MNS Firefly Survey and Monitoring Workshop

CFZ Firefly Survey team after having concluded a survey of Sg Nyalau, Kpg Kuala Nyalau last October. Photo by Sara Wong.

The MNS Miri Branch together with MNS Conservation Division, would like to invite participants to the MNS Miri Firefly Survey and Monitoring Workshop to be held in Miri, Sarawak from 11-12th December 2010.

Venue : Kelab Shell Petroleum, Lutong
Date : 11 and 12th December 2010

Our main resource for the course will be Sonny Wong, Senior Conservation Officer, MNS Conservation Division and Dr Mahadimenakbar Mohamed Dawood, Institute of Tropical Biodiversity and Conservation, University Malaysia Sabah. Musa Musbah, Project Executor for CFZ Survey Northern Sarawak will also share his experiences to date with Sarawak fireflies.

Participants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses for the duration of the course, they will be provided materials and relevant group meals. Transport to and from fieldsites will be provided by the organisers.

MNS Miri Branch under the funding of the Congregating Firefly Zone Survey Northern Sarawak 2010 by MNS Merdeka Fund, is currently compiling a baseline data on congregating firefly zones (CFZ) of the mangrove lined rivers in Northern Sarawak.

The project started in August 2010 at the branch level and will continue until April 2010. The project aims to create a CFZ directory for Northern Sarawak which hopefully will eventually culminate in a number of candidate locations suitable as targets for conservation or rural eco-tourism development.

MNS Miri Branch welcomes contribution from other Branch members in East Malaysia, UNIMAS, UMS, government agencies as well as members of the public to help in the compilation of the CFZ in Northern Sarawak. It is also hoped that this work will be replicated to other regions in Sarawak as well as in Sabah. The directory will be made available to the respective State Governments for conservation of the firefly and the mangroves habitat or potential eco-tourism activities.

This particular workshop organised in Miri hopes to share the experiences and enthusiasm to date on the firefly survey and monitoring work in a two day classroom sessions and one evening fieldwork session.

We hope at the conclusion of the course participants will have had good exposure about firefly conservation in Malaysia and several concrete ideas and steps to further improve the collective work in CFZ in Malaysia in general.

It is also our fervent hope that the sharing of experiences on methodology and practical learnings during the course will spur further activities in firefly survey and monitoring in Sabah and Sarawak.

Please contact the organiser for further information:

Nazeri Abghani, MNS Miri Branch
nabghani@yahoo.com or please call 085-453185/016-8542212

(Program details are available upon request).

CFZ Firefly Upper Sibuti River 30th Oct 2010

CFZ Firefly Upper Sibuti River 30th Oct 2010
Upper Sibuti Firefly Night Time Assessment
Observers Name : Rebeca Cruz, Dominique, Sim, Anura, Aju, Nazeri, and Musa.


3 km Upper Sibuti River with 19 Display trees

River Water Property:
Specific gravity 1.002
Water temperature of 26.5° C
Air temperature is 24.0° C.
We set off from the jetty 18:30hrs.

Fieldnotes Upper Sibuti River CFZ Firefly
Survey Date : 30th. October 2010

START Time: 18:30
COMPLETION Time: 19:30

PHYSICAL CONDITION:
a. Moon: Last quarter, with no moon visible due to rain

cloud.
b. Weather : Raining throughout the survey.
Relative Humidity: Wet
Temperature: Cold.
Water pH : 6
Wind : Windy

c. River Condition Current: No current, Rain runoff.
Boat used: Yamaha 15 hp and 3 hp
Survey Average Speed 6 Km/hr. Tide: high

Sungai Sibuti on 30 October 2010 (evening - tide rising)


Location Ambiant temperature River temperature

River SG River pH
Waypoint 284 24.0 26.5 1.002 6.0
Waypoint286 24.0 26.5 1.002 6.0
Waypoint 290 24.7 27.6 (not taken) 5.0

31-Oct-10
Sg Sibuti at HQ Sibuti Wildlife Sanctury 10am, falling tide

1.004 6.5
Sea water at Bungai Beach 11am, falling tide 1.020 7.5



WPT Date Time Side Fauna Estimate count
273 30-Oct-10 18:30 Left Firefly 5
274 30-Oct-10 18:33 Right Firefly 5
275 30-Oct-10 18:33 Right Firefly 5
276 30-Oct-10 18:35 Right Firefly 5
277 30-Oct-10 18:36 Right Firefly 10
278 30-Oct-10 18:38 Right Firefly 5
279 30-Oct-10 18:38 Right Firefly 5
280 30-Oct-10 18:46 Right Firefly 5
281 30-Oct-10 18:47 Right Firefly 15
282 30-Oct-10 18:51 Left Firefly 5
283 30-Oct-10 18:55 Left Crocodile 1
284 30-Oct-10 19:00 Left Firefly 20
285 30-Oct-10 19:07 Right Firefly 10
286 30-Oct-10 19:11 Right Firefly 50
287 30-Oct-10 19:13 Right Firefly 10
288 30-Oct-10 19:14 R and Left Firefly 50
289 30-Oct-10 19:18 Right Firefly 30
290 30-Oct-10 19:19 Right Firefly 50
291 30-Oct-10 19:31 Left Firefly 50

CFZ Firefly Survey Nyalau River 9th Oct 2010

Nyalau Firefly Night Time Assessment Observers Name : Sim, Sara, Zeanna, Nazeri, and Musa.


8.5 km of Nyalau River survey on 9 Oct 2010.


Our survey team at Sg Nyalau : Sim, Affendy, Nazeri, Musa, Zeana. Sara took the photo so was on the opposite side of the picture. Photo by SW.


Our humble abode for the nite of CFZ. Photo by NA.

Jetty/Berth Location: Affendy Jetty. Location: 3°38'27.39"N 113° 33'08.20"E

Nyalau is 136 km Southeast of Miri and was once a well known fishing village. It used to be only accessible from the sea. The majority of people living there are the Brunei Malay. Since the opening of the new alternative road to Bintulu the place is now easily reached via this new road. My mother used to tell me a story of my great grandfather who was a fisherman, who sailed with his small sail boat to Nyalau from Miri. He related stories of meeting Nyalau folks bartering rice with dried sea products. It was during my younger days that I wanted to visit this place. In those days, rivers and seas were the only mode of connection between people living along the coast.

Most of the estuarine villages became quite well known. People took shelter in these villages and traded with the occupants along the way.

It is also well known that Kuala Nyalau is a great place for fishing. The fish there were reputedly stonger and more powerful than many other surrounding rivers nearby.

Sg Nyalau is one of the rivers on the list for our CFZ survey. A week earlier I was here to make arrangement for a boat and accomodation for the MNS Miri Branch survey party. I took the opportunity then to bring my son and his friends to fish for barramundi and mangrove jack. There were other people doing the same too. While fishing we saw an egret, a Collared Kingfisher and an Asian Black Hornbill flying among the casuarina trees nearby. We heard a sudden big splash from the other side of the rivermouth, apparently a crocodile was seen jumping out of the water probably trying to catch a bird flying across.

Last Saturday the MNS Miri bRanch team comprised of Sara, Zeana, Sim, Nazeri. Each was assigned a particular task while on the boat. Sara was assigned to record our encounter on the logbook. Zeana was assigned to record our GPS position and that of the display trees. I am to take water pH, temperature and density. Nazeri was to catch firefly sample and Sim to secure collected samples into labeled bottles. That nite, we had Affendy Gudang from the village as our boatman.

We started our survey at 6:33 pm. The sky is still bright with a low thin cloud. While waiting for darkness to come, we slowly maneuvered up river with a 15hp Yamaha outboard motor. The water pH is 5 and air temperature is 26.3° C and water temp was 25.8° C. The wind is gently blowing, the reason why most of the display firefly is positioned just above water, slighly below the tree lines where the wind is at its lowest speed. The first single firefly was detected at WPT 232 at 6:35pm.


Sim and Sara admiring a particularly interesting display tree along our traverse. Photo by NA.

While going up river our concentration was on the fireflies display. We only happen to see two crocodiles, when Affendy pointed them to us. The river is lined up with nipah trees and sporadic bakau and berembang trees. The only other fauna at the river are mosquitoes and small insects. We came across a Black-crown Night Heron and several unidentified bats flying away from us.

Thorughout the nite we can flashes of lightning hidden by heavy clouds. As we reach the 8 km mark, we were warned by the boatman that the river at this point to turn back due to high occurrence of submerged logs in the river. We read water ph at this point again that read pH 5 and water temperature of 25.4° C and air temperature at 25.5° C.


Cruising at slow speeds along Sg Nyalau, from the estuary to Kpg Nyalau Tengah. Photo by NA.

We backtracked and we noticed that the trees that bear fireflies did not diplay anymore. My experience tell me that bad weather is coming and that the reason the fireflies were a bit not showing off that night. On the way back we move a bit faster and the boat man is able to scanned the river with our powerful search light. We counted 25 crocodile along the way back.


Leaves of the Bakau Tree where the fireflies normally congregate. Photo by MM.


Typical vegetation along the river, fireflies were present on both the bakau trees and nipah palms. Photo by NA.

It was a surprise that most crocodile concentration is close to the river mouth. We saw two juveniles on the beach very close to teh house we rented.. We concluded our survey at 8:30pm.

While the girls are preparing dinner I went out to river mouth, to see the crocodile that we saw earlier from the boat. I saw the crocodile only few feet from the water's edge. It came close to investigate my LED headlight, probably mesmerised by the light, I did not bring a camera and slowly move back to take my camera that I left at the house. It look might be a 2 meter length crocodile. I got back to house as dinner was being served. We had papaya and noodles that nite mixed with canned anchovies and sambal prawn. Delicious!

Our plan to check out the beach after dark (for crocodiles and others) as well as a nitewalk to look for firefly larvae went to nought when heavy rain started minutes after dinner. What a waste!

The night was quite except for the humming of generators in the distance. The brushing of the coconut leaves against the zinc roof is sometimes annoying, but it was sort of quirky. The night is cool and we made sure the mozzies stayed well away with several smaking mosquito coils in the house. We all had a goodnite's sleep.

After breakfast we head straight to the beach. We found a crocodile track nearby. Nazeri and me tried our luck casting for barramundi. While casing there I could see the fine bubbles jus meter from where I was fishing. This is clearly bubbles made by a crocodile, as described to me by my geat grandfather.

While we fish Sara went out far to the river mouth bank where an old lady is fishing a mantis shrimp. She use a rattan thorn to fish the mantis out from a meter in the sand.

Zeanna and Sim were busy cleaning up the house in preparation for our departure, they joined us later for a short walk on the beach. We packed up and left Kpg Kuala Nyalau around 10am.

We reach Miri at 12:30 pm after a short recce excursion to Kpg Kuala Sibuti.


A tell tale sign of a crocodile, "I was here!" not 15 feet from where we slept the nite before. Photo by MM.

River Water Property:
Specific gravity 1.000
Water temperature of 25.8° C
Air temperature is 26.3° C.
We set off from the jetty 18:33hrs.

Fieldnotes Nyalau CFZ Firefly
Survey Date : 9th. October 2010

START Time: 18:35
COMPLETION Time: 20:03

PHYSICAL CONDITION:
a. Moon No moon
b. Weather 80% Cloud covered sky, and raining at end of survey.
Relative Humidity: Low
Temperature: Cold.
Water pH : 5
Specific gravity: At jetty 1.000
Wind : Slight breeze No Haze

c. River Condition Current: Fast moving down, Clear rain runoff water.
Boat used: Yamaha 5 hp.
Survey Average Speed 6 Km/hr. Tide: high

WPT Time Coordinate Side Amount
232 18:35 N3 38.417 E113 23.274 Right 1
233 18:38 N3 38.341 E113 23.410 Right 1
234 18:44 N3 38.204 E113 23.592 Right 1
235 18:45 N3 38.178 E113 23.624 Right 20
236 18:49 N3 38.172 E113 23.626 Right 20
237 18:52 N3 38.141 E113 23.660 Left 50
238 18:53 N3 38.116 E113 23.677 Right 50
239 18:54 N3 38.115 E113 23.678 Left 30
241 19:00 N3 37.935 E113 23.912 Left 20
242 19:00 N3 37.899 E113 23.903 Left 10
243 19:02 N3 37.792 E113 23.860 Right 5
244 19:03 N3 37.759 E113 23.866 Right 5
245 19:04 N3 37.731 E113 23.898 Right 30
246 19:05 N3 37.732 E113 23.922 Right 150
250 19:10 N3 37.770 E113 23.971 Left 20
251 19:10 N3 37.769 E113 23.997 Left 10
252 19:12 N3 37.695 E113 24.027 Left 5
253 19:12 N3 37.679 E113 24.030 Right 50
254 19:16 N3 37.582 E113 24.184 Left 10
255 19:17 N3 37.679 E113 24.192 Right 50
256 19:19 N3 37.702 E113 24.292 Flying 1
257 19:21 N3 37.654 E113 24.439 Left 150
259 19:26 N3 37.483 E113 24.349 Left 100
260 19:27 N3 37.425 E113 24.339 Right,Big tree 150
261 19:30 N3 37.385 E113 24.505 Left 20
262 19:32 N3 37.481 E113 24.553 Left 150
263 19:35 N3 37.574 E113 24.694 Left 20
264 19:44 N3 37.245 E113 24.904 Left 300
265 19:48 N3 37.130 E113 25.059 Left 20
266 19:49 N3 37.071 E113 25.044 Right 300
268 19:55 N3 36.792 E113 24.916 Right 150
269 19:56 N3 36.778 E113 24.925 Left 20
270 19:58 N3 36.781 E113 25.052 Left 50
271 19:59 N3 36.792 E113 25.093 Right 10



Article by Musa Musbah/MNS Miri/Oct 2010

Walking in the rain in Kpg Bakam

Sara, Steve, JJ, Musa, Nazeri, Sim, Ali, Chris, Anura, Ernyza and Dominique promptly gathered at the Marriot lobby to our anticipated nite-walk to Kpg Bakam. There were stories of bright eyes shining in the nite, and of sparkling fireflies by the villagers.


Our 1.7 km one wet nite in September.

It's been a rather wet week in Miri, it was anticipated to be the same this nite. It was already drizzling lightly as I was driving to our agreed meeting place. The participants arrived at the lobby one by one, the drizzle kept drizzling. Sim arrived first after me, we immediately set off after Sara drove into the parking lot.

We went straight to Kpg Bakam where we met our guide, one of the kampong's old timer very familiar with the area. We set off to the head of the trail, our guide carried with him a shotgun apparently as a safety precaution. Rumour has it that several sightings of leopard have been reported in the area. There's also the potential of wildboars.

The rain didn't any signs of stopping as we walked into the trail. Some put out their umbrellas, some donned their plastic raincoat while others simply enjoyed the cool drops as they walked along.

The nite was dark with no signs of stars in the sky only sparkling droplets of falling rain, by then the drizzle has progressed to light rain. The surrounding grasses and vegetaion were, the path only barely lit by torchlight revealing the meandering path white fine sands.

We crossed our first obstacle in the form of a bamboo bridge. It was a small adreline rush for some considring the 10 feet drop off with only a shaky bamboo structure between us and the wet below. Everybody crossed safely. The path further on was quite, it seemed devoid of life other than bats, small frogs and some insetcs. The rain didn't help matters, earlier we decided to cut short the trek.

We crossed a couple more bridges soon after. The last bridge was probably the most exciting : it wasnt actually a bridge but just a fallen big tree which has been fashioned into a bridge with nails and handrails. It's was inlined 30 degrees into the river we were crossing. It was too much for some of us, Steve chose to wet his feet by walking across the river.

Throughout the whole trek we discovered only two roving fireflies which were too high up to net as samples; bats; a large forest cockroach; a pair of stick insects and some nasty ants. Everyone agreed that we should attempt this trail again in better weather for the fireflies and perhaps once during the day to assess birdlife in the area.

We ended our nite time trek around 9:30pm after having traversed 1.7 kms of the landscape in the rain.


Those who made the cut.


Forging a stream in the nite.


Tip-toeing on a rickety bamboo bridge with a 10ft dro-off.

Article by Musa Musbah/MNS Miri/Sep 2010
Photos by Jia Jun Law/MNS Miri/Sep 2010

Upcoming CFZ Outings in the Miri area

MNS Miri Branch is going on after sunset rivercruise in September and October. More similar nature trips are being planned for the months of November and December.

Malaysia is one of the few South-East Asian countries with fireflies that congregate on “display trees” along both sides of mangrove-lined rivers. The insects can even be found congregating up to 100m inland from the riverbank where they breed.

As Malaysia is at the centre of the firefly region that stretches from India to Papua New Guinea, we are fortunate to have a relatively high diversity of the insect. Of the over 20 species of fireflies, Malaysia hosts seven.

Of these, the most familiar would be the Pteroptyx tener, also known as the congregating or synchronous firefly.These fireflies typically congregate in groups along riverbanks and synchronise their flashes, thereby creating the light display that so many people gather to witness. (Wong, Sonny:MNS, 2009)

There is every little information if any on fireflies in Sarawak, these outings are a part of a major branch effort to populate fireflies data in the greater Miri area and gain better understanding of firefy population in these rivers.

Outings planned for September and October months:
1) 4WD Nite-cruise in Kpg Bakam, 04th September
2) Rivercruise along Sungai Bakam 25th September (retimed)
3) 4WD Nite-cruise in Lambir area, 02nd October
4) Rivercruise along Sungai Nyalau 09-10th October, this is an overnite trip.
5) Rivercruise along Sungai Sibuti upper reaches 30-31st October, this is an overnight trip.

Join us for an after sunset cruise at these places to checkout fireflies (among other things).

There are limited seats available. Interested participants must bring life-jacket (rivercruise only), and since this is a working trip participants are expected to be able to conduct small assigned tasks while in the boat.

Please email mnsmiri@yahoo.com for details.