Wildlife of S. E. Asia and S. America. A Photo Journal by Francis Burlingham.: 2019

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

Monday, 10 June 2019

Cat Tien NP Vietnam and the Ruby Eyed Pit Viper

Roughly just over a month since my last visit to Cat Tien NP I got the chance to return for a few days. The highlight of this trip was to find the ruby-eyed green pit viper (Cryptelytrops rubeus), a species unknown to science until 2011, and endemic to this part of Vietnam.

Cryptelytrops rubeus (Ruby-eyed green pit viper) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

The snake was in vegetation close to the path to the crocodile lake. It was a young female roughly 40cm in length.

Cryptelytrops rubeus (Ruby-eyed green pit viper) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

At the crocodile lake, a lesser Adjutant was hunting.

Leptoptilos javanicus (Lesser Adjutant) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

Standing at about 1m 20cm tall, this large stork seemed unconcerned by the people in the viewing platform as it wandered by after hunting on the lake edge.

Leptoptilos javanicus (Lesser Adjutant) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

The wet season was well underway and the river through the park was much fuller than before.

Ben Cu Rapids

The vegetation along the trails was visibly higher and the swarms of butterflies that were present on my last visit had all but disappeared. However, different species were now present. Gone were the Graphium puddles on the banks of the rapids. Instead, Papilio (Swallowtail) species now were more common on the road through the park.

Papilio nephelus chaon (Yellow Helen) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

The most numerous were the Yellow Helen butterflies, but also present was the slightly larger Red Helen.

Papilio helenus (Red Helen) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

Previously I had also encountered the rare Blue Helen, making it 3 Helens for the park.

Papilio prexaspes (The Blue Helen) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

Other Papilio included the Lime, Great Mormon, Common Mormon and rather rare Raven.

Papilio polytes (Common Mormon) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

The Graphium species the Common Jay and Great Jay were also still numerous.

From left: Papilio castor (The Common Raven) , Papilio memnon (Great Mormon),Graphium doson (Common Jay), Graphium eurypylus (Great Jay) and Graphium sarpendon (Blue Bottle).

Papilio demoleus (Lime Butterfly) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

The Pagoda Flower, Clerodendrum paniculatum, a tall red flower was blooming throughout the park and attracting a variety of butterflies including loads of wanderer butterflies.

Pareronia hippia (Common Wanderer) on Pagoda Flower, Clerodendrum paniculatum. Cat Tien NP Vietnam

I was lucky enough one night to witness the emergence of thousands of flying termites. These winged male and female termites only emerge once a year to breed and start new colonies. They were attracted by the lights of the hotel.

King and Queen winged termite swarm

Many termites were caught by the local weaver ants, working together on the lamp shades to hold down the queens.

Weaver ant (Oecophylla longinoda)
attacking termite queen

Weaver ants (Oecophylla longinoda)
attacking termite queen

Other termites that fell to the floor were rapidly consumed by the local amphibians.

Kaloula pulchra (Banded Bull Frog) eating termites

Another highlight was this beautiful iridescent blue, day flying moth. A toxic species that mimics the Blue Crow butterflies for protection.

Cyclosia midamia Cat Tien NP Vietnam

Other butterflies included this fruit eating Banded Marquis

Bassarona teuta - (Banded Marquis) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

The dragontail butterflies were also numerous on the main road through the park.

Lamproptera meges (Green Dragontail) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

It was good to be back in the park and to see how the changing season was affecting the wildlife.

I will definitely return again soon.

Cryptelytrops rubeus (Ruby-eyed green pit viper) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

Sunday, 19 May 2019

Cat Tien National Park at Night. Snakes, Scorpions and Tarantulas.

'The night is dark and full of terrors.'

Cat Tien National Park in the South of Vietnam is the nearest place to HCMC to get away and have the chance of seeing decent wildlife. Most of the forest around the park headquarters is recovering secondary forest but is still full of life. Staying within the park boundary is the best way to experience the forest here as it is then possible to go walking at night.

Boiga cyanea (Green Cat Snake) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

The forest at night has a completely different feel to the day as a different set of creatures come out to take advantage of the protection of the darkness. Walking with a lamp a night therefore reveals many animals that would be otherwise unseen. Walking through the forest on my first night proved productive and I did not have to go far before finding the biggest whip scorpion I have ever seen.

Thelyphonida species Cat Tien NP Vietnam

Fittingly the whip scorpion encounter was followed by an encounter with a true scorpion that ran across the path in front of me. Over the next few nights, I encountered no fewer than seven scorpions out hunting. The first two pictures show one that ran out in front of me across the main path through the park. When I followed to photograph it, it adopted this aggressive defensive posture, with its sting raised and its claws up.

Heterometrus laoticus (Vietnam forest scorpion).Cat Tien NP Vietnam

At dusk walking along the main trail in the park, I also came across the tunnel web of this blue-legged tarantula. Despite my best efforts, I failed to coax it out of its hole but I did manage to get this shot of it in its lair. I decide to return later for another go on my last night. However, I was thwarted by a large heard of wild boar, which had taken up residence in the area.

Chilobrachys sp (Blue Legged Tarantula) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

I also came across this otherworldly looking, long-legged centipede feasting on a moth.

Scutigeridae (long legged centipede) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

I always enjoy seeing snakes but on this occasion it took me four nights before I found one. On my final night in the forest, I found this beautiful young cat snake. It was in the grounds of the lodge and emerged from a lantern where it had been sheltering.

Boiga cyanea (Green Cat Snake) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

The nights in the park were alive with moths and I found these fruit moths feasting on fallen star fruit.

Thyas coronata (3 face fruit moth) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

I never grow bored of seeing tokay geckos. These big geckos seem to have largely disappeared from HCMC, sadly often ending up in jars of local spirit, so I was glad to see a few on the buildings in the park.

Gekko gecko (Tockay) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

Wednesday, 15 May 2019

Cat Tien National Park. The Start of the Wet Season.

I have wanted to return to Cat Tien since visiting in the dry season during the Tet holiday last year, and so at the start of May, I stayed for a few days to coincide with the start of the wet season.

I stayed at the park headquarters for the first night and then at Forest Floor Lodge overlooking the Ben Cu Rapids for the rest of my stay. This is a beautiful, peaceful spot surrounded by the forest and with easy access to the riverbank and several trails.

Ben Cu Rapids from Forest Floor Lodge

The gardens around the lodge are a great place to spot colourful forest birds such as this stunning black and red broadbill.

Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchos (black-and-red broadbill ) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

The Gibbons were in good voice again each morning and although I was able to spot them a couple of times, I only managed to get a few grainy shots of this female swinging away from me.

It was a great time to visit as the forest was just starting to come back to life after the first rains of the season a couple of weeks earlier. The forest was still relatively dry and new plant growth had only just begun. Huge numbers of butterflies patrolling the main road through the National Park were the first and most obvious change that I noticed since my last visit. The Pieridae were the most dominant group, closely followed by the Papilionidae genus Graphium and the Nymphalidae Danaine butterflies of the genus Euploea.

The puddling behaviour of these butterflies by the river was spectacular with huge aggregations on the riverbanks either side of the rapids. The genus Graphium was particularly well represented.

Puddling behaviour on the banks of the Ben Cu rapids

Graphium group on the Ben Cu rapids

Graphium group close up

The Pieridae butterflies were dominated by Appias albina darada (the albatross). This variable butterfly was present in white dry season forms as well as the wet season yellow form semi-flava and white form principalis. Closely related and difficult to distinguish Appias paulina was also present. Also seen in the shot below, center right is Cepora iudith (The Orange Gull).

Pieridae Group Ben Cu Rapids Cat Tien Vietnam

Appias paulina distanti Cat Tien NP Vietnam

Cepora nerissa (The Common Gull) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

Cepora nadina (Lesser Gull) Cat Tien NP Vietnam

A walk along the main trail through the park took me past several wallows where larger mammals had created clearings. One of these contained a fantastic aggregation of butterflies from the genus Euploea, the Crow butterflies. Hundreds of the butterflies were congregating upon just three plants of a particular species. I assume that they were Leaf Scratching. A specialised behaviour of Danaine butterflies whereby they extract pyrrolizidine alkaloids from damaged leaves. Both sexes store these chemicals for defence and the males use them as a precursor in the production of pheromones.

Euploea Leaf Scratching

A number of Euploea species were present here including Euploea midamus chloe (Blue Spotted Crow), Euploea mulciber (Striped Blue Crow), Euploea sylvester (Double Branded Blue Crow), Euploea tulliolus dehaani (The Dwarf Crow), Euploea algea limborgii (The long branded Blue Crow), Euploea core (Common Indian Crow), Euploea radamanthus (Magpie Crow)

Euploea Leaf Scratching

The spectacular blue colour of these butterflies is structural and based upon refraction rather than pigment. The colour therefore changes depending upon the angle you view it from.

Euploea mulciber The striped blue crow Cat Tien NP Vietnam

The butterflies were for me the most spectacular and memorable sight in the park and I managed to see a number of species that were new to me. This white Oak Leaf butterfly has great cryptic colouring and shape to its wings at rest, which it opens to reveal a stunning blue colour.