LATEST FROM KOCP

January to May 08

Some news about the recent activities undertaken by KOCP over the past few
months (January-May 2008)

1. Orang-utan field stories at the KOCP study site…..
Etin (the eleven years old male followed since 1998) spends more and more time away
from his mother Jenny. Although he still comes back to our study site occasionally,
meetings with Etin are becoming more and more irregular. In March, we had the good
surprise to see him accompanied with a young female that we had never seen before.

We gave her the name of “Manja”. During the time they were together, they engaged

in social activities such as “hide and seek”, chasing games, long, expressive and repeated
stares, etc. But they also engaged in direct physical contacts, which are quite
unusual in the orang-utan world: we witnessed food sharing as well as grooming
and genital contacts (Etin gently touched Manja’s vulva before putting his hand
close to Manja’s nose). In the evening, Manja built her nest. Then Etin came and
disturbed her within the sleeping platform. Manja left the place and built a new
one; she was of course followed by Etin who patiently waited for Manja to lay on
her nest before coming again. It took four new nests for Manja before Etin
decided to leave her on her own and build his own nest nearby. Manja was gone
the next morning and Etin left our study area a couple of days latter.

Manja at our study site
The young “Sima” (about 1 year old) spends still much of her time clinging to the
side of Maria her mother. However, Sima has already been seen moving 1-2 m
away from Maria. As we all know moving in the canopy is not without risk: one day
Maria and Sima had to cross a gap between two trees. In this case the orangutans
are very cautious: they sway and swing branches using their weight until
they grasp a branch from the other tree and pull it over to create a “bridge”.
Maria was thus crossing between the two branches when her support broke down
with a scary “Kraaccc”. After a 15 m fall Maria remained still and sat on the
ground for about 5 minutes without moving. Then she slowly climbed back in the
canopy where she specifically looked for leaves of Lopophyxis sp. (a vine) and
leaves and barks from Kleinhovia sp. (a tree). Fortunately Sima was not hurt at
all. Maria made her nest very early this afternoon and didn’t leave it before 13.00
pm the next day. She has now fully recovered from her fall!

2. Elephants

The major news is the first International Workshop on the Conservation of the
Bornean Elephant that was held in Kota Kinabalu, 21-23rd May 2008, at the
Shangri La’s Rasa Ria Resort. The workshop was hosted by the Sabah State
Government and co-organised by the Sabah Wildlife Department, Cardiff
University, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, the NGO HUTAN, and WWF-Malaysia. The
objectives were (1) to provide a forum for presenting and discussing on the
Bornean elephant ecology, its distribution, movement and habitat use, the
population genetics, and human-elephant conflicts; (2) to provide sound
management recommendations for securing elephants in Sabah; and (3) to
produce a resolution to be tabled before the Sabah State Government.
The participants of the workshop recommended a series of conservation
measures to enable the future viability of Bornean elephants in Sabah. Issues
such as human-elephant conflict, elephant management, habitat management,
research and education, fundraising and tourism were discussed and priority
actions were set. First, we identified four major elephant areas and urged their
declaration as “managed elephant ranges”: Lower Kinabatangan, Tabin,
Deramakot-Sebuku, Ulu Kalumpang. These four elephant ranges should ideally be
maintained under natural forest management and all necessary measures to reestablished
connectivity within and between these ranges need to be
investigated.
Other major recommendations included: (1) the establishment of a Borneo
Elephant Conservation Alliance (BECA) to encourage collaboration and
communication between all stakeholders involved in elephant management in
Sabah. This alliance will help coordinate fundraising, conservation, research,
education and information sharing; (2) the urgent need to produce basic biological
information on the Bornean elephant to better understand the dynamics and the
ecology of this species in Sabah; (3) a moratorium on new oil palm development
within 500 m on both sides of the Kinabatangan river and include all state lands
covered with forest and that are adjacent to the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife
Sanctuary (LKWS) into the LKWS; (4) more attention to be given to the problem
of elephant crop raiding and conflict mitigation; and (5) create a management
committee for Responsible Elephant Tourism (RET), chaired by the State
Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment. This conference was largely
covered in national media: the Final Resolution will be soon tabled before the
State Cabinet of Sabah. The conference was followed by a field trip to Sukau
where workshop participants enjoyed first-hand encounters with a herd of about
100 individuals that was roaming close to our study site.

3. Other wildlife
2008 is the year of the frogs. Indeed, frogs are disappearing fast in most
countries all over the world. Amphibians in Kinabatangan have been poorly
documented and KOCP decided to undertake frog surveys for documenting their
status in the floodplain. Three KOCP members (Eddie Ahmad, Berjaya Elahan,
Marc Ancrenaz) attended the Amphibian Workshop organized in Kuala Lumpur in
January. We also welcomed at our site Mr Ahmad Sudin, a frog specialist working
at University Malaysia Sabah, for further field training. Then we started
surveying frogs in Lower Kinabatangan. Twenty different species have been
identified in a few days, but the list is still far from being complete…..

Racophorus rufipes                Buffo juxtasper                     Ansonia longidigita

4. Surveys
KOCP lead two field expeditions in the forests of Timimbang and Botitian to
contribute data on wildlife biodiversity for the development of the Forest
Management Plans for these two areas by the Sabah Forestry Dpt. Our
preliminary findings showed that primates and other large mammals are rather
poorly represented, mainly as a result of past hunting activities and because of
the hilly terrain that is covering most of these areas.
The final FMP for Ulu Segama Malua has been finalized and produced by the SFD.
This FMP sets up priorities for a proper management of these forests, home to
the largest orang-utan population in Malaysia. An official agreement between
“New Forest” and representatives from the Sabah government was signed in May
about the development of a Biodiversity Bank Credit scheme. This initiative
intends at securing the long-term of these forests.
In April, KOCP undertook aerial surveys of major plantations estates located in
Eastern Sabah. We assessed orang-utan nest presence in small isolated patches
of forests that are left within the agricultural landscape. Results of these
surveys are currently discussed with the “Malaysian Palm Oil Council” for further
actions.

Degraded and Fragmented habitat in Lower Kinabatangan

5. Workshops and Field visits
Amongst the different workshops and training sessions attended by KOCP
representatives, we can list: workshop on Forest Restoration Project for Lower
Kinabatangan (aiming at identifying those areas that are in urgent need to be
reforested along the Kinabatangan River); training on statistical analysis for
wildlife monitoring; environmental education workshops organized by SEEN; the
“Honda Dream Found” organized by RAE; elephant handling and management at
Lok Kawi Wildlife Park under the SWD; etc.
For the past few months, we received the visits of several friends and partners,
such as James Keith (USA Ambassador to Malaysia); Dr John Olsen and a team
from Bush Gardens Zoo; Peter Riger (Houston zoo); Wally van Sickle (Idea Wild);
Annette Lanjouw (Arcus Foundation); a team from Tokyo Zoo who is involved in
the development of the “orang-utan bridge project”; Valerie Peckham
(Philadelphia zoo), Edwina Bevan (Elephant Family) , Meenakshi Nagendran
(USFW), Wahdi Azmi (FFI), Nandita Hazarika and her family; One Journey Inc.
(USA), etc.

6. International workshops and lectures
A lot of travelling took place during the first few months of the year. Marc
Ancrenaz was invited by TNC to deliver a lecture on “orang-utan status in Sabah”
during the orang-utan conservation organized in Balikpapan - Central Kalimantan
(Indonesian Borneo). This visit was also the occasion to briefly assess orang-utan
status within eucalytus/acacia plantations and to discuss possible management
options with the private industry. During a fund raising trip to Europe, several
lectures were delivered at various places: Elephant Family (London), Chester zoo,
Apenheul zoo, Bale zoo (Switzerland), La Palmyre and Beauval zoos (France). More
recently, Marc presented a paper on orang-utan conservation at Kyoto University
(Japan) during the Third Symposium on “Cognitive Studies with Non-Human
Primates”.
In February, Isabelle and Kennesh Manokaran attended the “UNESCO Man and
Biosphere” Workshop organized in Madrid (Spain). This workshop was a perfect
opportunity to discuss and to further reinforce the current application developed
by Isabelle and Ken aiming at proposing the MAB status for Lower Kinabatangan.
Last but not least, Ahbam Abulani (Head of the KOCP Awareness Unit) and three
kids from Sukau spent a few days in Japan early January. This cold experience
(temperature about minus 20 degree celsius) will leave long lasting memories to
the three kids who never left Malaysia before! Ramlan bin Sakong is just
returning from a study tour organized in Java by University Malaysia Sabah.
Ramlan is currently registered for his second year of Bachelor degree at UMS.

7. Awareness activities
Several articles were published about KOCP activities recently about orang-utan
bridges, land purchase, elephant conservation, pollution issues in Kinabatangan,
etc. Two interviews were also given by Isabelle about orang-utan conservation to
the national RTM channel. These interviews were broadcasted at the evening
news (20.00 pm). Additional interviews were also given at different radio stations
emitting in Sabah.
Ahbam Abulani and the KOCP Education Unit have been very busy developing the
KOCP Mobile awareness program. They have travelled to the West Coast of
Sabah to present the different activities to school Head Masters interested in
exposing the kids to environmental education.
Another major event has been the preparation of the “World Environment
Day”.This day has been commemorated each year on the 5th June since it was
established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972. Today, it is
celebrated in over 100 countries worldwide and, for the second year running in
2008, in our own backyard in Sukau, Kinabatangan.
Hutan together with the villagers of Sukau, Red Ape Encounters, the Sabah
Wildlife Department and the Sabah Environmental Education Network has
organised a five day event to celebrate the World Environment Day from the 5th
till 9th June. Villagers from the Kinabatangan and tourists will visit exhibitions on
the rich natural heritage, its current conservation status and threats.
Children and school kids will participate in games and competitions and see puppet
shows and films. Visitors will be taken along educational jungles trails and boat
cruises, and will participate in the forest restoration effort by planting of native
tree seedlings in degraded forest areas.
Our theme this year will be focused on Rivers, as the Kinabatangan is the source
of water, food, and transport and plays an important role in the customs and
traditions of the communities here. The theme on the river and its environment
was chosen to highlight the environmental impacts populations and industries have
on this priceless resource.

Dr. Marc Ancrenaz,
KOCP Co-director
Kota Kinabalu, 06.06.08