Borneo Dispatches #63: Scraping The Barrel

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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Borneo Dispatches #63: Scraping The Barrel

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Happy New Year, everyone!

Here's the first Dispatch of 2013, and it's pretty much the lamest I've done so far: all these photos were taken in 2012, went into subfolders to be posted in individual Dispatches, but as time went on, those Dispatches never saw the light of the day, as they were replaced by more current ones, and thus, these photos molded away in the dank basements of my FHF folder. But some of them are worth showing, even without any coherent narrative, so here they are: the dregs of 2012!

Aplopeltura boa, a slug-eating snake that can easily be hand-fed with snails. "Amazing" doesn't even begin to describe how fast these guys can chug-a-lug a snail. Also very interesting the coiling mechanism that's triggered when you handle them too deftly.
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Malayan Box Turtle, Cuora amboinensis. Road-cruised in a mangrove swamp.
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Yep. That's it.
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Gasteracantha hasselti, from the family of Horned Spiders, all of which are as beautiful as they're outlandish.
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Lunchtime at Jong's Crocodile Farm. As opposed to white men, salties can jump.
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Cauliflory - flowers and fruit growing right straight out of the trunk - is cool. These fruit, however (Baccaurea lanceolata), were underwhelming in most other departments....unless you like your lychees thrice as sour as lemons.
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(Species above and below not related)
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Female Bornean Green Keeled Pitviper (Tropidolaemus subannulatus). A common snake, but the fully-grown adults are always spectacular. (this one's a juvie, though)
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Daring dame, defying death.
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A golf course in the clouds, surrounded by rainforest. Very lovely. So lovely, in fact, that Sarawak's Chief Minister had himself a house built right next to Hole 17.
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Durio zibethinus, God of Fruit. Donations to the Church of Durian can be sent to the usual Swiss bank account.
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Bornean Forest PaTroll
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Ribbit
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #63: Scraping The Barrel

Post by Ribbit »

Oh my god, an entire truckful of Durian! My nostrils quiver with delight.

I love the squashy face of that slug-eater, very distinctive.

John
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Mark Brown
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #63: Scraping The Barrel

Post by Mark Brown »

Great stuff, as usual, Hans!!! My folks live on a golf course, and from their experiences, I hope that the Chief Minister has a good glazier on contract!
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #63: Scraping The Barrel

Post by walk-about »

I love this post. That pitviper is simply gorgeous! Is the slug-eater a rear fanged specie by chance?
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #63: Scraping The Barrel

Post by Azemiops »

We visited Jong's Crocodile Farm whilst we were in Kuching, and I was quite impressed with the place. We did only have about 25 minutes there to quickly look around before the last bus back to Kuching though!

I had to whiz past the durian pictures... it brings back to many nauseating memories. I would still quite like to try it frozen though, as you suggested.
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #63: Scraping The Barrel

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Thanks for the comments, all!

Mark, I'm sure not only an Chief Minister Taib afford the best glazier in Borneo, but shooting out the Boss's windows is probably subject to capital punishment.
walk-about wrote:Is the slug-eater a rear fanged specie by chance?
No, just a li'l old snail connoisseur. By the way, it seems that slug-eating snakes are not considered colubrids anymore now, but have their own family, like homalopsids and pythons.

Tom, I suggest you wait until you're back in the region before you buy your next durian. I'm sure the ones in the UK are horrible!
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #63: Scraping The Barrel

Post by Ruxs »

Hans Breuer (twoton) wrote:Happy New Year, everyone!


Aplopeltura boa, a slug-eating snake that can easily be hand-fed with snails. "Amazing" doesn't even begin to describe how fast these guys can chug-a-lug a snail. Also very interesting the coiling mechanism that's triggered when you handle them too deftly.
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'Chug-a-lug a snail' :lol: I love Slug Snakes, they are so friendly and always look like they have a big grin on their faces! I fed my last captured P. Margaritophorus a slug right from the thumb. I was such an idiot not to video it though :(. Whatever, those guys are common so I'll do it next time and get a post up to prove it.

The narrative in this post, Hans, was one of your best to date, really entertaining, nice work buddy!

Rupert.
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #63: Scraping The Barrel

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Ruxs wrote:The narrative in this post, Hans, was one of your best to date, really entertaining, nice work buddy!
Thank you! I assume you're referring to the unusual lack of actual text :-)
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #63: Scraping The Barrel

Post by DavidG »

OMG, slug-eating snakes must be some of the coolest snakes alive... King cobras, pythons, kraits and bisons - cool - BUT NOTHING compares to finding a slug-eating snake.
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #63: Scraping The Barrel

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

David, I wish I could share your enthusiasm...but when after three hours of cruising in hammering rain every damn snake you find is a slug eater (and there's lots of species here), you slowly begin to hate them. Gimme a bison anytime :-)
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #63: Scraping The Barrel

Post by Rags »

Hi Hans, I enjoyed the post. Any thread containing 'King of Fruit' is a winner for me.

My copy of Indraneil Das' new book arrived today and I see from the checklist at the back that Tropidolaemus wagleri is marked absent on Borneo. A bit of a surprise - are they now Bornean Green Keeled Pitvipers (Tropidolaemus subannulatus) ?
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #63: Scraping The Barrel

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Hi Rags,

thanks for the compliment!

Yes, T. wagleri is history down here now. As of last November (I think), all those green pitvipers you see in the usual tourist places are now T. subannulatus . Unless you see Popeia sabahi, but that's not very widespread at all, especially in the lowlands.
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #63: Scraping The Barrel

Post by Rags »

Thanks for clearing that up. Time to re-label some old photos.
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Re: Borneo Dispatches #63: Scraping The Barrel

Post by mikemike »

Great post as per usual, Hans! I'm a sucker for little fat faced slug eaters of all genera!
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