The 2024 International Show Cave Association Conference will be held in Mulu National Park, 28 September – 6 October. There will be pre- and post conference activities and trips. See more on ISCA Vol 24 July-Aug newsletter and Vol 25 Sept-Oct newsletter. This will be the first ISCA conference in SE Asia.
See more on ISCA.
And see Archives 2024 on my webpage for media links.
On 23 Aug 2024 an 8 m deep sinkhole suddenly opened in Jalan Masjid India, in Kuala Lumpur. A visitor from India fell in. A major search and rescue operation began but still hadn't found her 6 days later. The Fire and Rescue Department's scuba unit were involved.
Photo from The Star 26 Aug -
27 Aug sniffer dogs were used to try and find the victim. "Two English Springer Spaniel dogs are being brought in to assist in locating the victim due to their excellent detection capabilities in the water.". And four people from Indian NGOs conducted religious rites to aid the search in finding the victim. Yellow chrysanthemums will be released into the river as a form of offering to the victim (The Sun 28 Aug).
Meanwhile another sinkhole opened early on 28 Aug, about 50 m from the first one.
On 30 Aug, the 8th day, the efforts were to clear a backlog or 15-metre blockage. Later the search at the sinkhole was halted but will continue at the Pantai Dalam IWK sewage plant.
The search for the victim was called off on the 9th day, Sat 31 Aug 2024, The Star report.
Gunung Kanthan's Last Defence : Save the Monastery, Save Gunung Kanthan (For Petition).
The video has been reloaded on youtube and can be seen here.
Some very exciting news about cave art was released in early July 2024. An article in Nature, 03 July 2024, about the cave art at Maros-Pangkep, Sulawesi, Indonesia. It has been re-dated using laser-ablation U-series imaging, giving a result of over 51,200 years. So this makes it the oldest known narrative rock art showing human-animal interactions. This predates similar European art.
Previous dating was based on solution uranium-series (U-series) analysis of calcite deposits overlying rock art in the limestone caves of Maros-Pangkep. There a hunting scene from Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4, was originally dated using the previous approach to a minimum of 43,900 years ago. The new technique gives a minimum age of 50.2 ± 2.2 ka, so is at least 4,040 years older than thought.
Also "a newly described cave art scene at Leang Karampuang. Painted at least 51,200 years ago, this narrative composition, which depicts human-like figures interacting with a pig, is now the earliest known surviving example of representational art, and visual storytelling, in the world."
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See my other blogs on Indonesian rock art
Oldest cave art again found in Indonesia Jan 2021
Sulawesi cave paintings now older than first thought Oct 2014
Cave of Hands, Leang Leang, Maros, Sulawesi Nov 2011
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For a long list of media references to the new dating, see SEAArch .
In 2000, in Dark Cave at Batu Caves in Malaysia, I saw 3 cave racers mating. I put some photos on my cave website -
The cave racer used to be classed as Elaphe taeniura but is now known as Orthriophis taeniurus. It inhabits limestone caves all over Asia ranging from China, down through the Asian mainland to Malaysia and Borneo. It is commonly seen in caves. There are around 10 species.
I wrote a note on the mating racers in The Malaysian Naturalist, 2002, Dec, 56(2)8 -
The latest edition of my Malaysian Cave Bibliography has just been published, and includes references up to 2023.
Published April 2024 by Berliner Höhlenkundliche Berichte (BHB), Vol 89. 247 pp.
It contains about 6170 references to Malaysian caves and karst, dating from the 1700s to 2023. In addition there is an extensive newspaper biblio covering 1911 – 2023.
See more on my caving website, and also the BHB page, under publications.
Book costs 15 US$ / 15 £ / 15 € plus shipping and can be ordered directly from the BHB page, or contact me for details.
