Borneo

[mark]

Hi folks, I'm off to Borneo next month which appears to be a herptologists' paradise. I've found lots of info on reptiles and anurans but not much about caudates. Does anyone know of any good field guides for Borneo or Malaysia? (gotta be small as I'm backpacking) Or maybe some advice on what to look out for - other than Orangutans

.

 

[TJ]

Hi Mark. my understanding is that there are no caudates on Borneo or anywhere else in Malaysia or Indonesia for that matter, though I think there are caecilians. The farthest south that newts and sals range in East Asia, as far as I know, is northern Vietnam, northern Thailand, Laos and northern Myanmar.

As far as Borneo goes, I've flown fairly low over it before and have been to Brunei a few times, but never had a chance to explore the place (I hired a speedboat a couple of times to take me clandestinely by river through the deep jungle at night from liquor-scarce Brunei to some bars in Malaysia and back -- but that's another story

).

Sounds like a great trip. Do take lots of frog pics and post them in the anurans area of this site!

(Message edited by TJ on March 10, 2005)

 

[sergé]

Are there salamanders or newts there? Don't think so. You could check amphibiaweb to check. http://dlp.cs.berkeley.edu/aw/

 

[paris]

caecilians!!!!

 

[paris]

hey-whos watching the herd while youre away???

 

[william]

there are definitely no known species in borneo

 

[TJ]

...at least until Mark discovers one

 

[william]

i'll be going to Honduras in a few years going to be a handful of species there, i think there are 2 caecilians and about 7 salamanders, don't ask me on the frogs

. i'm going on an Operation Wallacea trip, where they go out to places like Honduras and Sulawesi and monitor species, they dicovered a new snake species a few years ago

(Message edited by will_j on March 10, 2005)

 

[pollywog]

If you want field guides Robert F. Inger wrote a few books on Borneo:

1) Amphibia Of Borneo.
2) A Field Guide To The Frogs Of Borneo.
3) The Natural History Of Amphibians And Reptiles Of Sabah.

 

[mark]

Thanks for all the advice folks. Shame about the lack of caudates. I promise to leave no rock or log un-turned in an effort to find them

.I'm in Sabah for 3 weeks so the Sabah guide would be very useful to own (thanks for the tip Andrew). Tim - I've got myself 20GB of digital photo storage for the trip so I'll be snapping anything that moves. My wife already has nightmare visions of me chasing huge monitor lizards through the jungle with tragic consequences . I like the sound of catching a boat to the pub! Paris - I'm lucky enough to have a friend who works at the local zoo who can watch the herd whilst I'm away. She'll probably do a better job than me!

(Message edited by aartse_tuyn on March 10, 2005)