Species: Crocodylus porosus (Reptilia : Crocodilia)
Known Range: South Asia to northern Australia
Size: (Adult) 6 m
Interviewed: Wan Nor Fitri Wan Jaafar, wildlife reproduction biologist (wannorfitri[at]gmail.com)
(Photo: Saltwater crocodile by Wan Nor Fitri Wan Jaafar)
IN MANGROVES, the saltwater crocodile claims top predator position.
And this largest of the crocodiles (adults grow more than 7 meters long) doesn’t just live in saltwater, but thrives in rivers and the intertidal zones on the coast.
Continue reading Saltwater Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) →
Activity: Rock climbing
Interviewed: Chan Yuen-Li, adventure entrepreneur
(Photo: Climbing Batu Caves’ ‘Circumcision’ in the 1990s – pic courtesy of Chan Yuen Li)
YOU SEE them high up a vast, vertical limestone rock face. These are rock climbers: helmeted, harnessed and with ropes hanging off them like vines.
Continue reading Scaling Heights →
Species: Eonycteris spelaea (Mammalia : Chiroptera)
Known Range: Southeast Asia
Size: (Adult) 40-70 millimeter, length of a forearm
Interviewed: Zubaid Akbar Mukhtar Ahmad, bat scientist (zubaid.akbar[at]gmail.com)
(Photo: Eonycteris spelaea by Juliana Senawi)
“DO YOU like durians? Do you like petai?” These are the questions Zubaid asks when he’s trying to win some supporters for bats.
Continue reading Dawn Bat (Eonycteris spelaea) →
Species: Whittenia vermiculum (Gastropoda: Diplommanitidae) *
Known Range: Gunung Rapat limestone hill, Malaysia
Size: (Adult) 1.0 – 1.5 millimeters
Interviewed: Foon Junn Kitt, malacologist
(Photo: Whittenia vermiculum by Foon Junn Kitt)
HOW IS this a snail, and not just a tiny, whitish, swirly plastic tube? Even its species name, vermiculum, means ‘wormy’ in Latin, which aptly describes the snail’s shell.
Continue reading Minute Land Snail (Whittenia vermiculum) →
Species: Pycnoscelus striatus (Insecta: Blattodea)
Known Range: Malaysia, Sumatra, the Philippines
Size: (Adult) 15 mm long , ~diameter of 10-sen coin
Interviewed: Dr Lim Teck Wyn, biologist
(Photo: Shaharin Yussof )
“CUTE” IS how Teck Wyn describes the cave cockroach, Pycnoscelus striatus. “The nymphs”—the juvenile stage of cockroaches—“are adorable, scurrying sort of things.”
Continue reading Cave Cockroach (Pycnoscelus striatus) →
A Malaysian Environmental Journalism Site
