Sarawak: A Kelabit Highway?

The next morning - January 16, 2012 - we made a pre-dawn start for what turned out (thanks to the rain, and its effect on the ghastly roads) to be our destination for the following three days, the kampung of Pa Mada. The logging road between Long Peluan and Pa Mada is “navigable” – by which I mean, navigable in a four-wheel drive vehicle manned by a really skilled driver.

Fortunately we had such a combination; the road was slick from recent rains, and boasted ruts that could stand in for the Grand Canyon.  Isai and his brother Barahim decided to set off early (by 4 AM), so I wasn’t able to see much of the roadside forest near Long Peluan itself.  

Dawn found us traversing some forty or more kilometers of what appears to be excellent lower montane habitat, amid some really beautiful mountain scenery. The country reminded me of one of my favourite spots in Sarawak, the overlook point at Borneo Highlands - except that there was a lot more of it. Birds along the way were mostly species that also turn up at Borneo Highlands. 

Here, for example, is a Blyth's Hawk-Eagle (Nisaetus alboniger) - a species I last saw circling overhead as Borneo Highlands was declared part of an Important Bird Area.

The big difference, of course, is that the road provides access to a lot more habitat.  Judging by call (I saw one bird well), Mountain Barbet (Megalaima monticola), a species not always easy to find in the better-known spots, appears common in the area (I heard, but did not see, numbers of Bornean Barbets (M. eximia) as well. 

One of our first sightings: a Bar-winged Flycatcher-Shrike (Hemipus picatus), a charming little creature that is the holder (with its sole congener the Black-winged Flycatcher-Shrike [Hemipus hirundinaceus]) of one of the most ungainly English names in the bird world.

Its clumsy name reflects ornithological uncertainty as to what this elegant bird actually is.  Most modern guides put Hemipus in the cuckoo-shrike family (Campephagidae), but recent DNA analysis suggests that its closest relatives are the woodshrikes (Tephrodornis) and that these two Asian genera, in their turn, are related to the helmet-shrikes of Africa and the vangas of Madagascar, with the genuine cuckoo-shrikes as quite distant cousins.  Its ancestors may have colonised Asia from Africa some 30 million years ago.

Unfortunately, that means that the otherwise-welcome suggestion to rename the flycatcher-shrikes "pygmy trillers" (doesn't that sound better?) won't do, because trillers (Lalage) really are cuckoo-shrikes, and these aren't.  So we're stuck with "flycatcher-shrike". Anyway, the birds are still cute.

 We saw both Rhinoceros (a pair) and Wreathed Hornbill (Rhyticeros undulatus) on the drive, and heard Great Argus Pheasant (Argusianus argus).  The above is a perfect example of a "record shot" - It's a terrible picture, but there is no question as to what it is.  That white tail, crossed with a wide black band, can only belong to a Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros), my first sighting of Sarawak's state bird in Sarawak.

There were mammals, too: a palm civet, presumably a Masked Palm Civet (Paguma larvata), in the branches of a tree, unseen troops of Bornean gibbons (Hylobates muelleri) serenading us for much of the ride, and a Barking Deer (Muntiacus muntjak) standing on the road edge.  I might have gotten a photo of the deer, but just as I was raising my camera a villager riding in the back of our truck fired his rifle at it.  Fortunately for the deer, either his aim was off or (more likely) his shot was of poor quality.  As the deer bounded off into the brush, I pointed out to Isai that though I respected the need of the locals to hunt, this was perhaps not the way visiting ecotourists might want to encounter wildlife!

Though I kept an eye out for dragonflies I only saw a few en route, including males of Orthetrum glaucum in various states of maturity and pruinosity (the acquisition of the dusty blue deposit that colours the abdomens of mature males).

This flowering Melastoma grew commonly along the roadside.   It is probably the widespread and common "Singapore Rhododendron" Melastoma malabathricum, though there are some more localised melastomes in Borneo.

Another common but spectacular roadside plant: the Bamboo Orchid (Arundina graminifolia), a species that is also a feature along roadsides at places like Fraser's Hill in West Malaysia.

 Rather more impressive is the Nun's Orchid (Phaius tankervilliae). It gets its name from the supposed resemblance of the flower to a nun's cowl. in some places this is a popular houseplant;  one American site recommends it by asking, "Are you looking for a plant with stunning flowers and handsome foliage that's easy to grow and only a total idiot could kill?"  It seems to do equally well along the dusty and muddy edges of a Bornean logging road.  The species ranges from Africa throughout the warmer parts of the  Old World to Australia and the Pacific Islands.

This Bamboo Orchid is playing host to a butterfly, as far as I can tell a member of the large and difficult genus Ypthima (commonly known as Rings), allowing me a nice segue from flowers to butterflies.

This one is definitely an Ypthima, but, lacking a complete illustrated guide to the butterflies of Borneo (as far as I can tell, despite useful but selective books like Butterflies of Borneo and SE Asia by Kazuhisa Otsuka and the soon-to be-published A Naturalist's Guide to the Butterflies of Borneo: Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and Kalimantan by Honor Phillips, there isn't one) I can't be sure which one it is.  Besides, identification of butterflies in this genus seems to be based largely on the number and distribution of eyespots on the underside, and you can't see that in this photograph.

This one is a lot easier: a Common Bluebottle (Graphium sarpedon).

This butterfly, photographed quite late in the afternoon, appears to be an Orange Staff Sergeant (Athyma cams).  The female's stripes are orange, hence the English name. 

As we inched our way lower in elevation and closer to Pa Mada, the forest slowly changed, becoming (so it seemed) gradually taller, lusher and greener.

Trees began to sport the richly-flowered, clambering vines of orange bauhinia (Bauhinia bidentata).

Not far from our destination, a waterfall-fed stream provided a welcome opportunity to wash off the traces of a long and muddy journey...

… and the rocks in the stream-bed provided perches for brilliantly-iridescent damselflies of the genus Vestalis (though which species of this difficult group we are seeing here I cannot say).

I suspect that better naturalists with more time could find all sorts of wonderful things along this road.  If it could only be fixed up and properly maintained, and the forest around it protected, it could be one of the scenery and wildlife highlights of Sarawak - a Kelabit Highway, perhaps, from Long Banga to Bario?  I've suggested the idea to a few people in the Kelabit Community, and I hope it gains some traction, for the sake of the forest, its creatures, and the Kelabit themselves.