Survival of the Fittest (Day 13 - 14/07/2010)

Team Samhan, one of the two Camera Trap groups of the expedition, was ready to set out to no-man's land on Day 13, which is approximately a 4-hour walk from the Sungai Ingei base camp to Sungai Berar. There was no existing foot trail from the base camp to Sungai Berar and hence, some cutting had to be done by Team Samhan to make a small path with proper labelling on the trees.

The other Camera Trap group, Team Angus, set their journey to one of their existing trails for the purpose of re-setting their camera traps. They also had to walk quite far but they didn't need to camp for the night in the forest.

As for the Small Mammals group, it was the usual busy day for them as the participants went to check their traps in respective trails. Same happened to the Bat group and the Tarsier group and everyone was working hard to gather more data as Phase 1 of the expedition was near to its end.

After breakfast, most of the participants of the expedition were present to bid farewell to Team Samhan as they ventured into the thick, unexplored area to Sungai Berar. Some of the participants were very helpful as they helped the camera trap boys to finalize the packing of their luggage and equipments. It was a very long journey so it's always good to double-check on the things that are to be brought.

The next blog post will be on the Ingei-Berar trip as experienced by the camera trap group, Team Samhan (Samhan, Haji Bakhtiar, Ishlah, Metis and Moon). I'll end today's blog post with these memorable pictures. Stay tuned!

Camera Trap boys getting ready after breakfast
L-R: Moon, Bon and Jeff

Moon (black) helping Ishlah (blue) with the heavy camping bag

Arpin helping to tie the portable gas
stove to one of the camping bags

Metis making sure that he has brought everything!

Moon was all set for his once-in-a-lifetime journey

Both Camera Trap groups (Team Samhan and Team Angus)
posing for a picture prior before their departure

Camera Trap groups: Team Samhan and Team Angus
L-R: Samhan, Haji Bakhtiar, Moon, Ishlah, Arpin, Faisal, Bon,
Jeff, Angus, Metis and Haji Roslan (paramedic)

Team Samhan
L-R: Samhan, Haji Bakhtiar, Moon, Ishlah and Metis

Rangers in the making! ;)

Team Angus
L-R: Arpin, Bon, Jeff, Angus and Faisal

Team Samhan boarding the boat to
cross to the other side of the river

...and off they go!

Salwa of the Small Mammals group in action

Catherine setting up an arboreal small mammal trap

Pei Fen of the Small Mammals group in action

Our expedition leader, Dr. Charles, was also there to supervise
the small mammals group daily during the expedition

Team Angus taking a break from their long walk
L-R: Jeff, Angus, Bon and Faisal

L-R: Jeff, Arpin and Bon

Sembahyang Hajat being conducted at night

To be continued...