Proboscis Monkey Blog

This blog is in reverse order. Last date to start, so please to begin this blog start here.   

Wednesday 23 March 2006
THE END OF OUR PROBOSCIS MONKEY STORY?

No, this is not the end of our long story and personal contribution in helping to save the amazing Proboscis Monkey.
If any publisher wants an article, book or story after reading this blog or need photos or stock shots for broadcast use, we’ll be pleased to help with our HDV footage, WAV sound files and our personal Proboscis Monkey aka Orang Belanda experiences.
Anyway, we hope you will regularly visit this site for new updates and info. We will continue trying to save the Proboscis Monkey and urging the Malay Government to stop destroying their natural habitat.  They should restore the rain forest at many places where they already have gone too far. If they continue to oil palm-spoil SABA any longer tourists will not come anymore.
KEEP MALAYSIA CLEAN According to Dept. of Tourism Minister Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai it is very important to present Malaysia as a tourist-friendly destination. He aims to attract 20 million tourists in 2007. We hope this Government realizes that in that case they have to promise to preserve the original environment their nature and habitat of all animals. They will also have to educate Sabah inhabitants to keep their country clean and stop littering rubbish!
As tourists we would also like to see immediate action and ask them to stop exploiting everything in their beautiful jungle. It would be a great idea too, to make all Sabahians realize they have to be very careful with nature and not litter all their rubbish in the sea and on land. Everywhere we found plastics polluting the environment. Plastic will not break down in 100 years. Animals and fish can die because of that. Even on Mabul and Sipadan Island the fish are swimming among plastic bags, rags and bottles. In Sandakan harbour in between the houses built on water, we even saw several dead rats in enormous hills of litter on the water.  Even for us European tourists this is neither an unacceptable view, nor on photos and it  certainly is not tourism friendly.
A national campaign KEEP MALAYSIA CLEAN would be very appropriate at the moment. .
Fines on littering (like in Singapore) would be a great idea.
 According to Dept. of Tourism Minister Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai it is very important to present Malaysia as a tourist-friendly destination. He aims to attract 20 million tourists in 2007. We hope this Government realizes that in that case they have to promise to preserve the original environment their nature and habitat of all animals. They will also have to educate Sabah inhabitants to keep their country clean and stop littering rubbish!As tourists we would also like to see immediate action and ask them to stop exploiting everything in their beautiful jungle. It would be a great idea too, to make all Sabahians realize they have to be very careful with nature and not litter all their rubbish in the sea and on land. Everywhere we found plastics polluting the environment. Plastic will not break down in 100 years. Animals and fish can die because of that. Even on Mabul and Sipadan Island the fish are swimming among plastic bags, rags and bottles. In Sandakan harbour in between the houses built on water, we even saw several dead rats in enormous hills of litter on the water.  Even for us European tourists this is neither an unacceptable view, nor on photos and it  certainly is not tourism friendly.A national campaign KEEP MALAYSIA CLEAN would be very appropriate at the moment. .Fines on littering (like in Singapore) would be a great idea. KEEP PROSBOSCIS MONKEY SMILINGCONTACT: According to Dept. of Tourism Minister Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai it is very important to present Malaysia as a tourist-friendly destination. He aims to attract 20 million tourists in 2007. We hope this Government realizes that in that case they have to promise to preserve the original environment their nature and habitat of all animals. They will also have to educate Sabah inhabitants to keep their country clean and stop littering rubbish!As tourists we would also like to see immediate action and ask them to stop exploiting everything in their beautiful jungle. It would be a great idea too, to make all Sabahians realize they have to be very careful with nature and not litter all their rubbish in the sea and on land. Everywhere we found plastics polluting the environment. Plastic will not break down in 100 years. Animals and fish can die because of that. Even on Mabul and Sipadan Island the fish are swimming among plastic bags, rags and bottles. In Sandakan harbour in between the houses built on water, we even saw several dead rats in enormous hills of litter on the water.  Even for us European tourists this is neither an unacceptable view, nor on photos and it  certainly is not tourism friendly.A national campaign KEEP MALAYSIA CLEAN would be very appropriate at the moment. .Fines on littering (like in Singapore) would be a great idea.  According to Dept. of Tourism Minister Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai it is very important to present Malaysia as a tourist-friendly destination. He aims to attract 20 million tourists in 2007. We hope this Government realizes that in that case they have to promise to preserve the original environment their nature and habitat of all animals. They will also have to educate Sabah inhabitants to keep their country clean and stop littering rubbish!As tourists we would also like to see immediate action and ask them to stop exploiting everything in their beautiful jungle. It would be a great idea too, to make all Sabahians realize they have to be very careful with nature and not litter all their rubbish in the sea and on land. Everywhere we found plastics polluting the environment. Plastic will not break down in 100 years. Animals and fish can die because of that. Even on Mabul and Sipadan Island the fish are swimming among plastic bags, rags and bottles. In Sandakan harbour in between the houses built on water, we even saw several dead rats in enormous hills of litter on the water.  Even for us European tourists this is neither an unacceptable view, nor on photos and it  certainly is not tourism friendly.A national campaign KEEP MALAYSIA CLEAN would be very appropriate at the moment. .Fines on littering (like in Singapore) would be a great idea.  CONTACT:
We had a wonderful time visiting the few  Proboscis Hot Spots that are still there and it was very worthwhile. It was great to get this blog opportunity on http://www.proboscismonkey.org/ 
Thanx to Kristina Medici, admire her work and blog help!
   
Anyone please feel free to react on these articles or write your opinions.
CC to  studio…Global-DVC.Org (…=@)
 

We thank Kristina Medici and Enrico Gallingani (webmaster), we admire your work and blog help!  We might soon produce a DVD with footage, pictures and sounds.
We might even organize special Proboscis Monkey Tours if you are interested.
 

Are you interested in publishing our copyright stories, photo, video & sound recordings? Please contact:
Wildlife author and photographer:
Jan van der Meer (the Orang Belanda)
Zandvoort The Netherlands
founder http://www.global-dvc.org/
Dutch weblog http://www.orang-belanda.hyves.nl/
mail:  studio…Global-DVC.Org (…=@)

Tuesday 21 march 2006

Changes of seeing the Proboscis Monkey at Menanggol River in Sukau.

Just some last thoughts about our trips to the Proboscis Monkey Hotspots. This unique creature can fortunately still be observed in its original habitat. Although tour organisations and tour guides will of course always suggest that the chances are higher, after our own six boat trips on the Sungai (=River) Menanggol (the utmost beautiful Kinabatangan tributary for spotting Proboscis Monkeys) and talking with many other tourists and guides we can guess how big the chances are.
These boat trips are offered by almost all five lodges from 4 pm to 6 pm in the afternoon. Private boat trips are 60 RM. You will see only one species of a certain kind on one boat trip

Discovery Tours did all our boat trips during this week. Our Menanggol boat men (with silent electric engines). Samson (right) and his assistant Delila. A great team. Not a single Proboscis or any other wildlife will escape their eyes.  
Just some last thoughts about our trips to all Proboscis Monkey Hotspots. This unique creature can fortunately still be observed in his original habitat. Although tour organisations and tour guides will of course always keep the changes higher, after our own six boat trips on the Sungai (=River) Menanggol (the utmost beautiful Kinabatangan side river for spotting Proboscis Monkeys) and talking with many other tourists and guides we can do a guess how big the changes are you will see one species of a certain kind in one boat trip. These boat trips are offered by almost all five lodges in the afternoon from 4-6 pm. Pivate boattrips are 60 RM.

But first let me be clear, I gave you my own non-commercial view on this. It is my truth. Was it all worthwhile? Is this the best place on this Globe to visit the Proboscis Monkey family?
YES!

But this is not an invitation to large groups of tourists to come to Kinabatangan now. Locals can only handle approximately. 100 tourists a day on very basic accommodations. When the river is high and the roads are impossible to use you can only come by (a more expensive) boat from Kota Kinabalu over sea. For spotting PM, however, Bako Klias or Labuk Bay was hardly any better. For a photographer like me,  Bako and Labuk Bay were fine.The Klias River was too busy and noisy. But the Menanggol River in Sukau is absolutely one of the last remaining beautiful hot spots. At the same time it is very sad to find that the number of PM  are declining every year. Our Discovery Guide mentioned a WFF count in this area of about 2000 PM today. Our guess is that this number is probably much lower.
Stimulating tourism will help the Malay Government to realize and hopefully convince Congress to preserve wildlife and the last bits of forest, instead of destroying more for new palm oil plantations. On the other hand, the several old tourist boats used are very noisy and scare the animals, polluting the clean air by leaving a lot of smoky petrol fumes behind. Silent electric engines could be the answer. Our boat had one and that was perfect.
We suggest some possibilities in case you want to go, just to give you an idea.

This used to be a big rain forest! The odds that it will rain: once every 5 trips. (None of the boats have rain covers; they are all open). The chances you will meet other tourist boats stopping and trying to spot the same species will be one in three boats on a trip (and possibly more!).
The chance that you will see a Proboscis Monkey group on the Menanggol River is once  every trip. But there are certainly also moments you won’t see anything of the kind!  Your best chances are during the afternoon (4-6 pm) trips. You can watch their behaviour (ask the boat man to switch off his noisy engines ASAP) and listen to their large bizarre range of noises including roars, grunts, nasal honks and squeals. (We recorded these unique sounds and quarrels with a macaque group! Great sounds, probably shortly available on DVD, CD or as MP3 on our site).
Seeing  two PM groups on the same trip, could happen once every three trips and seeing more than three groups of PM is once on 10-20 trips.
Seeing a PM group with mothers and babies jumping across this river and sometimes falling down into the water might be seen once on maybe 20 trips. (We were very lucky to see 10 jumps and we filmed several).
To hear Gibbons Sing (early in the morning) may occur once on 8 trips; hardly ever to be seen and to hear a distant Borneo Pygmy Elephant  once on 25 trips.
Actually seeing  a Borneo Pygmy group on the riverside is a possibility on maybe 250 trips. We, again, were very very lucky and made some great shots and sound recordings).
An Orang-utang might be seen here once on 15 trips with the help of a very good spotter/guide, but they are not as active as PM.
What we also saw: many big super white Egrets, Darters, Rhino Hornbill, Wild Boar or Pig, Pied Hornbill, Viper snake, Kingfisher, Long tailed Macaques, Silver Langur, Monitor Lizard, Orang-utangs’ sleeping nests (1,000 here to find and a total of 3,000 left on Borneo and Sumatra), also many beautiful butterflies and many different kinds of trees.
 

THE JAN PROBOSCIS MONKEY BLOG
is written now ‘LIVE’ in Borneo Malaysia
by Jan van der Meer
founder http://www.global-dvc.org/ and
Photographer and DVD-producer
of the Proboscis Monkey in Borneo
other info on Proboscis Monkey in Dutch and more
photographs and first edited videoclips at:
http://www.orang-belanda.hyves.nl/

Sunday 19-03-2006

Orang Utan cross-over rope used by Proboscis Monkeys.

On this evening trip we discovered a large group consisting of one male and 15 ladies some with very young babies. They were daily observed by three Japanese University students making a report on their behaviour in the muddy and swampy tributary banks of this Menanggol river. We could not get more info this time but….. HELLO JAPAN UNIVERSITY we hope you read this blog and will contact us for more PM info, in exchange we have some nice photos of you working there and the PM group you were following.
 

Further down the river we saw another group of PM walking on a thin metal wire. This was really a funny circus act to watch. Originally this wire was meant for Orang-utangs to cross the river because they can’t swim but Proboscis are proficient swimmers: they have webbed back-feet on which they can walk in mangrove areas and swim without sinking.
 

Walking on a thin rope is more tricky and can go wrong as we saw. They can also fly through the air from one tree to another. But they seem to like this wire bridge, because they use it and some of them walked across it like an acrobat trying to keep their balance with their hands but because of their scary way of  running along, one of them missed a step and fell down; fortunately it grabbed successfully a tree branch. If they fall into the water they have to swim for their life because crocodiles like this ‘Monkey snack’. We have not seen any of these monsters but they are undoubtedly present which the locals acknowledge. Tourists are advised not to put their hands along the sides of the boat.
 

What we did see was a mother with her baby jumping. She miscalculated the tree distance on the other side and fell into the water with the baby. After a short swim she safely reached the other side.
 

We wondered whether the baby could break its neck with in the collapse on the surface. Our High Speed Digital film provided the solution; in slow motion we could see in the last frame how she embraced the baby to protect from for the ‘big bang’.
THE JAN PROBOSCIS MONKEY BLOG
is written now ‘LIVE’ in Borneo Malaysia
by Jan van der Meer
founder http://www.global-dvc.org/ and
Photographer and DVD-producer
of the Proboscis Monkey in Borneo
other info on Proboscis Monkey in Dutch and more
photographs and first edited videoclips at:
http://www.orang-belanda.hyves.nl/

Saturday 18-03-2006

Shy Proboscis Monkeys

Spent this morning on the Menanggol River but it was cloudy and dark. Not ideal for photographing, so we started recording sounds again on our MD Walkman with a stereo studio microphone.  The quality is superb.  To go for this real unspoiled jungle music without tourists or boat engine noise we have to rent a boat for our own. We rent one twice a day for only 60 RM ( 15 us dollar).  Its for two hours but no problem if longer. Our captain is Samson. He does not speak English (as many Malay here), but he understands our wishes and surprised us, without asking he mounted a small extra silent motor engine on the boat. Slowly we glide stream upwards through the river in silence this is like a dream.  Ideal for our long shots stock footage in High Definition. 
In the distance we hear some Gibbons singing their morning song. Birds (mainly egrets) all over the place, pity Samson doesn’t know any names of birds except for the Hornbill. We see several kinds of them (will look them up afterwards). The colourful Rhino Hornbill is the most impressive and has many similar friends like the pied white hornbill. 

In our search for PM groups we went as far as we could get upon the river. The end is where there is too much hyacinth water-plants and fallen trees on the river. Right at the end (must be at 25 km) we saw a group of PM but the dominant leader was not amused by our presence. He soon moved in opposite direction with his harem. It seems that this far on the river the PM is more shy than their family at the beginning, those are more used to the boat sounds and noisy tourists. So we decided not to hunt them but float back on the slowly drifting river. It is like a dream, nothing but jungle sounds and some fish jumping above the water.

After coming back we heard that others have seen the big elephant group from yesterday (70-80) crossed the 100-150meter wide Kinabatangan River (with big currents) a view hundred meters further from our lodge.

You can’t have it all…

THE JAN PROBOSCIS MONKEY BLOG
is written now ‘LIVE’ in Borneo Malaysia
by Jan van der Meer
founder http://www.global-dvc.org/ and
Photographer and DVD-producer
of the Proboscis Monkey in Borneo
other info on Proboscis Monkey in Dutch and more
photographs and first edited videoclips at:
http://www.orang-belanda.hyves.nl/

Friday 17-03-2006

Elephants instead of Proboscis Monkey

Today our second day at Menanggol (small River) Lodge from Discovery Tours in Sukau on the riverbank of the Kinabatangan River meaning Long Chinese River (560KM). Named after Chinese doing barter trade with locals for birdnests (soup) and ivory. No wonder local elephants are also nearly extinct. We got to this riverlodge after a 2-3 hours long drive from Sandekan, particularly on a bad sand/mud road through the ongoing palm oil plantations. The guide calls it a relaxing ride with back massage! Far from that. There are some simple very basic lodges (small cabins) with jetty’s along the river, but no jungle sounds here for the tourists but a continual day and night annoying machines and motor engine sound coming from a pump on a large and deep palm-oilboat tanker laying in the river. Day and night filled with tons of oil. On the sandy riversides loud manoeuvring big oil lorries. Amazing that they use a place like this in between tourists lodges. It is like an oil harbour. Absolutely ridiculous to disturb our night rest. Not a recommendable place to be, but no alternatives to visit one of the last remaining PM habitats. Let us hope the tanking only happens a few times, a month or year or as our guide told us this is only happening because of the highwater problems? Hope he is right.  The Kinabatangan River two months ago raised 2-3 meters through heavy rainfall and 3 of the 5 lodges on the side of the river in Sukau were out of order.

But no jungle sounds here for us and to record jungle and bird sounds it is impossible within a large area. Some of them still working hard to get them fixed from water damage. The lodges to be also found on Google for more info are: Sukau River Lodge (Shaban Resthouse) Kinabatangan River Lodge, Proboscis Lodge, and our Sri Menanggol Discovery Tours Lodge. The Proboscis Lodge at the entrance of the best PM spotting sighting side river of the Kinabatangan is the Menanggol and was damaged most. This 27 km long river (at the end connected to the Gomantong caves) is only 10-20 meters wide and the best hot spot for Proboscis. Travel between 4 and 6 pm 3 to 5km upstream, as quite as possible; PM is easily disturbed by the sound of boat engines and human chatter. Also early in the morning between 7 and 8 they will be on the sides of this river, after that they disappear in the small left over mangrove and forest. To see how wide this forest actually is we would love to make some photo’s from the sky. We are sure that on some parts after just a few trees the palmoil field start. We could hear twice on a sunday morning chainsaws!

Also on this river we saw several other endangered forest animals like Hornbill, Egrets, Cormorants, Oriental Darter, and….the Borneo Pygmy Elephants. But the change that you see them is little. But we were very lucky and today in the afternoon excursion we saw some on the riverside part of a group of 60. (only 150 in total here and 2000 in Sabah according to WWF) Pretty soon many other boats park with noisy tourists and loud shouting kids. They think it is Disneyworld here.

The guide told us there were two big groups of this special kind of Elephant remaining in this area some monitored with transponder/sender collars; 150 elephants in total. After that we went a lot further down on the river, far away from disturbing sounds for another PM sound recording and digital video and photo sessions. We realize with tears in our eyes that these sounds are probably soon the last remaining sounds one can tape of the last small left over’s of a beautiful rainforest. After a few miles on the sides of the river the oil fields start. Originally we had to leave tomorrow but we love these boat trips and can’t say goodbye to our beloved Proboscis, need more and more footage, so we decided to stay another three nights.

THE JAN PROBOSCIS MONKEY BLOG
is written now ‘LIVE’ in Borneo Malaysia
by Jan van der Meer
founder http://www.global-dvc.org/ and
Photographer and DVD-producer
of the Proboscis Monkey in Borneo
other info on Proboscis Monkey in Dutch and more
photographs and first edited videoclips at:
http://www.orang-belanda.hyves.nl/

Wednesday 15-03-2006

Adi the photogenic Proboscis Photomodel.

We started phoning Sabah Ministry for Wildlife at KK Miss Jumrafa to get an answer on our question how many PM (Proboscis Monkeys) are living here in Sabah. But as expected she couldn’t say straight away. We had to ask that formally on paper or fax providing info for whom we write and why. So we might try later.
At 10.00 am we were picked up by Mr Sean Lee for a two hours’ ride to Labuk bay, a Proboscis Monkey sanctuary. As usual, we were riding through these sad palm oil plantations. During the drive this enthusiastic employee never stopped talking. Labuk is owned by Mr. Lee, a Chinese who opened Labuk Bay in May 2001 on 470 acres of land. It is about 300 meters wide and 6 km long and surrounded by Palm Oil fields. Our guide estimated that there are about 300 PM living here in approximately 25 groups. In our own opinion this is less. We saw the PM lunch visitor lists of the last few weeks, but there were never more than three or four groups in order to enjoy this ‘pancake attraction’. He hopes this mangrove will be protected and believes the government is also afraid of the possible tsunamis. He is convinced they have to protect the mangroves with the necessary food for our PM.
Every year more tourists get the unique possibility to see the unique Proboscis Monkey from a really close distance. At the start they just got their daily young green leaves from the Sonneratia trees in the mangrove, but some of them got used to the owner and broke into his kitchen and started eating the leftovers from his pancakes. They love it. It’s a  product of corn flour, (no sugar) and water. They also like cucumber and they arrive at certain times to several food stations to enjoy this free daily lunch. The Labuk Staff also won the PM’s trust by curing their wounds, after dominant leadership fights.
 

On the left feeding station in front of the balcony at Labuk Bay, this time there is a big group of 10 bachelors, also called the Boys’ Club. The dominant biggest nose on the left declared war with the harem leader and hurt him probably lethally.
Earlier today the staff heard loud war sounds. The leader of a beautiful 12 ladies’ harem was attacked by the leader of a band of bachelors. This male called Sidane wanted to take over his kingdom and started a bloody fight this morning. He already challenged and hurt the harem lover leader badly, probably fatally. The main problem for a PM is that their wounds don’t heal. They cannot lick their wounds clean. They get infections and die because of that. At Labuk Bay the other day, they found a PM dying and treated his open wounds with insect repellents. This one survived and they gained respect from the group. But today we saw and photographed this new victim of a big fight. Hopefully, he will survive, the more so because there are not many Proboscis left.
The tourists can watch this luncheon meeting from about a 10 to 20 meters’ distance from a first floor deck. There are plans to build two separate viewing points now, one for Europeans and one for the noisy Asians.
 

Also some common macaques and silver leave monkeys appreciate the extra attention and climb down from high trees to eat some long beans thrown on the grass field. We saw one grey silver leave monkey with a cute little brown baby and also a brown albino silver leave monkey. After two hours most tourists had left and to our great surprise we saw one of the younger Proboscis suddenly come right up to us on the first floor.
 

Danny another employee of Labuk was busy doing his homework counting the eating Proboscis.
He told us Adi is a juvenile PM, three years old. Its nose still small but with males it will grow really big. Sometimes it played sometimes with another remarkable visitor: a noisy squeaking otter.
 

There was time enough for me to take some really nice PM close ups. One of the photos looks as if they are shot in our Studio.
Is this what we like to see? A PM posing inside? No! But this was a one-off opportunity I simply could not resist and it shows the absolute beauty of this animal. Let’s hope that others will also get this PM craze and help to save their habitat and the rain forest on Borneo!
THE JAN PROBOSCIS MONKEY BLOG
is written now ‘LIVE’ in Borneo Malaysia
by Jan van der Meer
founder http://www.global-dvc.org/ and
Photographer and DVD-producer
of the Proboscis Monkey in Borneo
other info on Proboscis Monkey in Dutch and more
photographs and first edited videoclips at:
http://www.orang-belanda.hyves.nl/

Thursday 9 march

Chain saws at Survival Island Pulau Tiga

Today we spent some days at Pulau Tiga. This island was used for the American popular TV series Survival Island and the Dutch series Bobo’s in the Bush)
There are no Proboscis here, but we took some good shots and sound recordings of chain saws cutting high trees.
 

Some old sick trees near the lodges had to be cut down. They were a danger in case of a storm. For us this was a unique opportunity to take some very good shots, to be used as stock shots showing the cutting of the rain forest.  
 

Afterwards the macaques, the only monkey species on this island, looked very sad sitting on the trees that had been cut down, a very symbolic image for the destruction of a rain forest.
THE JAN PROBOSCIS MONKEY BLOG
is written now ‘LIVE’ in Borneo Malaysia
by Jan van der Meer
founder http://www.global-dvc.org/ and
Photographer and DVD-producer
of the Proboscis Monkey in Borneo
other info on Proboscis Monkey in Dutch and more
photographs and first edited videoclips at:
http://www.orang-belanda.hyves.nl/

Wednesday 8 march

Proboscis at Klias and Bako

This morning was a dull one. So we made the (wise) decision not to go. Cloudy, no sun, so we could not film our Monkeys in their best colours. We took some early shrimp fisher footage instead; he was busy getting his nets in, all at the South Chinese Sea in front of our doorstep. 

We were glad we also went to Bako National Park in Sarawak as our first Proboscis encounter last month in Sarawak. After four hours waiting at their hot spot we took some fabulous photo and video shots of a big group coming real close. (See our video footage at www.orang-belanda.hyves.nl ).
 

We got the best show so far, with a male walking on the dry mangrove floor, climbing trees, eating leaves all in close range. Mothers showing their babies on camera! But remarkable enough, at Bako we did not hear a single Proboscis making a sound. Here at Klias they are ‘talking’ all the time. Maybe they have to do so because of the noisy motor boats and tourists.
Anyway, at 5 o’clock we did another trip on the Klias river in a big group of decent tourists. Looking very sharply with our two guides, we saw four big groups of Proboscis. Unfortunately the weather was not too good. When it got dark we saw many so-called Christmas trees full of lightning fire flies. A spectacular view, they even flicker all at the same frequency, which is truly amazing.
One favourite joke is here: …..You know why the Proboscis has a big stomach?……
Because he thinks it’s Christmas after seeing the illuminated Christmas tree.
 

THE JAN PROBOSCIS MONKEY BLOG
is written now ‘LIVE’ in Borneo Malaysia
by Jan van der Meer
founder http://www.global-dvc.org/ and
Photographer and DVD-producer
of the Proboscis Monkey in Borneo
other info on Proboscis Monkey in Dutch and more
photographs and first edited videoclips at:
http://www.orang-belanda.hyves.nl/

Tuesday 7 march

5.00 a.m. There’s rain and thunder for the first time in two weeks.
It’s nice for the locals but we hope tomorrow it‘s over. Later that day we heard the owner of the boat went out and suddenly we had to pay a lot again for the first trip which we thought was free. We decided that he charged too much for what it would be worth. We expected the monkeys at Klias River would always be too far away to get a some good shots. They must have a big physical problem with these noisy tourists. “So tomorrow” we’ll  take the full tourist boat and maybe we’ll get some good additive shots and we may throw some Taiwanese into the river if they don’t shut up.
THE JAN PROBOSCIS MONKEY BLOG
is written now ‘LIVE’ in Borneo Malaysia
by Jan van der Meer
founder http://www.global-dvc.org/ and
Photographer and DVD-producer
of the Proboscis Monkey in Borneo
other info on Proboscis Monkey in Dutch and more
photographs and first edited videoclips at:
http://www.orang-belanda.hyves.nl/

For more blogs hit “Previous entries” link underneath!

Monday 6 march
Taiwanees number one on top five list for most irritating behaviour.

Today we made a two-hour car drive from KK to Beaufort. This is a small place near the beach into the south on the road to Brunai. We were going for a boat trip on the Klias River, staying for three days in the Temperung Seaside Lodge on a hill in a very basic room (220 RM a day for the two of us including three excellent meals www.borneo-authentic.com) looking over the South Chinese Sea. We found this in another Internet blog and booked. Not a suitable place for people with walking problems. All rooms can only be reached by a quite difficult jetty like walkways.  We could not wait to see our monkeys. We started our first private boat trip at 4.30 p.m. The boats embarked near a bridge across the Klias River.
Obviously this is one of these typical successful tourist attractions with many companies competing at their own jetty. If a tourist at Kota Kinabalu does not want to make the far trip to the Kinabantang River near Sandakan  this is the place to be, to spot our Proboscis Monkey. Many boats with noisy big 90 HP Evinrude (Ever-rude) petrol engines are ready for the late afternoon sunset trip. Many tourist coaches park along the main road. For our DVD production we rented a boat for ourselves. This way we need not trouble other people and we would not have no noise-troubles from others (we thought). Two widescreen HDV cameras, one on a tripod. Our captain/guide is the very polite, friendly and smiling 32-year-old Malaysian Fauzi Ratip. He has been doing this daily work for 6 years now. In high speed we went to the Proboscis hot spots. We found one after one hour along the Klias River to a smaller tributary called the Kuala Garamma.
 

On this much wider river on both sides are dense swamps with many Sonneratia Cassaloris trees. The Proboscis lives mainly on the leaves of these trees.  Soon I spotted our first male with the big nose. Fauzi immediately turned the boat and attached the rope to some water plants and wisely shuts the noisy engine down. But soon several other boats with about 16 noisy tourists each, noticed us and parked along our boat. As the Malay are very gentle Fauzi did not dare ask them (other companies) to shut down their engines.
Even louder than the sounds of the engines were the noises made by the tourists. They have no respect whatsoever for nature and the Proboscis families. We also wanted to record the typical funny language sounds of the Proboscis Monkey and brought our best professional DPA studio microphones. No way. These Asian people were shouting loudly, laughing, clapping their hands and even smoking. It is a crime and should be stopped.  According to Fauzi’s boss, the ‘Top Sound Chart’ of this most annoying and irritating behaviour ranks as follows:
on 5^th place the Japanese
on 4^th the Italians (‘Sorry’, he said:  ‘there are of course exceptions’),
on 3^rd people from Hong Kong,
on 2^nd people from China.
and on 1^st  the Taiwanese.
They really think it is some kind of football game. No respect for nature and its inhabitants at all. I asked the owner to warn these idiots in future. He should urge them to be quiet or else the boat would  immediately return.
Some years ago we visited the Panda’s in Ocean Park In Hong Kong. No one is allowed to speak, whispering, even coughing is forbidden. Chinese surveillance people carry boards with the word Silence! But the Malay people are obviously too polite and friendly to ask this or even dare ask people personally to shut up and be quiet.  Anyway, because of this matter, on this KLIAS river tour you can almost forget that the Proboscis Monkey will appear in short camera-range. This animal, like a good Malaysian citizen, is very shy and hates noisy tourists!
Because of this a good photo at close range is impossible. They stay far away from the banks. To succeed you need heavy and expensive long paparazzi lenses on high-end or professional cameras. But shooting photos from a boat with long lenses is also very difficult because the boat is rocking and on the river banks you are attacked by many mosquitoes. Fortunately, the owner, after hearing our complaints and our welcome efforts of keeping the Proboscis alive, offered to take us the next morning  on a trip on the river. “No other boats with tourists will be on the river that time and you will be able to record the typical Proboscis sounds”. That’s great! Nevertheless I managed today to get a good interview with our skipper with the Sonneratia and several Proboscis in the background. Fauzi proudly shared with us his knowledge about the Proboscis. Nowadays, after a quick search on “Proboscis Monkey” on Google, you’ll find a lot more info and official literature. Fauzi did not know or where the Malaysian name Orang Belanda came from. We had to tell him! He was pleased to hear from us Dutchies that the Proboscis was given this common name because the early Dutch missionaries and sailors from Holland (Belanda) showed a big resemblance with their big noses and big round stomachs. 
 

Really great were Fauzi’s Proboscis vocal imitations.
We recorded several Proboscis sounds for our coming DVD production. He let us hear the warning sounds with a closed nose, a kind of …. ah ah ah ah. The dominant male calling a female is another nice nasal two-horn trumpet sound. During the mating season the male sounds are like wow, wow, wow (almost human ha-ha). According to Fauzi the Proboscis mates 20 times a day in mating time and his shiny long red penis stays in erection almost all day. The top of it sticking in his hairy belly. Remember, his harem consists of about 8-12 beautiful short-nosed Proboscis Lady Monkeys. A lot of labour….
The sound made when challenging another male for a fight is like a nasal pow, pow.  While Fauzi was  demonstrating these sounds, you could hear the real Proboscis natural angry reaction in the background. Obviously he thought that it was another male and suspected this other Proboscis intended to pinch one of his harem ladies!

PROBOSCIS MONKEY VOCAL COMMUNICATION:

growls: These calls are made by adult males and this functions to calm down another member of the group.

honks: These calls are made by adult males of the group. This functions as an aggressive call which threats other members of the group, and is also made in the presence of predators.

shrieks: These calls are given by juveniles of both sexes and adult females. This is emitted when the individual is agitated or excited.

scream: This vocalization is heard during agonistic interactions (Ruhiyat, 1986). This call is heard during feeding bouts and at night during sleep (Ruhiyat, 1986).
 

THE JAN PROBOSCIS MONKEY BLOG
is written now ‘LIVE’ in Borneo Malaysia
by Jan van der Meer
founder http://www.global-dvc.org/ and
Photographer and DVD-producer
of the Proboscis Monkey in Borneo
other info on Proboscis Monkey in Dutch and more
photographs and first edited videoclips at:
http://www.orang-belanda.hyves.nl/