THE STAR
Saturday July 17, 2004
Chasing tigers and elephants
By Liz Price
Tiger, tiger burning bright
In the middle of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?– from The Tiger, by William Blake (1757-1827)
EVER since my first visit to Asia two decades ago, it has been my ambition to see a wild elephant, and, even more than that, a tiger in the wild.
As I spent months backpacking around India, I visited several nature parks and wildlife sanctuaries. I went to the Jim Corbett National Park where many people managed to see tigers. Indeed the day I arrived, a group of European visitors had just seen a mother tiger with cubs in the morning. This got my hopes up, and I eagerly went in search the next day. I saw nothing.
There were small reptiles, many species of birds, several types of deer, but no tigers. Those feline creatures were certainly elusive. This was the first national park in India, situated in the north of Uttar Pradesh, 300km from Delhi. It was here that Project Tiger was launched 30 years ago with the aim of saving the tiger from extinction. Had they suddenly became extinct on the eve of my visit?
I didn’t even see any wild elephants there, and the park is actually known for its elephants. Where were they all?
I had the choice of doing an elephant safari, which meant riding an elephant in order to spot other wildlife, but opted to do a jeep safari, in the hope that I would cover more terrain. I did, but it was unsuccessful and I was unlucky.
Later on my Indian travels, I went to the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve, the world’s largest delta and mangrove swamp, and the world’s largest estuarine sanctuary, situated 130km from Calcutta in West Bengal. There are an estimated 270 Royal Bengal tigers in the wildlife sanctuary, so I had high hopes. Many of these tigers are man-eaters. They are prone to attacking humans for food, and the locals resort to wearing masks on the back of their heads when working in their fields, in an attempt to put off the tigers.
The tigers usually become man-eaters due to the lack of other suitable prey in the area. There are an average of 40 maulings a year here.
I spent several days in the park, accompanied by armed officers. I slept in remote huts, climbed up watchtowers, sat up overnight. But nothing. Even a dead goat tied to the lower branches of a tree as bait didn’t attract any striped visitors. The Sunderbans is home to spotted deer, wild pigs, monkeys, herons, kingfishers and eagles, and although I saw most of those creatures, the 270 tigers were in hiding.
In Nepal I went to the Royal Chittwan Reserve. This park is noted for its one horned rhino, but it also has tigers. I did a safari on elephant-back to go animal-spotting. Yes I saw the rhinos, which was really wonderful and exciting. But once again, the tigers were conspicuous by their absence.
So I moved on to Thailand, and saw neither of the large mammals I was seeking in the wild. Next stop – Malaysia. I knew Malaysia still had wild tiger and elephant populations, but sightings were not particularly common. I backpacked around Malaysia for two months, and saw neither creature in the wild. I travelled on to Indonesia, knowing I wouldn’t see those creatures there either. In Australia I saw wild camels, but of course no elephants or tigers. I had seen scores of wild elephants in Africa, but my desire was to see the Asian or Indian elephant.
I returned to Malaysia and spent some time doing voluntary projects with WWF Malaysia. This involved camping out in the jungle for days on end, up to 10 days at a time. We saw virtually every creature that lives in Malaysia, except for the rhino and . . . yes, you guessed it, the tiger and elephant.
My closest sighting was in Kelantan when I was on a caving trip. The scientist in the group, Dr Dionysius Sharma (Dino) spotted elephant AND tiger footprints right outside a cave. I was so excited because this was my closest to sighting either of these creatures. There was one print of each, and they were quite fresh. We went into the cave, which emerged on the other side of the hill, where we found mouse-deer, tapir and pig tracks, and more excitingly, three or four fresh elephant footprints.
We decided to go animal spotting that night. We set up camp a safe distance away in some rubber trees, then returned to the area to wait. When I heard a noise, I was convinced it was an elephant, until Dino told me it was a frog. Oh well, try again! We stayed there for several hours, but saw nothing. Once again those pachyderms were not going to show themselves to me.
Over the years I made several trips to Taman Negara, staying up to a month at a time. I spent several nights trekking with one of the rangers, Mat Zin, but we didn’t see what I was looking for – although I did have a nose-to-nose encounter with a large, bird-eating spider which was dangling from a tree. Zin told me that it was very rare for even the rangers to see tigers nowadays. They occasionally see the tracks but not the actual animal.
It was getting frustrating.
I did a lot of trekking alone, and stayed in the hides. I was lucky, and saw the “rarer” mammals such as the tapir and even a panther on one occasion. And I saw elephant footprints and even took photos as evidence. And then Lady Luck smiled on me. I trekked out to the caves in the Kepayang area in Perak, and slept overnight in Gua Kepayang Besar.
Actually I didn’t sleep, as it was the most terrifying night of my life. I was all alone. Firstly, I was startled by lights flashing above my head, until I realised they were merely fireflies, and then I laughed at myself for being so stupid. But after I had settled down to sleep I was disconcerted to hear scuffling and rustling noises close by. I kept shining my torch but could see nothing. The noises continued, and my fears mounted, and then I saw them – porcupine going about their normal nights business, totally unfazed by my presence.
I decided they were quite cute and nothing to worry about. But I still couldn’t sleep.
Outside there was the sound of snuffling and movement and branches cracking. No way was I going out to find out what was there, and I spent the rest of the night restlessly tossing and turning as if I was on a bed of nettles.
As soon as the sun came up, I packed my bags, not wishing to spend a moment longer there than I had to. As I left the cave I walked straight into a pile of fresh, still steaming, elephant dung. That would explain the sound of cracking branches during the night.
I set off on my trek, and about 30 minutes later I suddenly realised there was a large grey form ahead of me. My mind was still unsettled after my scary night and I was still rubbing sleep from my eyes. I wondered what was ahead of me in the gloom of the forest. And then I realised it was the donor of the steaming dung left outside the cave. Eureka! I had found my elephant.
But I am ashamed to say that I ran away. I was so on edge, with nerves as taut as violin strings, that as soon as I saw the creature, I turned tail and quietly hurried away. My mind was telling me stories of how elephants sometimes attack humans, and because I was all alone, I wasn’t prepared to stay and find out. Once I was a safe distance away, I really regretted my action, as I hadn’t even stopped to take a photograph. But better safe than sorry.
Since then, I have been lucky enough to see the wild elephants in the Kinabatangan area of Sabah. I saw a total of about 15, and was able to get very close indeed to some of them. And it was exciting to learn, a month after my visit, that these elephants have been declared to be a new, distinct subspecies, the Pygmy elephant. Originally it was thought they were a member of the Asian elephant group. I was fortunate to have seen them, as not all visitors to that area are so lucky.
So finally, I have seen the Asian elephant and its cousin the Pygmy elephant in the wild. I have seen the African elephant in its natural surroundings. And I’ve ridden the tamed Indian elephant. All that remains now is to track down that elusive tiger . . .
MY MOST terrifying night was the one I spent alone in a cave in Taman Negara. I was kept awake by fears of wild animals, my imagination running riot. Several times during that long night, I saw porcupines walking past, but to my surprise they took no notice and carried on their nocturnal wanderings as if I wasn't there. Fireflies occasionally flew past, their eerie green glow startling me at first.
My main fear, however, was of tigers and elephants. Would I provide a handy meal for a tiger? Or would I be trampled underfoot by an elephant? Elephants at Taman Negara regularly visit caves, although it is not really known why. Maybe they visit to lick salts, like their relatives in the Kitum Caves, Kenya. Although I saw neither tiger nor elephant, I was greeted by a steaming pile of elephant dung only a few metres away when I left the cave in the morning.
Animals found in Malaysian caves range from tiny microscopic organisms invisible to the naked eye right through to elephants. However not all these creatures are troglobites or cave dwellers. Some are troglophiles (animals found in caves but which can also live outside); others are trogloxenes (cave dwellers which go outside to feed). Cave visitors include man and elephants.
Studies on the cave fauna in Malaysia began in 1898 when Ridley examined the Batu Caves in West Malaysia. Various other scientists followed his footsteps, sending their collections worldwide for identification. In Batu Caves alone, more than 144 species of invertebrates were found. Over in Borneo, Lord Medway has done most of the work on cave fauna, mainly in Sarawak, specialising on the bats and swiftlets.
The cave food chain is quite complex, but everything ultimately depends on the bat for survival. This is because the bats are the only creatures that leave the cave to go out and feed. There are two types of bat, the insect eaters and the fruit bats. Each night they would go out to feed on insects, fruits or pollen, and it is their guano or excreta deposited in the cave that supports the whole food chain, from the smallest bug through to the cave-dwelling snake.
The guano of the fruit bats is very nutritious compared to that of the insect bats. This can easily be seen just by looking at the life contained in the guano: the rich fruit bat's guano found near the cave entrance is absolutely heaving with life, much more so than the guano from the insect-eating bats. So the fruit bats in particular support the invertebrates.
Many people have a fear of bats, probably because of legends and Hollywood vampire films. But bats are very useful to man, especially for fruit lovers, as they help to pollinate durian and petai, which flower at night. Without the bats there would be less durians.
They also help to control the insect population. An estimated 1-2 million (maybe more) bats live in Deer Cave in Mulu. Every night they fly out to feed, each one eating at least 10g of insects during a night of hunting, so this is at least 10 tonnes of insects consumed in a single night. Can you imagine 10 tonnes of mosquitoes? This results in a few of tonnes of guano falling onto the floor each day.
Deer Cave is particularly rich in invertebrate life. Bats can be very fussy about which cave to roost in, and if conditions are not quite right they won't stay. A cave without bats means no other animals will be found. The guano is home and food to countless creatures: flies, maggots, beetles, bugs, millipedes, springtails, cockroaches, worms, mites, moths. They make the guano look as if it has a life of its own as it heaves and flows like thick liquid and, if disturbed, the creatures frantically try to bury themselves.
These animals are in turn fed upon by the cave crickets, centipedes, whip scorpions, true scorpions and spiders. And in their turn, all these provide food for small mammals, frogs and toads.
Animal carcasses, especially those of bats, are scavenged almost immediately, and soon nothing remains except the bare skeleton.
The water dwellers such as the debris feeders, larvae and flat worms are eaten by snails, fish, and crabs. Catfish can be seen in some cave rivers and there are various species of white crab, especially in Mulu and Bidi. The bats and the cave swiftlets have parasites such as mite, chiggers, ticks, fleas and flies. Particularly noticeable in Deer Cave are the Hairy Earwigs, which live on the Naked Bats, feeding on oils produced by the bats to protect their skin.
At the top of this whole food chain is the cave racer. The cave racer is the only snake that is adapted to spend its whole life in a cave, feeding exclusively on bats and swiftlets. The racer can climb walls to reach its prey, where it will rest with its head hanging out waiting for its dinner to fly past. It then constricts its prey before swallowing it. Another expert climber is the egg-eating cricket, which will climb to reach swiftlet eggs and chicks left unguarded in nests.
Other types of snakes are occasionally found in caves, especially pythons, but these have come in by accident, and cannot survive there, so we usually try to take them out. Animals using caves as a shelter include moths, fireflies and sandflies. Potter wasps and hornets built nests at cave entrances. Larger animals include rodents, porcupine, pigs, deer, leopard, serow and elephants. Sometimes domestic house cats turn feral and move into a cave.
Many people think of cave fauna as being blind and white in colour, like the Proteus salamander in Slovenia, but this is not the case. The only white troglobite is the cave crab, which is eyeless, and found in Mulu. But the Bidi cave crabs still have eyes and pigments. The blind crabs along with the millipedes and whip scorpions are apparently the only troglobites without eyes. All the others have reduced eyes and pigments.
People have mistaken the white cockroach to be a new species, whereas in fact it is only the normal cockroach which is moulting and has shed its skin. After a short while the white colour will darken to the normal brown. Near urban areas, the house cockroach is making its home in caves and seems to be taking over from the smaller, indigenous cave roach, possibly upsetting the natural balance.
Insect troglobites often have very long feelers to navigate and hunt their prey, and also elongated legs. The feelers and legs can be several times longer than the body, especially the long legged centipedes, the cricket and the whip scorpion. The only two poisonous invertebrates are the centipedes and the scorpion, both of which can also be found in the forest.
Unfortunately, man is also upsetting the balance of the cave ecosystem. Bat guano is collected from many caves for use as fertiliser. This practice has been going on for well over 100 years, and many archaeological remains have been lost through indiscriminate collection. Cockroaches are also taken from caves for bait by fishermen.
The nests of the cave swiftlets have been harvested by man for centuries to make bird's nest soup. The edible nests fetch a high price on the market: one kg of white nest costs more than US$1,700 ($2,500). In the past, the nests were collected all year round, resulting in a depletion of swiftlet numbers. Now, in many caves in Borneo, the harvest is restricted to two or three times a year to give the bird population a chance to recover. During the removal of the nests, baby birds sometimes fall to the floor and they die.
Luckily, many humans are squeamish and repelled by the sight and smell of guano, the bats and cockroaches, and therefore the casual visitor tends to avoid these caves, thereby leaving the fauna undisturbed.
But for people with a genuine interest, caves provide a fascinating place to see a whole range of fauna going about their everyday life.The Brunei Times