FRIM

There is one ecological organization that specializes in the research of Malaysian rainforest and native flora. The organization is the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM).When FRIM is mentioned, it is often in reference to different geo-tourism locations and events you can participate in the Kuala Lumpur area. An example of this is FRIM’s canopy walk through a tropical forest park that has views of the skyline.

FRIM also gives donations and support to Zoo Negara and P&G. They give funds for new landscaping and for new enclosures like the panda exhibits. But they also have been providing support for the zoo’s desire to include more educational spots on the native tropical trees that are around the grounds. The reason that the trees are tagged throughout the zoo is so they can keep track of the different species and provide some labeling. Some of the trees around the park already have genus-species tags provided by FRIM.

Since I have been at the zoo, FRIM has visited a couple of times. The first time was to check the number tags of trees along the pathways to get a working list of species needing labels and to view the bamboo areas and panda exhibits for which they have been giving funds. The second time they visited the new labels were placed on a couple of trees and the size of tags needed for each of the trees was tested along the visitor areas.

Thunderstorms, Trees, and Termites

Base of tree

This last Tuesday we had the first rain since December, at the zoo. The storm started after I left for the afternoon and delivered a substantial amount of much needed water. When I arrived the next morning, the ground was still wet, and the plants looked quite refreshed by the entrance. Unfortunately, with the downpours, high force winds sometimes occur, and, as it turned out, the wind was strong enough during this storm that it knocked down a couple of trees.


When I arrived to the office, the workers loaded chainsaws and gasoline in the back of the lorry. Ain and I jumped in the back, and we headed around the lake. The truck had to stop half way for the workers to cut up a tree that had fallen across the road, and Ain and I walked the rest of the way. As we came around a corner, we saw the fallen tree that we were really heading for, and it was massive! The trunk was probably around a 5ft diameter! It took the workers two days to cut the tree apart and clean it up, but the base is still there, it was too thick for them to cut through.

This tree had a shallow root system, which luckily meant that when it toppled from the base, it didn’t really destroy the new side walk that was right next to it. The tree had fallen across the road, but it also crushed a gazebo, much to Muhammad’s dismay. He exclaimed at least twice, “We painted it yesterday!” I could only imagine how much force occurred to break the concrete columns that supported the gazebo.

Termite in its tunnel

Many of the native trees to Malaysia don’t have deep roots, and this causes them to fall over sometimes when the wind becomes violent during storms. While this played a part in the tree falling over, there was another issue which was probably the reason it collapsed. The center of the trunk had been cored out by termites. It is a little difficult to see in the photo, but it was extensive enough that I was impressed how healthy the tree looked from the outside. Slightly ironic was that all day Monday and Tuesday, Ain and I spent checking the trees around the park for evidence of termites and supervising the spraying of Termacide. All the trees were treated, despite the presence of termites or not, except for those within enclosures due to health concerns for the animals. One of the workers had pointed out to us a couple of times though that a tree sounded hollow when he hit it with a metal pole. Most of those trees were “normal size” with a diameter no larger than a foot, while the branches of the large tree were about that size or larger. Termites are a big issue at the zoo, mostly because they have already been well established and the Termacide is applied to the trees and surrounding ground every month to try to preserve the trees. By doing this and the fact that many tropical trees like mahogany or teak are termite resistant, many of the termite lines on the trees turned out to be vacant of any of the insects.

The images below: Right side of crushed gazebo, After some clean-up, Length across the road, Spraying Termacide, Hollowed trunk, Left side of gazebo

Making Habitats

One of the most interesting things to learn during this internship is how Zoo Negara builds exhibits and enclosures to replicate natural habitats of the different animals.

When building the exhibits and enclosures, or during renovations, the intent is to try to make designs, that utilize the landscaping and hard-scaping, as similar to the wild as possible. This not only means making the living area for the animals fitted for them but also using plants to hide different infrastructure. When applicable the exhibits will have water sources, more open areas for sun, denser plant areas to get out of the heat or hide, structures that replicate overhangs or caves, boulders, and enrichment structures for activities like climbing, swinging and generally playing.

Most of the plants chosen to be used in the landscaping are determined by the type of ecosystem the animal comes from. For the savanna area, different grass species have been used throughout the large area that houses the zebras, giraffes, emus, and antelope. Additionally, the landscape is done so the plant species get taller towards the back wall, so trees and higher grass are dense at the back and provide shade for the animals.

In the bird enclosures, the environment replicate being high in the trees. So shorter tree species are used in the back and sides to create a more dense environment and tree branches and logs have been bound together to go across the enclosure area. Climbers are used across the logs and walls to hide infrastructure and building materials. For the storks and pelicans, which are free roaming and live on the lake in the middle of the zoo, P&G has built some full size concrete trees to add sitting space near the water and planted many native species of aquatic plants along the edges of the water.

The primate exhibits have many built in enrichment structures. There are ledges, ropes, tethered leather balls, hanging empty barrels, rope/straps suspended between trees or structures and hammocks; all placed for swinging, climbing, and jumping. Moreover, in exhibits with trees there are platforms built up high for them to climb to and electrical wire to prevent them from going to high.

Much thought goes into these planning, and it is done as collaboration between P&G and the zoological/veterinary departments. 

Cool/Funny things that have happened so far…(Part 1)

Obviously being an intern at a zoo and working there means that I get to see stuff and experience things the average patron does not. This is due to me being behind the scenes or because I’m around when the zoo isn’t open to visitors.  So the random things that have made me laugh have been occurring almost from day one. Here are a few of them.

1) Chimpanzees
The chimps at the zoo are rather feisty individuals. I mentioned in the earlier post about one tossing a stick at us during my first day, and the two males have not given up the pursuit. While doing a variety of tasks over three different days near their enclosure, I have watched them unsuccessfully attempt to throw sticks over the barrier wall at me. It begins with them pacing back in forth in the area closest to me, which is a good 10-15ft from the observation barrier. Once they realize I will not be daunted by this, one will run around in search of a small branch or stick. They will then return back to the same area, stick in hand, and begin alternating between bobbing up and down, and swaying their bodies back and forth. I’m still working, so now they will begin to rip the small side growths off the stick, followed by hitting the stick on the ground while bobbing. At this point the chimp will chuck the stick at me, unsuccessfully making it over the barrier. On the last occurrence of this, the chimp got especially frustrated. He had no more sticks and pounded on his chest with one hand followed by angrily running over to this enrichment barrel hanging from a tree and throwing it as hard as he could before storming away to the back of the enclosure. I felt bad for the little guy, and not acting a little scared by his antics.

2) Hornbill out of its enclosure…?
During the first week I was walking with Eza towards the nursery and I noticed a hornbill sitting on the outside of its enclosure. I pointed it out to Eza and she radioed in asking about it. The response from the Zoology Department was that it is a stray one hanging around the enclosure because it’s mating season. Hornbills apparently mate for life, so there is only one male and female hornbill in each enclosure. I would assume that this specific pair has probably already have become mates for life, but that does not stop the wild male hornbill. I have seen him every day outside this enclosure attempting courtship rituals with the female, to no avail.

3) What’s with the ruckus?
So the zoo recently got a new family of lemurs which were added to the primate area. Randomly throughout the day the lemurs will begin screaming. This then starts the Siamang next to them hollering, followed by the gibbons in the two exhibits next to him to start whooping. The macaque exhibit is 90 degrees to these, and as soon as it starts all 20+ of them run over to the corner of the fence and watch the other primates yelling. They sat there wide eyed and intent like kids watching cartoons in the morning!

4) Peek-a-boo!
One of the days I was at work, before they gave me a set of keys to the office, I came back from the nursery to find the door locked. I sat on a bench for a while and then decided to walk down the road behind the veterinary building. While walking, I hear this tiny monkey yipping at me through the wire window to the room he is being held in quarantine because it is new to the zoo. I started to walk closer so I could take a picture of him, and the closer I get, the louder he screams. Now I’m standing on the curb about 6ft from the window and he freaks out, jumps down and runs to the door across the room. He is hanging their yipping, while watching me over his shoulder. I haven’t gotten a photo of him, so I side step out of the view of the window and hear him stop yipping. I wait about ten seconds and then step back in front of the window. He isn't on the door anymore, and I don’t see him anywhere else in the room, and the next second he jumps back on the window. Seeing me standing there he screams again. We did this a couple more rounds.

5) Whistling 
Ain and I were going around and checking the tags on the trees one day to check which trees were missing them and what trees no longer exist due to construction, and replacing the nails when the tree stated growing around the little metal number tags. This was a pretty mundane task, so I was whistling while we worked. At this point we were near the tiger exhibits, and I commented on how it was funny that in addition to the water barrier, all the big cats have, the white tigers also have electrical fencing on the glass barrier on the visitor side of the water.  The white female tiger at this time is lying down sleeping. As we noted the trees near her enclosure, I began whistling the theme song to the old TV Land show Mr. Ed. As soon as I did this, the female tiger sat up and looked at us. We both laughed at the fact that she was paying attention to me whistling and continued what we were doing, including me whistling. About a minute later, we look over and the tiger is now standing at the edge of the water nearest us, staring at me. Next thing we know, she jumps into the water and starts swimming over to me! The trainers often use whistles to indicate feeding time, so I think she thought I was going to feed her. I stopped whistling and the tiger just sat there in the water halfway to the barrier.

Rain, rain...please don't go away. Come back!

Pink lotus flower

Anyone who has lived in Malaysia or in neighboring countries will humorously tell you there are two seasons, the wet season and the wetter season. The two seasons actually being referred to as the dry season and the wet season. Being very close to the equator means that there aren't the four seasons we know of in the United States but a constant climate which varies only in the amount of rain. So this humorous comment on seasons exists because during the wet season you can be guaranteed torrential rain everyday in K.L. while during the dry season it rains cats and dogs only a couple days a week.

Because it rains so frequently, agriculture in Malaysia doesn't require the irrigation systems you would find in areas where rain cannot be counted on to provide the necessary water for crops. Moreover, sprinkler systems for landscapes are far and few between because why would you spend money on something to provide water to plants when it isn't necessary in this weather.

So when you find out it hasn't rained at the zoo since December 18th, you can understand how odd that is and how much it affects the flora. This drought has been bad enough that there are reports that shortages of water will probably be occurring within the next week, and the government has been looking into cloud seeding though highly unlikely to occur. It is dry enough that for the first time ever I saw my old high school’s sports field being watered by sprinkler, which I didn't even know existed.

Because of the lack of rain the workers for P&G have had to resort to hand watering the entirety of the zoo. This has been going on for close to two months now, so a lot of time and funds are being spent on watering. As result, the department has been dropping a 3in diameter hose into the river, which flows through the zoo, and pumping up water to be used on the grounds. This is being done in part because it saves the zoo’s funds, which being a NGO means they are limited, and because water spigots haven’t been placed  throughout the zoo grounds, so it’s more effective for them to run six 100m hoses from a pump at once versus combining the hoses to reach the same location.

White lotus flower

Almost everyday someone on staff comments on how it needs to rain, and whenever I come back from being in the nursery all day, Eza asks me for a status on the plants and how badly the lack of rain is affecting them. The nursery probably is the least concern, from where I’m standing, because the plants are close together and in shade for a large part. Consequently, my response tends to be something along the lines about them looking the same as always and not really wilted. But the lotus plants and water lilies, growing in pots, have needed watering almost every day to prevent the water level from dropping down to the mud.

Orchidaceae

My personal favorite flowers are orchids. I like them enough that over the spring of my sophomore year and fall of junior year, I ended up accumulating seven different Phalaenopsis orchids of varying color. As demonstration of how much I am obsessed with orchids, I actually found one of those seven orchids in the trash one day and dug it out. Thank fully for me orchids are also my roommates favorite flower, so my excessive plant intake, in our small Corps dorm, didn't bother her in the least. Mostly I purchased Phalaenopsis orchids for two reasons. The first being that you can find them at Home Depot, Lowe's, or your local grocery store chain relatively easy, and the second reason being that I can’t bring myself to pay more than $10 on a plant, having limited funds. So the Cattleya variety of orchids, though easily found at Home Depot or Lowe's, were out of the question of purchasing because they cost like $16, and they don’t come with a pot!

Singapore Airport

Here in Malaysia though, to my satisfaction, orchids are in abundance both in variety and amount. Orchids grow in the wild here and are frequently used in landscaping so you see them all over the place. When I went to play golf this last weekend, there were bamboo orchids (Arudina) growing along the road, just how you see Black-eyed Susan flowers along the road in Texas, and on my travel route over here, I was gleefully excited by the all the orchids present at my layover in the Singapore airport. They even have an orchid garden here in K.L.!

Phalaenopsis growing on tree

So I feel like it is almost a requirement that Zoo Negara has orchids, which of course they do. So far I have found orchids from the genera Phalaenopsis, Arudina, Spathoglottis, Vanda, Aerides, and Rhynchostylis either on the grounds of the zoo or inside the nursery.  I have probably chewed Eza’s and Ain’s ears off with my questions about them. After a couple of days of questions, they pulled this book on Malaysian practices for orchids off the book shelf and offered it for me to read. It’s in Malay, so I don’t know everything that is being said, but it also contains step-by-step instructions with images, so with use of Google translate, I was able to understand what was going on.

Charcoal and red brick medium mixture

So there are two different types of orchids, terrestrial and epiphytic. The terrestrial orchid genera at the zoo include Spathoglottis and Arudina. The epiphytic orchid genera include Phalaenopsis, Vanda, Aerides and Rhynchostylis. The difference in the classification has to do with the type of medium the orchid roots are placed in. Here at the zoo, the terrestrial orchids are placed in a potting mixture that we make in the nursery at a 1:3:3 ration of top soil, which is the color of clay but not as compacted, crushed charcoal and a pulverized coconut coir. Additionally, some slow release orchid fertilizer is added during the potting process. The resulting medium is very dark in color but does not compact very much even with water present, which is ideal for drainage away required from the orchid roots. Conversely, the epiphytic orchids are grown using two different mediums. A mixture of chunks of charcoal and of red brick is used when the orchids are placed into pots. While other epiphytic orchids are attached to trees by placing a small amount of sphagnum moss between the tree bark and orchid roots, and then the roots and moss are braced to the tree with string until the roots have anchored successfully. A thin layer of wood chips are sprinkled across the pots to hold a little moisture to the roots during the day.

Orchid feature at Zoo Negara

For the epiphytic orchids, not many nutrients are provided through their rooting mediums, so a weekly fertilizer is applied to help in maintaining a constant bloom. The orchids in pots that are not in bloom tend to be taken back to the nursery, and hung in a pergola structure, until buds form and then are taken back out to different landscape features at the zoo.

Fungus and root rot is sometimes an issue with the epiphytic orchids, so if this happens, the plants are gently removed from their pots and medium, and then the affected roots will be removed, and the plant is soaked in a fungicide for 15 minutes. They are then rinsed and placed into new medium.

Orchid suppliers here grow their orchids from seeds. Orchid seeds are very filamentous and contain very little nutrient supply, so the seeds are placed into a flask with agar gel. Once the orchids have reached the size of about your thumb, the flasks are broken and the orchids removed. They are then rinsed off and then soaked in a fungicide for 15 minutes, followed by a rinsing and then placement on top of a small amount of sphagnum moss. Once the orchids reach a decent size, they are then placed into their respective types of medium.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

It is Chinese New Year here in Malaysia, and it is a big deal! Lion dances will be being performed at multiple public venues through the weekend accompanied with Chinese firecrackers and fireworks in down town K.L. About 1/3 of the Malaysian population are of Chinese descent so that means for the average person a 4/5 day weekend from Thursday/Friday to Monday. But here at the Zoo, this means a weekend packed full of people who are off from school/work and a lot of preparation for not only setting up the themed decorations for “The Year of the Wooden Horse” but also for the opportunity to broadcast to the public about the two new giant pandas Fu Wa and Feng Yi, whose complex will be ready for them in April. This isn't just an exhibit, people, but a huge building just for these two.

Decorations and plants

For me, this holiday meant I was assisting with the entrance decorations by removing the orchids from the large front planters and putting in miniature mandarin orange plants and miniature peach plants. Prosperity, prosperity! But it turned out that wasn't all I was in for. So I was supposed to get Friday and Saturday off, and it was 30 minutes before 5 on Thursday afternoon, and I was just in the office waiting to start my weekend, and Eza gets a call. She turns to me and goes, “So you may need to work tomorrow. It's Chinese New Year and a lot of people will be here, and the head of the Education Department said he wants to discuss maybe you working tomorrow and you helping them out with something.” I went over to the Education Department and the Director said, “Oh please have a seat. So tomorrow is Chinese New Year, and I’m sure you know that means we will have a lot of people here, and I was wondering if you would be willing to help us out tomorrow and be a mascot at the animal show!?" I tentatively respond, " Ummm mascot?” At this point I was thinking maybe he meant helping out with the handlers or something along those lines because words they use in English aren't the words an average native English speaker would use to describe something. “Yes!” he responded, “I was wondering if you would be willing to be a panda!” (Points to panda suit) “And help entertain the crowd. You know take pictures and what not! You aren't going to be alone. I'm going to have my intern be the other panda! It's just…No one volunteered, and I really need someone. Do you think you can? " He then proceeded to smile pleadingly at me. Long story short, I went to work on what was supposed to be my day off to dress up in a panda suit.

One of the shows seals

Dreading a little that I said yes to doing this, I was glad to find out that what was planned for  Hazi (pronounced like Ozzy, which confused me throughout the day because that is my nickname) and myself turned out to be an appearance at the beginning and end of the two animal shows they put on and sitting “behind the scenes.” So it turned out to be pretty cool due to the latter and a little nerve wracking for the former. This nervousness for me was less caused by the fact I was going in front of a packed amphitheater, and more so because cues for us to do things were going to be in Malay. I spent the entire morning in a meeting oblivious to what was going on except for the occasional translation by the head of the education department for my benefit. Outside of the show, sitting in the back where they held all the animals during the performance was pretty awesome! We got to hang out within arm’s length of the seals and see them being playful. We hung around the trainer who had a Burmese python wrapped around his body, and we were entertained by the macaws hanging upside down in their cages and bobbing up and down at us in the sitting area.

Taking pictures with kids

It was fun for the day, but I’m glad I don’t have to do that all the time. Those suits are too hot for being outside in Malaysia’s weather.

If you want to watch a clip of part of the show go here.