Did It Anyway

Langkawi Wild

When we were in Penang and told locals that we were going to Langkawi next, none of them said “Oh, wildlife!” Instead they said things like “Beer! Chocolates! Beautiful beaches! Duty free! Beware overpriced seafood!” None of these exchanges, or what I read, prepared me for what lay ahead: an island whose wildlife also stays…

Peter
6–9 minutes
Surprise! Just one of the Oriental Pied Hornbill that roamed around our hotels and the nearby jungle. It’s pretty big; those red fruit are about 10cm across.

When we were in Penang and told locals that we were going to Langkawi next, none of them said “Oh, wildlife!” Instead they said things like “Beer! Chocolates! Beautiful beaches! Duty free! Beware overpriced seafood!” None of these exchanges, or what I read, prepared me for what lay ahead: an island whose wildlife also stays at the hotels.

At and around the Hotels

On the first day of our stay, I started noticing birds and wildlife easily from our hotel. I was stoked to notice noisy Baya Weavers carrying grasses back to weave their nests high in the trees above our bungalow. Sitting at the pool the next day I saw a gorgeous Kingfisher fly low and quick over the pool, its deep iridescent blue and orange plumage flashing in the sun. Another day I watched several Brahminy Kites (aka sea eagles) cruise the perimeter of the nearby paddy, and sometimes diving into the marsh grasses. But most exciting for me and Lindsay were a pair of hornbills, who swooped around the hotel trees, quirking and chattering to each other.

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A Baya Weaver skulks in his newly-built hanging nest, while a noisy rival taunts him from a nearby branch. They build nests high in the trees using strips of paddy grasses and needles, in hopes a female will accept it. If a female rejects it, the male knocks it down and starts a new one.

Our first evening at our hotel, I was happy to find a marsh and a large paddy field close by, with a road along 2 sides. So several mornings, and every evening I quietly walked the road to see and hear whatever I could. The marsh was bustling with activity with so many birds, frogs, fish, and insects. The paddy field was occupied with water buffalo, heron, and egrets.

Not sure of the name of this elusive marsh hunter. Whenever one noticed me, it ran or flew off into the grass. It shimmers and glows in the later afternoon sun.

The road around the paddy and marsh held a mystery creature. Every evening, as I walked along, I could hear a definite movement in the trees, and quiet guttural sounds. I couldn’t recall exactly how I knew the sounds, but they were familiar, some kind of monkey. I could see trees sway and branches move, but the jungle was too dark and dense to spot anything definite. After I turned back the sounds and movement in the trees followed me for a while. One day something got just a few metres away before darting off.

On the last day of our visit, after my last evening wander, I was sitting with a very international crowd by the hotel pool. Suddenly I noticed a Russian man throwing rocks at the trees. Huh? Why would someone throw rocks at the trees?

And there they were, well out of reach of the thrown rocks (ffs), a pair of Dusky Langurs. Not just a pair, but a mother and baby! Then I heard the sounds they made, the same quiet guttoral sounds from my evening walks. They remained several minutes, before they just…vanished. No sound, no moving branches, just gone. I realized then that they had made familiar sounds because we had watched a troupe of them a week before on Penang. I was elated to have my mystery solved, and to see these sort of secretive and endangered monkeys again.

A mother and daughter Dusky Langur. If they were facing the camera, you would see the white surrounds of their eyes that give them the nickname “Spectactled Langur.”
Since I talked it up, here is one of the Dusky Langur we saw on Pulau Penang. Very adorable, and very quick and light in the trees.
Only saw these once, a big flock of…migratory geese? They were big, half a metre across, and made a very un-goosely peeping sound in flight.
It’s a good rule of thumb here that if you sit down, put a hand on something like a rail, or lean in close to anything, look first, and closely. I nearly leaned against this fence when I saw the barbs, and then these ants carrying a rival.

Darulaman Wildlife Sanctuary

The host at our first hotel told us that a photographer for a birding magazine had stayed just a month before, and just within the area of the hotel he had identified 80 species of birds! I wasn’t so lucky, so I convinced Lindsay to visit the Darulaman Wildlife Sanctuary and do an early morning bird tour with a guide.

Step one: hornbill lands beside the sign at the visitor centre!

The walk took us a short way up into the Forest Preserve of Gunung Ray, then down via the public access area frequented by locals for picnics and river swims. Funny thing is, while inside the Sanctuary, it was hard to spot anything for all the dense foliage and high trees. Our guide would hear a bird, but we often couldn’t lay eyes on it. It was wonderful to start the day like that, but once we got to the public picnic area beside the sanctuary, we saw nearly everything we had hoped to, and some unexpected ones:

No joke, this wasp was over 8cm long. I was very glad when Lindsay pointed it out, very dead on the ground. While I love seeing the massive bees here, and many of the amazing wasps, a flying wasp of this size would probably make me run.
It’s apparently rare to spot one of the Black Giant Squirrels, but Lindsay has a keen eye and saw two!
Saw this Wreathed Hornbill and its mate a couple of times. They soared high above the trees, so were very hard to photograph.
Drongo are a very vocal and gregarious bird. They have a special relationship with the Dusky Leaf Monkey. The monkeys stir up insects as they zoom through the forest, which makes for easy feeding for the Drongo. In return, the Drongo sounds an alarm when large birds of prey are nearby. We grew to adore them during our time in Langkawi.
This Goofy-Lipped Rainbow-eyed Dragonfly (unofficial name) has lips? I swear its lips were moving.
Check out those golden eyes and nearly invisible wings.
Ok, not reeealy wildlife, but here is one of 3 feral puppies living outside the Sanctuary headquarters. They were terribly cute, and terribly covered in fleas. Unfortunately there are so many puppies like this on Langkawi that the local rescue agency has no capacity to help them. Staff at the Sanctuary were caring for them and their mother with food and water.

This is just a partial log of what we saw that day. Wagtail, bee eaters, macaque monkeys. And just for show, as Linday and I rode away, a wreathed hornbill swooped low across the road. We left there very happy.

The David Attenborough Moment

This, of course, is the point in the nature story when David would remind us that these amazing creatures are under threat. It’s true. Development in tourist areas on Langkawi does push as far as it can into natural areas, and continues today. Seemingly, there are no limits.

But there is a bit of a good-news story here: the marsh and paddy are part of a waste water treatment complex. The marsh and paddy are the outflow zones, carved out of the jungle. So in a way, this particular area might be considered a win for wildlife, or at least a lesser of evils, because there isn’t really a nearby place that combines hilly jungle terrain and wetland. I am grateful for what I witnessed there, and happy to see thriving wildlife.

I urge the leaders of Langkawi’s development make a sharp turn towards genuine shoreline and near-shore conservation for this island’s most vulnerable inhabitants.

The wildlife there are, after all, more unique, more irreplaceable, and most of all, far more Malaysian than literally anything near the tourist beaches, where the word “wild” more likely refers to human behaviour than to animals.

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