The Wildlife of Chilling Waterfall at Kuala Kubu Bharu

The trail to Chilling waterfall offers some good opportunities to spot wildlife despite this being a popular and well travelled route. The waterfall itself is quite spectacular and worth a visit to swim in the cool water of the pool at its base.

The trail to the fall is easy to walk along and follows a river that needs to be crossed several times.
















At the head of the trail I photographed this magnificent yellow and black form of  Wagler's Pit Viper or Temple Viper (Tropidolaemus wagleri). It was sitting in the branches of a bush about 2m off the ground and many hikers were passing oblivious to it's presence.

This venomous and dangerous snake produces a toxin in its venom that is thought to kill its victims by causing respiratory paralysis.

Butterflies are fairly numerous near the camp site at the start of the trail. The Brookes Rajahs Birdwing (Trogonoptera brookiana) is an iconic rainforest and Malaysian butterfly that can be seen in reasonable numbers along the trail. I shot this male that obligingly settled on a leaf for me. The females are more rarely seen as they tend to stay in the tree tops, only occasionally coming down to take nectar from flowers. The males however often fly low, gliding seemingly effortlessly along jungle paths.

The beautiful green iridescent colour on the wings is the result of structural colour not pigment. The structure of the wing interacts with the light to produce optical effects through processes such as refraction and diffraction.

Another insect producing green iridescent colour that can be found near the falls is this beautiful Green Metalwing Damselfly (Neurobasis chinensis).  This green colour cannot be seen when the wings are folded at rest.  After many attempts I eventually managed to shoot it in flight showing off its green colour.