It was actually a really good night for us, with three species that we have not yet caught this year, and another Nycteris tragata. First off we had the fruit bat Cynopterus horsfieldii which looks very like Cynopterus brachyotis only quite a bit larger with a forearm ranging 70-78 mm and weight 43-65 g, compared to 55-66 mm and 28-40 g in C. brachyotis.

Hipposideros cineraceus

We also caught Hipposideros cineraceus which looks a bit like Hipposideros bicolor 142 kHz, but is smaller, with forearm ranging 36-41 mm and weight 4-6 g. There is also a subtle difference in the noseleaf shape, especially the internarial septum — the bit of skin and cartilage that separates the nostrils. There’s a teeny tiny bump on this bit of skin in H. cineraceus and not on either of the bicolor bats. Unfortunately, we were looking at it so closely that it bit Ain, who jumped a bit and I ended up letting the bat go! It did a few laps of the lab before escaping out into the night. So that was a bit annoying, but fortunately we got the data first!

Myotis muricola is a member of the Vespertilionidae family, like the Kerivoula, Phoniscus and Murina. We don’t catch it very often in the harp traps because it tends to forage in tree fall gaps and edges of vegetation, and not in the dense understory. The genus Myotis is found around much of the world. In Texas we have at least seven species (possibly nine) of Myotis. To get the full list and learn more you can go to Mammals of Texas – Online Edition

Myotis muricola

So on to the data:

Kuala Lompat is about 15 km from the nearest small town, Kuala Krau. Usually Kuala Krau is a pretty quiet, sleepy place, but twice a week there is a market – Monday morning and Friday evening (when it’s called the night market or pasar malam). Alot of people drive in from the surrounding villages to make the most of the chances to buy fresh produce, snacks, and to catch up with friends. Actually, there’s not much you can’t buy at the night market, as you’ll see from the pictures below.

A local woman selling things she has grown in her garden.

Tools and hardware

Local fruits

Fish!

Fast food Malaysian style!

Clothes

Dr McGinley finds the ice-cream stall!

Hello Everyone,

Dr. Kingston is letting me write the report for today. I have been in Malaysia now for about a week. Every night and every morning I have gone into the forest with the crew that checks the traps. The rainforest is beautiful! The forest is always full of sounds, but they are different in the daytime and at night. The say that “everything is bigger in Texas”, but I am afraid that is not always true. My first time in the forest, about 10 meters up in a tree was a spider web that was bigger than a Walmart and the spider was large enough to eat a 4th grader! The forest is also filled with interesting insects- giant walking sticks, a huge rhinoceros beetle, and too many other kinds to even count. The forest trees are also huge; they must be four or five times tallerer than the oak trees in my yard in Lubbock.

The bats, however, are not large. Kerivoula intermedia are tiny; they are slightly smaller than my thumb and most of that is fur. It was exciting for me to see the bats that I had been learning about on the website. They really look just like their photos! Hipposideros diadema is a big guy, with sharp looking teeth, so I stand back when the others in the crew are handling them. My favorite time is when we release the bats after we have finished processing them. They hang on the branches for a while and then take off and fly around while they get their bearings and figure out where they are. I never thought that I would be able to see bats up close and personal like I have here.

I have seen lots of interesting bugs, birds, and mammals in the clearling around where we are staying. Last evening I saw a group of monkeys, including a baby, playing in the branches. I have kept a sharp eye out for tigers, but so far we haven’t seen any. The only annoying animals I have discovered so far are the leeches. It doesn’t hurt when a leech gets on you, so it is surprising when you take your boots off and discover a big red patch on your socks.

When we are not working we take naps and I like to go for walks. The other day I walked to the local village where I ran into lots of children. They were very excited when they learned that I was from Texas (although I am sure they would be equally excited to meet someone from Massachusetts). They seemed to play just like kids in the US (riding their bikes, playing volleyball and soccer, and eating ice cream cones).

I hope that you are enjoying learning about bats, the rainforest, and Malaysia. These are wonderful creatures so I hope that the research that they are doing here will help to conserve them.

Bye Bye, Mark McGinley

Greetings folks,

Another dryish night fortunately, although there was heavy rain between 6.30 and 7.30 am. The traps set were KL0367, KL0369, KL0371, KL0373, KL0375, KL0377, KL0475, KL0477, KL0479, KL0481, KL0483, KL0485.
Here are the data: