There were a ton of ants at Gomantong, but no one seemed to be getting bitten by them. That is good. But there were a few of these big ones roaming around, and pretty happy not to have been bitten by such. That would have hurt. I am tentatively calling them Camponotus gigas, the giant forest ant.
I still have a number of pics from my last trip to Borneo. Here is one.
The season for collecting nests was a bit later than our trip, but there was some thing going on that we weren't involved with. Collecting nests and moving the birds. I had the opportunity to take some photos and will post more soon.
Lots of arachnids in the caves. Here are a few with more to come.
Rats are common in tropical caves, but in a cave full of nest guards and associated trash they are abundant.
This is the big pit in the lower cave (Simud Hitam or the Black Cave). The bright dot about half-way up the left side of the pic is Warren Roberts, who is reasonably close to the bottom of the pit. Then, down the talus slope, is a nester guard hut where Benjamin Schroeder is sitting.
There were two guards in this hut when I set up the photo, and I really wanted them in the photo, but they didn't speak any English. And every time I tried to tell them to stay for the photo they would indicate that they understood that I wanted them to leave for the photo. Ah well, I got a very nice photo of the pit and guard hut anyway. cockroaches are the norm, but lots of other stuff. There were a lot of monkeys in Sukau, and here are two pics of the pig tailed macaques.
|
AuthorKeith Christenson - Wildlife Biologist Categories
All
Author
Keith Christenson Wildlife Biologist Archives
September 2021
|