Night Walk

This seemed to be a popular activity and there were quite a few groups of people going into the national park with a guide at night. It sounds a bit reckless, but you are up on the boardwalk, so fairly safe. The idea is that there are a lot of nocturnal animals and insects to see. 

Our guide, Farih, was born and raised here and was studying entomology. 

The park used to be called The King George V park. - at the time of his reign an engineer and conservationist, Theodore Hubback, lobbied the Sultans of Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan to set aside some land, covering the three states, for the creation of a protected area.

https://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Negara_Malaysia

In 1957 when Malaysia gained independence it was 'inventively' renamed Taman Negara (which our guide said means National Park in Malay.) - so its 'National Park National Park'

There are many animals in the park - the only one I have seen is the Long tailed Macaque monkey. It is these that carry Malaria and Dengue fever which is spread by Mosquitoes. It is more risky in the rainy season and they are working hard to eliminate it.

He told us there are many of these 'cat like' animals called Civets.....we didn't see these and I had not heard of them before

They have black panther - he has seen one of these - and these sometimes come to the edge of the park, where people are. They have Tigers and Elephants too. He said that the Tiger population here is increasing, it was around 30 but they believe numbers are increasing gradually. There are probably around 200 elephants but maybe more. He said they are vague and play down the numbers so as not to attract poachers.

They don't have Orangutan here but interestingly he told us that the name derives from the Malay words orang "person" and hutan "forest" or 'person of the forest' .....it seems he is interested in etymology too!

Generally,  animals stay away from people so our chances to see wildlife are slim.

The first thing he showed us were Malaysian Robin - I couldn't take a good picture myself

We saw them above us in the tree branches, sleeping. They looked like stuffed ornaments they were so still.

We also saw a Giant flying squirrel - also asleep

The bird with the blue head I had seen is actually called a Crested Fireback - another of these was in the trees.

I was surprised at how many insects we saw - Farih was expert at spotting them.

Here a Huntsman Spider. They are hairy and don't use webs to catch their prey but actively hunt - hence the name. They are not deadly to humans

A stick insect - this one was small - they can grow to 30 cm

A cat snake - it has spots on its back that look like cat's eyes. This one was all coiled round the branch

We went to a lookout where sometimes animals come if you are lucky. There was something in the distance - at first I thought it was a Tiger and was getting excited but it was only a deer

These termites were fascinating, moving in rows up and down the tree. Like ants they have a social system of workers, soldiers and reproducers.

We saw many ants including this giant one which can spit acid - they are big! This one was 2 cm long

Grass-hopper

Then Farih got excited, spotting his favourite spider - the David Bowie Huntsman - so named, he thought, due to its similar hair colour

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heteropoda_davidbowie

There was a giant millipede crawling up a tree eating the moss. Sometimes ants feed off the millipedes secretions.

and this - the highlight of the walk - a Giant Scorpion - which he teased out with a stick - tapping the ground to make vibrations as they are blind. Rather him than me! You can see the baby peeping out behind in this video. Sometimes, if the baby scorpions get in front of the adult, they are eaten as prey, since the scorpion cannot see. If you are bitten by this scorpion, he said you would need to go to hospital to get an anti-venom injection. 

There has been flooding in Kuala Tahan from time to time. The worst marked here in 1971 - and one of the worst in Malaysian history. In 2014, Farih's home was flooded and he was sad to lose his favourite 'hello kitty' underwear.....he joked.....😏

• Comparison to 2014 Flood: During the December 2014 floods, the water level of the Sungai Tembeling in Kuala Tahan rose to approximately 75 to 76.56 meters, which was reported as the highest level recorded since the 1971 flood.

Here is the sign zoomed in

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  and zoomed out during the day to get an idea of the water levels:
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It was time to return to the village, crossing back across the river.

and then back to the guesthouse ..... not quite a black panther.......

It took me a while to get to sleep as I was quite hyper after seeing that scorpion.