Day 396: Sepilok

May 4 - Heavy rain most of the night. Still raining when we eat breakfast at 8:30. Wait around until close to 10:00 and it lets down a bit, so we go on over to the RDC for the day.

There was an oriental pied hornbill outside our room in the morning.

First stop by the Plant Discovery Garden.

Entrance to the garden.

One of the specialties of this garden is the selection of pitcher plants.

Different type of pitcher plant.

Then we decide to do a hike on a loop going through the western side of the park, passing two of the largest trees in Sepilok. The first is called the Kabili Monster, at 75 meters in height.

The Kabili Monster, a Shorea pauciflora, which is a type of dipterocarpaceae.

A tube-like entrance for a bee nest at the base of the tree.

The area around the tree has been cleared of undergrowth.

Further along the trail, we get into leeches. We are wearing leech socks, so aren’t too concerned about them getting into our flesh. They are from one to four centimeters long, and have an unusual shape best shown in the video below.

The odd movement of leeches. They momentarily root themselves and probe with their other end. Both ends, however, have mouths for sucking blood.

From here we split, as there is both a short and long route to the other large tree. I go the long route, battling many leeches on the way. Janet and Odette go the short way, and arrive much earlier at the Sepilok Giant, a 65 meter tall tree also in the family dipterocarpaceae.

Odette provides scale for the Sepilok Giant.

The lake at the entrance to RDC.

Eat lunch at the café in the park, which surprisingly enough is cheap. Then back to the B&B for a few hours until our night walk starts at 18:00. There is a large group, but we split into smaller groups and head different directions.

Some great sunset colors.

Another view of the sunset.

The first animal we view are flying squirrels. They have wooden houses made for them and strapped to the trees above part of the canopy walk. As we watch, they emerge from their homes, climb up to the tops of the trees, and glide to other trees.

A giant flying squirrel ascending for its first glide of the night.

My unintentional award-winning shot of a flying squirrel taking off from a branch. The camera lens set itself for about a half second exposure.

We go on into the thick jungle paths, where we see a slow loris up in a tree. The slow loris is an unusual animal. True to its name, it moves slowly, and goes to the same trees every night where it scratches the trunk and sucks the sap. Because it leaves permanent marks on the tree, the guides know where it is most likely to find them. The slow loris is also poisonous, but only when it takes a liquid secreted from its arms and combines it with saliva.

Almost hopeless to get a photo of the slow loris. It is the light brown shape on the left side of the brown mass on the tree.

Odette enjoyed this dramatic scene of a wolf spider eating a katydid.

A spiny turtle (Heosemys spinose), walking around quite a ways up from the stream.

Whip scorpion (Thelyphonus sp.).

Other animals we saw but could not get photos of include a mousedeer (only saw the second one the guide pointed out, as they are quick to disappear into the shadows), and a Malayan softshell turtle (Odette spotted that one in a stream).

Malaysia (Sabah)