Wildlife of S. E. Asia and S. America. A Photo Journal by Francis Burlingham.: Tiger in the jungle on Pangkor Island

Introduction

Over the last few years I have been lucky enough to live in Thailand, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Colombia and now Brunei. In my spare time I have had the opportunity to travel fairly widely, camera in hand, in search of wildlife. In these posts I aim to share some of these experiences and show you some of the extraordinary wildlife that can be found in these regions. All of the photographs you see within the posts and pages here are my own unless otherwise stated. Copyright © Francis Burlingham 2015

Tuesday, 29 September 2015

Tiger in the jungle on Pangkor Island

I recently turned 'a bit older' and so to get over the fact, took a trip with the family to Pangkor Island for a bit of R&R at Tiger Rock; a nice little boutique resort tucked in the jungle with good food and great hospitality.

Pangkor Island is about 3 hours from KL by road to Lamut and then a short 30 minute ferry trip across the water. A good number of beautiful white bellied sea eagles were soaring high above us as we crossed to the island. Pangkor is a small island where the main industry is fishing. The interior of the island is mainly made up of secondary forest which has been logged for timber at some point. It had a similar feel to the jungle on Tioman with lots of palms under the trees and large granite boulders that had rolled down the steep slopes. Unfortunately as I took this photo we were being affected by the haze; a thick blanket of polluting smoke blowing up from fires started to clear the forest in Sumatra.

Tiger Beer Can, not a real tiger sadly.

As ever I took the opportunity to do a spot of exploring in the jungle with my camera and managed to get a few nice shots of the local wildlife.

I didn't however expect to come across a tiger and manage to get this shot of it!

Unfortunately litter is a familiar theme wherever wild places are easily accessible in Malaysia. The beach that we walked to through the forest was also well covered in plastic washed up from the Straits of Malacca.

Apart from the plastic this would have been a nice beach with white sand and lots of shells washed up from the coral offshore. As we were there, the weather eerily changed from clear blue skies and beautiful sunshine, to grey, as the haze rolled in like sea fog . This gave the place a sombre feel as if in mourning for all the acts of wanton ecological vandalism taking place in the region right now.

Despite feeling somewhat gloomy from the combined effects of haze and washed up plastic I was eventually cheered up walking back through the forest as I managed to get a few good shots of the local wildlife.

Ideopsis gaura The Smaller Wood Nymph

This Dusky Gliding lizard (Draco obscurus) was climbing a tree at the edge of the beach.
Unusually this specimen appears to have blue eyes.

I found this beautiful pair of Oriental Pied Hornbills (Anthracoceros albirostris) near where the forest trail met a fishing village near the remains of an old Dutch Fort . They were relatively unafraid of us and clearly used to being around people.

Back in the resort there were also a few surprises. Being in the forest a number of animals were about.

This magnificent Waggler's Pit Viper (Tropidolaemus wagleri) joined us for breakfast in the low bushes near the restaurant area. This highly venomous snake that brings about respiratory failure in its victims, moved little during the day but was gone by the next morning.

I also managed to find a male Changeable Lizard displaying on short tree trunk. As I approached him and started shooting, his lovely red-orange display colour slowly drained away as he became aware of my presence.