Taman Negara home of the Tapir

Taman Negara literally means National Park in Malay. It was established as the king George V National Park by the British in the late 1930s and renamed after independence.  It is the largest national park in peninsular Malaysia and plays an important conservation role in a country in which the forests are rapidly disappearing.

Clearing in forest

I was lucky enough to visit the park over a long Deepavali weekend staying at the Mutiara Taman Negara resort. This is the only resort on the National Park side of the Tembeling river and is on the site of the park headquarters and the start of the walking trails into the park.

Inevitably there were many opportunities to photograph the wildlife within the park. The highlight for me however was an encounter with a semi tame tapir within the grounds of the resort. This animal often visits the resort in the evenings where it has become accustomed to the safe environment and promise of food, before slipping away into the jungle by day.

This beautiful animal sat down, rolled over and promptly went to sleep on the lawn outside of the resort restaurant.

The next evening the tapir returned but appeared to have been attacked by a predator, possibly a leopard or sun bear. It had sustained injuries consistent with a bite to the thigh as well as a large claw mark across the back.

Teeth marks in the tapir's thigh

A tame argus pheasant also wandered around the resort restaurant feeding on dropped crumbs.

There were a number of dung beetles feeding on the droppings left by the large animals.

Walking through the forest at night revealed large numbers of arachnids including this unusual specimen, possibly a tailless whip scorpion.

A Blue Begum butterfly found flying at dusk.

I took a relaxing boat ride along a tributary of the main river followed by a short walk dodging the numerous leeches to a set of rapids called Lata Berkoh.

The Lata Berkoh rapids

With the start of the monsoon season numerous fungi were fruiting in the forest.

One of the quietly distinctive sounds of the jungle is created by thousands of pairs of tiny teeth chewing their way through the fallen logs and leaves. The noise of the termites is something akin to the snap, crackle and pop sound of a bowl of rice crispies.

The Mutiara Resort was a little disappointing on account of it's expensive, average food and average service, however this was made up for by the fantastic location and wildlife.