(MY) Belum Temenggor forest

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Tuesday July 18, 2006- The Star

 

In need of safeguarding

 

*New finds in the Belum-Temenggor forest give more grounds to preserve the

forest, writes TAN CHENG LI.*

 

SCIENTISTS have long believed that the Belum-Temenggor forest in Perak

harbours countless rare and unique species, and recent findings back up this

belief. The area's 274 species-strong bird list has been bolstered by yet

another one – the long-tailed jaeger (*Stercorarius longicaudus*).

 

In early June, ornithologist Lim Kim Chye and his wife, Lim Swee Yian,

spotted the bird swimming feebly in Temenggor Lake.

 

 

The jaeger or skua is a sea bird which breeds in the dry tundra of Russia,

Alaska and Canada. To escape the bitter cold winter there, it seeks refuge

in areas in the south Pacific, making it a very rare visitor in Malaysia.

The species was spotted only one other time –near Tioman Island in 1986.

 

They normally visit open seas far from land, so it was a great surprise to

the Lims, both Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) volunteers surveying hornbills

in Belum-Temenggor, to find a jaeger stranded in the middle of Temenggor

Lake which is some 100km from the closest seashore.

 

Interestingly, the jaeger is known as the pirate of the bird world as it

often robs other birds of their food by chasing and forcing them to drop

their prospective meals.

 

The bird found in Temenggor Lake, however, was hardly a food robber, being

weak and flightless. The Lims took it home to Taiping, nursed it, and then

handed it over to bird watching guide Dennis Yong, another MNS volunteer.

For 10 days, Yong cared for the bird, feeding it with fish and squid and

letting it swim in his bathtub.

 

After 15 days of being discovered in the middle of a tropical rainforest,

the sea pirate was released in Kuala Selangor Nature Park, where it flew

towards the sea without looking back.

 

The jaeger was not the only important discovery in Belum-Temenggor. A few

days earlier, Kim Chye, with the help of an orang asli guide, had found a

great hornbill's nest. It was the second such discovery in Peninsular

Malaysia, after the one found in Terengganu in May by an MNS member. Great

hornbills (*Buceros bicornis*) can be seen in forests but their nest sites

are rarely seen.

 

Kim Chye observed that both adult birds attended closely to the chick in the

nest, which is a hole in a large unidentified tree.

 

" The adult hornbills were very wary and silent when approaching the nest

tree and would not go directly to the nest hole but will take several

minutes, before going to feed the chick, " he says.

 

Started in 2004, the MNS hornbill survey aims to identify the birds'

feeding, nesting and roosting sites and conservation needs, especially that

of the globally threatened plain-pouched hornbill.

 

The sightings of the jaeger and great hornbill nest further support

Belum-Temenggor's position as an Important Bird Area known globally for its

high bird diversity.

 

It hosts all the 10 hornbill species found in Malaysia and has one of the

world's greatest concentrations of hornbills. Its old growth forest rich

with fig and other large trees is most suitable for hornbills, which feed on

figs and build nests in mature trees.

 

However, wildlife in the 130 million-year-old forest, including the

hornbills, now face an uncertain future as the Temenggor forest is being

logged. The MNS has urged the Perak Government to stop the deforestation to

protect the forest's unique biodiversity.