The Displaced Family

Two weeks ago I took Profs Savi and Nimal and Dr C for lunch to express my appreciation for their friendship. As we were still early we decided to stop by one of the mangrove forests as Prof Savi is highly interested in the mangrove forests of Brunei. It was mid day and i was telling Profs that it would be quite impossible to see any proboscis monkeys now as the weather was pretty hot. Well i spoke too soon because when we turned, we saw a family of them near the forest fringe feeding. The feeling was a good one as I realise the monkeys could still survive in a small pocket of mangroves. Now that's not what i want to share with you today..

Yesterday I went back to the same place with Dr C. It was a dull day and the sky looked angry.. As we looked around the mangrove forests we didn't see any proboscis monkeys, so i walked to the end of the bridge hoping to take some shots of the Sonneratia fruits. Well i did but the greatest surprise was 50m from me at the most disturbed part of the mangrove was a lone female mangrove proboscis!! She was a old female, with shaggy fur. When i spotted her, she was sitting on dead logs putting a plastic bag into her mouth!!! She spit it out of course but the sight was a sad one.. Here's a monkey, being displaced from the harem, and because the mangrove was so small, she was being pushed out to the forest edge.. If only the mangrove had been a bigger one, she might not have to be a scavenger, hunting for food on the mud flats..

We met a kind-hearted man in the car park who told us to drive further and we would see more of the monkeys. True to his word. We did.. see the pictures below..



There was a harem of 6 sitting on the railing of the monsoon drain. They are evidently habituated as we were so closed to the male and he didn't even bother to move a finger. He was just looking at us and our big lenses and couldn't care a hood. I guess this is a good sight as it showed people staying in the area do not disturbed them much.. After about 20min, then the male slowly moved towards the family and they disappeared into the mangrove.

After lunch, Rosli joined us for a walk along the path where the proboscis were seen. I was very sad to see that there was a huge monsoon drain (where the monkeys were sitting) separating the mangroves, and as the forests were opened up, most of the areas were disturbed. I don't know what's the drain for. May be to control flooding?? But so many examples have shoown us that human, basically is a selfish race. We will do everything we can for our gain, but how about the poor wildlife?? Development is a must, but there are other ways engineers can think of, alternatives that would give the least impact to the environment.

Because at the end of the day, human is the one that suffers because of this indiscretion..