Moonriver Lodge, Sigar Highlands
FOR OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDRENArchive for Wildlife Preservation
Pesky Pests
Pests are the gardener’s biggest headache.
They comprise of those who live in the soil eg millipedes, cutworms, leather-jackets; moths, butterflies, night-feeding slugs and snails or sap-sucking insects called aphids (greenfly and blackfly).
They can also be larger animals like mice, rabbits, cats, birds.
Some simple preventative measures to minimise pests are
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BALANCE the soil
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GARDEN HYGIENE – remove weeds, rubbish rotten wood, old plants to clear out all potential hiding places for pests.
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DON’T OVERCROWD plants as air will not be able to circulate and fungal diseases may spread rapidly. Overcrowded plants will also have to compete for nutrients and water and may become weaker and less resistant.
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sow seeds in SEED TRAY before planting out the established seedlings
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study LIFE CYCLE of PESTS by varying the sowing and planting out time for seedlings.
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COMPANION PLANTING – French marigolds between tomato and pepper plants will lessen whitefly attacks
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PROTECTION PLANTING – plant tomatoes as far as possible from potatoes to cut down the risk of potato blight.
You can use some safe pesticides which are approved for use by organic gardeners or through biological control – using natural enemies to harness the pest eg ladybirds to feed on aphids.
(Some data extracted from “Practical Organic Gardening” by David Palliser)
How many tigers are in the world?
It is difficult to get complete and accurate numbers, due to many factors. The tiger’s scattered ranges, and the nature of the tiger itself, are just a few. It is estimated, currently the total is between 3000 and 4000, tigers living in the WILD (this estimation does not include tigers in captivity). The subspecies totals are:
- Bengal Tiger: 1411
- Indochinese Tiger: 600 – 800 or less
- South Chinese Tiger: Less than 15
- Siberian Tiger: Around 400
- Sumatran Tiger: 300 – 350
- Malayan Tiger: Less than 400
There are some tiger species that have died out completely due to us humans. A hundred or so years ago there were well over 10,000 tigers. As of March 2010, there are just 3200 tigers left in the world.
Source : http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_tigers_are_in_the_world
Malayan Horned Frog
We have been hearing the persistent “honking” sounds from the stream and water area, and could not quite figure out which animal that was. Our resident staff finally caught this interesting species in a bucket from the stream – a Malayan Horned Frog (Megophrys Nasuta)
A forest specialist, the Malayan Horned Frog has remarkable camouflage; its colour and form mimicking the leaf litter to be found on the forest floor. Unless the frog moves to snatch some unwary prey, it is unlikely to be seen. Its distinctive shape includes a large head and wide mouth, and sharply pointed protuberances above each eye. Its call is a toad-like ‘honk’ and it feeds on forest floor invertebrates.
(Source : www.ecologyasia.com)
Red Palm Weevil
Th Weevils (Curculionidae) are the most numerous of all beetles and over 40,000 species have received names. Their distinguishing mark is the long snout, which has jaws at the end of it and is used for boring holes in the seeds, fruits, buds etc. in which weevils will lay their eggs.
The Palm Weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) lays its eggs on palm trees of various kinds. The larva tunnels in the trunk and crown of the palm and often kills the tree. This little weevil is a well-known pest amongst palm farmers and there have been many research and discussions on how to prevent and control this little “evil”!
(Source: Malayan Animal Life by Tweedie & Harrison & Wikipedia)
Red Snail
This mountain species, Hemiplecta (Platymma) tweediei, are mostly recorded from Cameron Highlands. The body is coloured black and brick-red with a flattened, coal-black shell reaching nearly 3 inches in diameter
(Source: Malayan Animal Life).
We nearly stepped on this native pulmonate during the Water Trail reccee with WildAsia team to identify areas for our Plant-A-Tree programme. This programme is currently under development for WildAsia@Moonriver’s Rainforest Conservation & Restoration Programme.
Venom
Almost all spiders are venomous. The purpose of spider venom is to subdue the spider’s prey, almost always insects. We could always do with some insecticide for our natural farming usage.
Pit-Viper
Vipers are a very distinct group of snakes, all poisonous. The American rattlesnake belongs to this group. In Malaysia, species of viper belong to the Pit-vipers, distinguished by the presence of a deep pit on each side of the head, between eye and nostril. This is a thermo-sensitive organ, designed to detect heat in a very small amount; it enables the snake to find warm-blooded prey in complete darkness. The bite is not dangerous to human life and usually results in more or less acute pain and swelling around the bitten part. The commonest species, Wagler’s Pit-Viper, is the species kept in the Snake Temple in Penang. (Source: Malayan Animal Life)
This one came awandering and was released after subjected to curious inspection by us.
Extinction
When you work on sustainability, you’ve got to confront extinction. The end of human life. All human lives. Your kids. Your kids’ kids. Your kids’ kids’ kids ad infinitum. You’ve got to be able to visualise it. You’ve got to mourn it. The tremendous loss. The emptiness. The absolute silence. No more laughter, no more tears, no more babies crying. No more mothers and fathers crying, for when a child passes from water- or air- or food- borne diseases and pesticides. You’ll be able to see all the possible paths leading to this day of pure human vacuum. The last leaf of human voice. A futile protest. Fluttering…trailing off… ’but… but….’ Maybe there is wind. Maybe there is no wind. And you begin to unwind it all back to today. And you think of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and you think of “One Hundred Years of Solitude”. And you just stop, frozen, because the last ice age was just 10,000 years ago. And you mouth a cold breath to yourself: how long more? And your heart starts to pound. And you look at the clock on the postcolonial mantelpiece of your mind. And your hands start to move on their own. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. You stoop and you start to do work. You pick up the litter around you. And you start cleaning house. And you understand that your act of mindful work and every single act of house-keeping you do, goes toward sustaining life. Very specifically, human life. And you understand that by your every act you are sustaining all that is so beautiful about us. The babies, our youngs! The songs, the dances, the twinkle in our twirls with the stars and even the quarrels. Even the quarrels. And all the strife. We can overcome our differences. We can bear the pain. We can, because if we don’t, we lose everything. All of us. EVERYTHING. Including pain. And that end zone, there is no pain. There is nothing. And that deadly silence where we no longer exist – is NOT peace. Peace is a state where you reach when you exist to co-exist with another being - joyfully and fruitfully. At this end zone of degradation, there won’t be peace because it is the result of abandonment and neglect. You can’t claim peace if you’ve discarded it, a long long long time before.
“Tick-tock,” says the forest mosquito.
Poet-Artist EarthKeeper Ranger PEK
A Tiny Branch – Standing Tall
I just watched Carl Sagan’s video on evolution. yoism.org http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl89HIJ6HDo. We are but a tiny branch on a 4 billion old tree. Yet we are affecting all the other branches. Time is much, much longer than our 70-100 years of finite human life. Homo sapiens have successfully clobbered out ancestral cousins; let’s not clobber whatever little diversity that is left. Out of sheer degradation – moral & intellectual decadence. There is the internet now; there is no reason for not being aware. Re-study the gaps in our organised learning. Let’s not drop the “DNA baton”. It’s in EACH and EVERYONE’s HANDS. And quit saying you can’t afford to do whatever you need to do or that you don’t have time or bandwidth. To ensure the continuity of 4 BILLION years.
King Cobra and Furniture
We delivered another load of furniture to Moonriver Lodge from Ipoh today. Fajar, the newest member of our Moonriver Lodge team had just finished loading the transport and was still looking strong. I had a chat with him over coffee after the transport left and found out that he caught a rather big King Cobra in the forest and drank it’s blood. Apparently he was taught how to catch snakes when he was working in Borneo and some cultures regards snake blood as aphrodisiac.
Did you know that King Cobra’s diet consist primarily of other snakes? Well, I guess the Kind Cobra is helping us control the snake population and our mighty Fajar is helping us control the King Cobra’s population.
