Langkawi-Nature.com

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From Dev's Desk

June 2009

We have been busy outdoors and on trips the last weeks; the local school holidays brought a lot of people from other parts of Malaysia and Singapore to our beautiful island. Especially the well priced new direct flights from Singapore to Langkawi are used often and we have seen an increase of Singaporean guests. The weather has been good for the tourists, which means hot and dry, but we could do with some rain once in a while to keep it all nice and green.

I have finally spotted the not so common Nervilia calcicola, an orchid species. This personally gives me a lot of pleasure because I could not recognize this plant as an orchid and now, after finding it, it has been embedded in my brain. This hexagonally shaped leafy plant is found about 2 or 3 meters above the water line and I came across it at high tide on one of our kayaking trips. After carefully pulling it out of loose soil, I could clearly see the awkward looking bulb and confirm that it is indeed the mentioned species. After carefully placing it back and taking note of the surrounding area, one could see that the plant was growing in a horizontal crevice. Now it will be a matter of time to await the flowering to make some more records and photos. This orchid is endemic to Langkawi and not found anywhere else. Therefore mentioning this plant in other states could help us update a taxonomical list. Please do forward any information to us if you have.

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April 2009

We are very happy to inform you that the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) has started a branch on Langkawi. The official launch was on 21 April 2009. Having an own branch on the island is definitely more effective than being part of the Kedah branch on the mainland. This will give more punch and more say to nature lovers and conservationists on the island and hopefully a lot of environmental issues can be treated in a different way and also from the nature and conservation point of view. Our company is supporting the new branch wherever we can.
At the moment a lot of dusky leaf langur babies are changing their colour. The babies are born with a bright orange colour and this will change after about six months.

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March 2009

Slow loris

The real dry season is over and we have daily short and heavy rain showers. As everywhere in the world the climate is changing and we only had 2 full dry months this dry season

instead of 3 or 4 months. We always get a lot of questions about the weather conditions in relation to our trips. Please realise that the rain is mostly short and heavy and after that the conditions are perfect to do a trip. Having rain in the area of your resort does not automatically mean that it will be raining at the starting point of your trip. We always recommend you to come to the starting point of the trip, unless we foresee no improvement. If you are at the starting point and you will still decide not to join the trip with us, we will send you back without any charge for trip or transfer. Let not your day be spoilt by some rain; conditions can change very quickly and you might be missing a wonderful day out.

Our friend and wildlife photographer Tom Reynolds has managed to get a photo of the slow loris, one of the four monkey species on Langkawi. Lorises are mainly solitary, active at night and you might be able to spot one by shining a light through trees and looking for reflective eyeshine. They walk slowly and deliberately through trees and on wires but can move quickly when catching a prey. Diet comprises insects, birds, small mammals and lizards, as well as fruit, nectar and pollen. An adult weigh 1-2 kg and is 30-38cm.

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February 2009
We are in the middle of the dry season and it is really dry at the moment. Is has also been very hot on Langkawi the last weeks and we really welcomed the short rain showers we had in the evenings the last few days. It was a real refreshment for men and nature and the views during the trips are so much clearer and brighter the following day. The hot weather is turning the limestone vegetation dry and brown like trees in autumn and falling leaves are everywhere. The mangrove forests however are evergreen which provides a nice contrast in the scenery and during one of the mangrove trips you will hardly realise that we are in dry season.

One of the drawbacks of the dry season are the bush fires and we are definitely not happy with this at all. Local people are torching bush to clear land which will finally have disastrous consequences for the nature and environment in the future.

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December 2008

Dry season has started now and this means a lot of sunny days and hardly any rain. For me the beauty of Langkawi is at its best during these weeks. At the end of the rainy season it is so beautiful and green and that is exactly what I personally like about this island. We have been very busy preparing ourselves for the coming season. We have trained some new staff, we bought some extra kayaks and produced some new promotion material. We would like to introduce you to Hafizan and Selva, two very passionate guides and real nature lovers. Hafizan teamed up with us last month after working free lance for many years. He is experienced in all sorts of nature trips and you might meet him on one of our trips. You might meet Selva during a boat trip in the mangroves or during a walk and he will be able to entertain you endlessly about all the nature treasures of the mangroves.

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October 2008

We are almost at the end of the rainy season and you can already feel and see the changes as the migratory birds are coming in. The last weeks we have spotted some birds that are rarely spotted on Langkawi like the Common Hoopoe and the Red Collared Dove.

The Purple Swamphen is breeding very well on Langkawi and couples with their chicks can be spotted on various places. We have added some beautiful new bird photos in the photo gallery, so please have a look there.

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