And can't have a post without a photo, so how about some baby birds...
Having slightly faster internet today I have made a few posts and of note, I updated the coffin cave posting with more photos so check it out.
And can't have a post without a photo, so how about some baby birds...
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This is our last day here in Sukau and working at the Gomantong caves. I have wrapped up my work and am taking time today around town to catch up on things and organize for the trek home. Tonight will be my last night in a hotel for a couple of days, so it will be a slog. Interestingly, due to a mis-communication, we got booted from the Greenview and will be spending tonight at the Barefoot Lodge. Nice place, but no air conditioning, so I am hoping it is a cool nights as my last night in a bed for a long time. First up, Guy and his quad copter. He is using it to take aerial videos and it gets some great footage. It's also just fun to watch him zoom the thing around. And I should put up another bat. This is Hipposideros diadema, an insectivorous bat that has some very cool white spots down its sides. And yesterday, the nest guards were on high alert as some nest harvesting has started and they have to stay sharp as there is a lot of activity. And up at the top of the pit?
I spent most of the day by myself in the upper cave photographing colonies of bats and birds on the ceilings. I will eventually put up a couple of those shots, but for tonight it is late some random shots. I spent today staring at the ceiling of the upper cave, mapping out all the colonies of bats and swiftlets. Didn't take any photos, but hope to go back and get photos of lots of the colonies soon. But we stayed late and watched the bat emergence. Something like a million bats (mostly wrinkle-faced bats) pour out of the cave at sunset every evening, and it is amazing to watch. I think Guy got some great video footage. Since it was dark when we got off the hill, I had a look around to see if any animals were around. Not many, but some. The internet here has been so slow the last few days that I haven't been able to put up the stories that I would like. Last night took 1.5 hours just to get one picture up before I gave up. Tonight things seem a bit better so I am going to try and show some pics from today's adventure at the Kuris Pit entrance to the Black Cave (Simud Putih). First thing we did was head over to the cave area and pack up all our camera, video and vertical gear. This entrance leads to a catwalk used by the nesters who collect the bird nests, and we weren't sure what we would find but we were sure there was an 85-meter sheer drop at the lip of the pit. We reached the entrance and had a very nice view. The first part is the protected buffer forest around the caves, which is a bit over 3,000 hectares. Beyond that are oil palm plantations on most everything except the other steep hills. To get in the entrance, we had to go through the guard hut. These guys protect the bird nests from thieves. Just outside there was a hawk-eagle sitting in a tree. I think it is a Wallace's hawk-eagle At first, the guard for the entrance we wanted to work in was scared to let us in. For good reason, as he wasn't aware we were coming and wanted some assurance from his boss that this would be okay. After a few phone calls by the surface manager on the hill, it was confirmed that we had permits to enter the cave and so the work began. First up, Guy filming Benjamin as he starts the first laser scan on the entrance. So they brought the scanner to the lip and ran it. Next up, Don McFarlane forged the way down to the catwalk with a short rappel. There was a lot going on at this point. Benjamin was watching the scanner, there was a local with a safety harness attached to a rope to keep an eye on us, the area boss for the entrances in this area was making sure things went well, and then there is Don playing at the top of this big pit The guard shack is right at the cave entrance, and all the metal sheeting is so that any thieves would have to make a lot of noise to get in the cave. So, the scanner is down on the catwalk and they get the scan. And finally, the crazy mappers took the scanner out the catwalk to get a final scan from around the corner and the last part of the cave we hadn't mapped in this area. Success!
Because this is a three-week caving trip, we built in one day off. And that was today, so of course, we went to some caves. There is a hill with some caves in it that have 500-900 year old wooden coffins in it. Just had to see that. Agop Batu Tulug is a small limestone hill just beyond Gomantong. There are three caves that they note, but they have a trail around the hill and there are a couple of other short caves as well. Since this went so well, we went off to find something to make a mess of. We chose trying to find the elephant sanctuary. There is a sign along the road and we turned into a massive oil palm plantation. Drove in, many turns no signs. Drove out. Found a guy on a tractor who pointed to the correct turn. Drove in. Just when we figured all was lost we found a dilapidated sign pointing the way. Drove through a mud bog in the 12-seater mini-bus. Parked the bus and could see a building. Started walking. No one spoke English at the building (a construction site) nor seemed to know where the elephants were. Failed. Now our trip was complete.
This morning we climbed the hill with much gear. Earlier we rigged the traverse to a section of upper cave that we could not map otherwise. Today we mapped it. As usual, the internet is brutally slow. And yet again I note I am not able to write great text nor get in all the pics I would like to. Hope you like what I am able to post
Some passage shots from the Black Cave. Internet is too slow tonight! Will try one more time to load anothe photo but after one hour I just have two pics up. Gonna sign off unless a miracle happens and things get faster. It is too late to do more tonight. So hoping for faster internet tomorrow so I can put up more photos and spend some time describing what is going on with the caves and all.
Finally got into Situm Putih today. The laser scanning of the cave is nearly done and I wanted to see it with the whole team in there to maybe get a photo or two. I will be spending more time there, but it was fun to see the place finally.
I only have a couple photos from the trip for this post, but they should give a sense of how big the passages are. Today's mission was to traverse across a steep slope 150 feet off the floor to view one of the last two areas of Simud Hitam that we have not been able to either visit or have our LiDAR laser mapping machine see from some vantage point. So, let's get right to that bit with a couple pics of the traverse. Almost there... and then he was and rigged a tie-off so the traverse is now rigged and safe to bring the laser scanner over and map that area of the cave. That should happen soon. And all the corrugated metal sheets are so that if anyone tries to sneak in they will make a lot of noise and wake the guards.
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Keith Christenson Wildlife Biologist Archives
September 2021
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