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The Habitat Foundation

A commitment to conserve biodiversity and life-sustaining ecosystems

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    • Habitalk: The Bats of Penang — Our Invisible Heroes
    • Habitalk: Selami dan Dekati bersama Husni Che Ngah

Oct 10 2018

Night Spotting Project

The Night Spotting Project, led by Priscillia Miard, from Universiti Sains Malaysia, is making a difference by providing insights into the ecology of nocturnal mammals using new wildlife sensing technology such as thermal cameras and ultrasound.
Sunda slow loris (Nycticebus coucang)The Sunda slow loris is a rare and endangered animal in Malaysia. However, a small number of them do live on Penang Island. They are the only venomous primate in the world. One bite can cause a person to go into anaphylactic shock which can be fatal. However, slow lorises are peaceful and gentle animals and will never attack unless in self-defense. They generally want to be left alone to feed on the sap of trees, insects, and nectar. Their name comes from the fact that they move really slowly, but they can actually move away really fast when they are scared.
Sunda Colugo (Galeopterus variegatus)This picture is one of our favourites! Colugos are really misunderstood but beautiful animals. Most of the time people do not see them because they look just like the trees that they are clinging to. In this picture, you can really see the baby looking around. Usually the baby will hide inside the pouch the mother makes by curling up her tail. We do not know if the baby only stays with its mum or whether it is sometimes the father that is the caregiver. This is something we need to study more! Colugos are pretty shy but they often stay still long enough for you to observe them without making noise. Did you know that you can see colugos in Penang Botanic Gardens?
A colugo feeding on durian flowers
Common palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus)While you are sleeping, the common palm civet is probably one of our most common nighttime visitors to your gardens! Sometimes you may hear them running on your rooftop or playing chasing games in your ceiling. Civets have been able to adapt to living in agricultural areas and in housing estates. You can tell a common palm civet by the three lines along the length of its body. They feed on wild fruit, the sap of flowers, lizards, snakes, frogs, eggs, and insects.
Pangolin (Manis javanica)There are eight species of pangolin and the one in Malaysia is called the Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica). Pangolins are the world’s most hunted animal. They are sought after for their meat and scales which are used in traditional medicine. The Sunda pangolin is Critically Endangered. It is a totally protected species so it is illegal to kill them, keep them, or even disturb them. They only eat insects.
Horsfield’s Flying squirrel (Lomys horsfieldii)This small species of flying squirrel is a nightmare to capture on camera! They move so fast and are really hard to see. Most of the time we can hear them but cannot see them. In this picture, we were lucky to see two individuals just hanging out on a branch without moving too much.
Another view of the Horsfield's flying squirrel. Unlike what their name says, these squirrels don’t really fly, they glide from tree to tree.
Leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis)The leopard cat is one of the most successful hunters of the Malaysian rainforest! It is just a little bigger than a domestic cat and weighs between 3 and 7 kilos. Admired for their striking markings and fur, these small cats are efficient at catching their favourite prey of rodents, lizards, and birds both on land and in the trees. In fact, unlike most cats, leopard cats are also good swimmers and have slightly webbed paws to assist them in the water!
Lesser mousedeer (Tragulus kanchil)An iconic species of the Malaysian rainforest, the mousedeer is also the world’s smallest known hoofed mammal. A full-grown mousedeer weighs only 2 kilos and is only about 45 cm long. In Malaysian folklore the mousedeer makes up for its diminutive size with its great intellect which allows it to outsmart predators wanting to make a meal of it. The reality is that today the mousedeer is vulnerable to predation by animals like feral dogs living at the edge of human settlements.
Red giant flying squirrel (Petaurista petaurista)The red giant flying is a striking dark red colour and has a membrane of skin between its legs and arms that gives it the ability to glide between trees, sometimes distances of over 70 metres! Females nest in holes high above the ground. They need really good forest with big tree and cannot survive in highly disturbed areas. They generally only emerge after sundown to feed on conifer cones, leaves and branches, and fruit and nuts.
Fruit bat (Cynopterus spp.)Fruit bats like their name suggests eat fruits! The one in this picture is eating a sea almond or ketapang (Terminalia catappa). Fruit bats have good eyesight unlike the smaller bats that use echolocation to hunt insects. These bats are important seed dispersers for a number of species of fruiting trees. They are easy to spot at night as they have red eyeshine like many nocturnal mammals.
Buffy fishing owl (Ketupa ketupu)With its distinctive yellow eyes and its alarmed expression, this owl is probably the biggest you will see on Penang Island. It is mainly seen near beaches, rivers and mangroves. Buffy fish owls mainly feed on fish, crabs and reptiles but they also prey on rats, large insects and bats.
Collared scops owl (Otus lettia)This adorable owl is really tiny! It makes a particular sound which is easy to recognize at night as a single hoot “buuo”. They are not easy to see as they are really small and well camouflaged in the forest. They feed on beetles, grasshoppers and sometimes lizards.

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THE HABITAT HUB – FEB 2021

EVENTS

Habitalk: Selami dan Dekati bersama Husni Che Ngah

Husni Che Ngah is a Penang-based macrophotographer whose images of Malaysian wildlife have come to captivate and mesmerize us with their detail. Through his lens we gain a new appreciation of creatures so small that we often miss noticing them at all. Husni will be taking us another special journey this March! Don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy the visual feast and to interact with Husni. This free Habitalk will be in Bahasa Malaysia and will be streamed live on Facebook and our YouTube Channel.

Habitalk: The Bats of Penang — Our Invisible Heroes

For our next Habitalk, we sent out a bat-signal to Dr. Nurul ‘Ain Elias to help us learn about the bats of Penang. From her research we know that there are at least 16 species of bats in our urban environment performing various services under cover of night. Join us for this live webinar on Youtube and Facebook to find out more about these elusive creatures. This free virtual talk will be live streamed on 24 February at 5 PM. Save the date and watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fXiWH940Crc.

RECIPIENTS OF OUR 2021 GRANTS

Recent Posts

  • Habitalk: Selami dan Dekati bersama Husni Che Ngah February 13, 2021
  • Habitalk: The Bats of Penang — Our Invisible Heroes February 9, 2021
  • Empowering the next generation of community leaders January 20, 2021

The Habitat Gift Shop is now online!

For every RM100 spent at The Habitat Gift Shop, we will contribute RM10 to our Habitat Restoration Initiative. Visit thehabitatgiftshop.com today.

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Address:
The Habitat Foundation
The Habitat Penang Hill
Bukit Bendera,
11300 Penang, MALAYSIA.

Email:
thf@habitatfoundation.org.my

Phone:
+604 – 8267677

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