Sunday, 7 October 2012
For my
last entry, I will talk about the interesting place you have to go when you
visit Sarawak which is Semengoh Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre.
| Entrance of Semengoh Rehabilitation |
In Kuching
area, it is undoubtedly that Semengoh Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre is one
of the best and popular attractions for tourists. It's highly accessible, only
half an hour from Kuching by public bus, and offers the opportunity of getting
close to some highly mischievous, semi-wild orang-utan. The centre was
established in 1975 and since then, it has been accepting the wild animals
which have been found injured, orphaned, have been kept as illegal pets or
rescued from captivity and reintroducing them back into the wild. There are
many species of endangered wildlife in the centre but still the orang-utans are
the star of attractions.
 |
| Warden feeds the orang-utans |
As
visitors want to visit Semengoh, the best time to visit Semengoh is during
feeding time where it only takes half an hour. The semi-wild orang-utans are good time keepers as they will show
themselves during feeding time. They descend from the trees of the surrounding
forest reserve to offer visitors a unique wildlife experience and some
excellent photo opportunities while they were playing with each other, swing
about in the hanging vines and occasionally descend to ground level to 'charge'
groups of tourists. Here, you can get the best and beautiful photos as the
orang-utans are playing and move around. The orang-utans will stop playing around
when the wardens arrive with the buckets of food and bottles of milk. They will
follow the wardens walking along the plank walk or swinging from tree to tree.
You may
have the chance to have a view of urang-utans closer but never get closer than 20 feet during feeding time
because they will spend an hour or more. Usually orang-utans will spend an hour
on their meals, playing and messing around with each other.
FEEDING TIME
- Morning: Between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m.
- Afternoon: Between 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
When the food run
out, the orang-utans will stop playing and having fun and then they will move
off into the forest back.
OPENING HOURS
- Hours: The Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre is open seven days a week including holidays from 8 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. and from 2 - 4 p.m. Feeding times are at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
- Cost: Adults - $1; children - 50 cents. The admission cost is for the feeding area only. A ranger will take groups of up to five people into the forest to look for orangutans for $13 per group.
CAUTIONS WHEN VISIT ORANG-UTANS
- Do not make any noise that
will disturb the orang-utans.
- Turn the flash off on your
camera!
- Never get closer than 20
feet to an orang-utans, they have been known to injure humans.
- Do not stay directly below
orangutans if they are overhead.
- No food, water bottles, or
smoking are allowed around the orangutans.
Resources:
http://www.emoss.com.my/info/TravelFeatures/national_park/semengoh/introduction.html
http://www.journeymalaysia.com/MR_semengoh.htm
http://www.journeymalaysia.com/MR_semengoh.htm
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Hi everyone.
Let’s move to my fourth entry about the interesting places. For this entry, I chose
Sabah where I will talk about the largest flower in the world which is
Rafflesia.
 |
| Rafflesia Keithii Meijer |
According
to Mjoberg (1928), Rafflesia penetrates smell more repulsive than any buffalo
carcass in an advanced stage of decomposition. Here I would like to quote Nais
(2000), Meijer (1997), Mat Salleh (1991) where they stated that “there are
approximately 17 Rafflesia species distributed throughout Southeast Asia”. These
species are highly specific as to the hosts that they parasitize, preferring
only a few species of Tetra stigma (a member of the common grape family) that
are distributed in the same geographic area.
Here I would
like to share with you guys the two example of advantages of Rafflesia in many
aspects. First is, the advantages to host plants. Although their host plants
have been parasitized by the entophytes, their benefit is to provide some
measure of value to them. This quasi-symbiotic relationship helps ensure the
survival of the host, which, in turn, ensures survival of the parasitic
organism. As I quoted from Mycosphere Online’s “Journal of Fungal Biology”, he
stated that “chemical compounds produced by entophytes boost these survival
rates. Particularly, Rafflesia cantleyi's anti-microbial activity provided an
internal plant medicine where it gave a health advantage to its host.
Second is
Rafflesia give advantage to people where the ongoing research reveals that
Rafflesia provides anti-microbial protection to its host plant may also provide
the similar protection to people. Indigenous people used Rafflesia in medical
as a fever reducer and a post-childbirth antibiotic. Besides that,
anti-microbial action from Rafflesia was effectively proved against bacteria that
caused food poisoning (Bacillus cereus) and staph infections (Staphylococcus
aureus).
 |
| Blooming Rafflesia |
Do you
ever see the blooming Rafflesia? Now, I will explain a little bit about the
blooming Rafflesia that rarely happens. There was a twin-blooming Rafflesia
from a largest species of Sabah which is Rafflesia Keithii in Hamilin Rafflesia
Garden near Poring. If you want to see the blooming Rafflesia, you need to pay
for the entrance fee which cost you RM20 or USD 6 for locals, RM30 or USD9 for
foreign tourists.
The
Rafflesia takes 6-9 months to bloom from the bud (like human baby). One of the
blooming Rafflesia has 6 fleshy petal (normal is 5) and the flower usually
opens at night and the petals take about 24 to 48 hours to fully extend.
You may watch the twin-blooming Rafflesia below:
Resources:
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