SARAWAK FIREFLIES: Firefly Night Time ASSESSMENT in Niah River

GENERAL INFORMATION: Firefly Night Time ASSESSMENT

Observers Name : Musa (writer) , Suria and Mohd Akmal.
Jetty/Bert Location: Kampung Sepupok Niah. Location : N3 52.123 E113 43.975
Survey River: Along Sungai Niah, From Sepupok area until just after the Coastal bridge.

The Track 7.3 Km of Niah and Display trees of Firefly survey.

Date :12th. Jan 2010

Field work START Time: 19:02 Field work FINISH Time: 20:41

It was an opportunity for me to do this survey because a friend in Sepupok told me that there were people having good catch fishing freshwater prawn. So we went fishing for udang galah late evening that day. Just our luck, we didn't catch any. As soon as the dark came around 19:00 we started to see the first few fireflies. We packed up all our fishing gear and set up and got ready the gear for fireflies!

The survey was conducted by 3 persons.
Our boat driver, Suria steered the boat and kept watch for any fireflies. Once he pointed to a display tree, I counted the fireflies using a night-vision scope.

Mohd Akmal marked the GPS co-ordinate and took note of how many fireflies were counted, he's also in charge of the net to catch samples.

The first part before a kampong area we saw 3 display trees with an average count of 11 fireflies. We did count 23 individuals flying. Along the kampong area we found only a single firefly.

Just after the Sepupok shop, we found our first display tree WPT 464 with 22 fireflies.
There was an average of 24 found between WPT464 and the last WPT. We noticed that there were boats there casting net for udang galah.

We decided to stop the survey when we noticed the wind blowing slightly and the temperature dropping to 25 ° Centigrade. The barometer reading from the GPS dipped to 24 inches, the rain was on its way. We sped off to the jetty at average speed of 8 km/hr.

We did no see any firefly on the way back, even on the display tree that we have recorded displays previously. It rained just as we reached the jetty, with slightly strong wind. We drove home in heavy rain and reached the house at 22:30.

General observation observation on this part area of the river:
There were no Berembang trees, most have been clear cut for oil-palm many years ago.

We plan to conduct another survey from our last stopping point until the rivermouth proper. We were told by locals that fireflies will be plenty when the air is salty, when the tide comes in from the sea.

PHYSICAL CONDITION:

a.. Moon Phase
Last Waning.

Last waning Phase of the moon.

Moon Light : None.

b. Weather
Drizzling lightly
Relative Humidity: Low
Temperature: cool.
Water temperature 27.2 ° C
Air temperature 27.9 ° C

Wind : Calm, it rained and was very windy when we reach Loc B.
Haze : No

c. River Condition
Current: not moving

Tide in Niah on the 12 JAN 2010

Boat used : Yamaha 3.3 hp.
Survey Average Speed 6.5 Km/hr.
Tide: Mid high

Time : 19:02 sighted first single firefly at the starting Point at Location "A" N3 51.819 E113 45.100.

Start moving at 19:11 From Point A
All along Point A to WPT 463. We encounter 23 individual firefly flying among trees.

WPT 461 19:31:35
12 individual fireflies
We first encounter a Display tree at WPT 461.

WPT 462 Time : 19:36:15
7 individual fireflies

WPT 463 Time : 19:41:50
15 individual fireflies
Between WPT 463 and WPT 464 are Kpg. Dagang and Kpg. Sepupok.

WPT 464 Time : 20:04:46
22 individual fireflies
Between WPT 464 and WPT 472 we noted the fireflies colony to contain
an average of 23 Individual fireflies.

WPT 465 Time : 20:04:46
35 Individual fireflies.
Just after the bridge.

WPT 466 Time : 20:05:50
21 Individual fireflies

WPT 467 Time : 20:06:08
20 Individual fireflies

WPT 468 Time : 20:12:06
24 Individual fireflies

WPT 469 Time : 20:12:20
23 Individual fireflies

WPT 470 Time : 20:13:26
25 Individual fireflies

WPT 471 Time : 20:18:13
22 Individual fireflies

WPT 472 Time : 20:24:13
20 Individual fireflies

End of survey: Location "B" N3 52.538 E113 42.212 Time : 20:41
We stop the survey when the stars were no longer visible and the rain cloud came in with medium wind. On our way back, no fireflies were observed on the trees that we have marked.