Peaceful Doves & Open-billed Storks - Cambodia

Birding on the outskirts of Siem Reap, Cambodia

The vast majority of visitors to Siem Reap, Cambodia go there because of Angkor Wat. But, there is much more to see than just the incredible temples. On the city’s outskirts are some outstanding areas of high biological diversity. In fact very close to Siem Reap is the Prek Toel Bird Sanctuary which is the Core Area of the Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve.

I wanted to visit the Prek Toel Bird Sanctuary but I wasn’t able to find anyone to join me to share the costs of travel (it is low season at the moment and also the end of the dry season which is not the ideal time to visit … and to boot it is quite expensive to get there). As an alternative I booked a morning birding excursion through the Sam Veasna Center for Wildlife Conservation an organization associated with the internationally recognized Wildlife Conservation Society.  The Sam Veasna Center is committed to responsible tourism and I was pleased to know that 20% of my fee goes to conservation projects and community development.

I crawled out of bed at 5am, jumped in a tuk tuk and joined my guide to visit some of the wetlands and agricultural lands just outside of town.

I enjoy getting out and exploring new areas to see new birds. It is also a good reminder for me that identification can be difficult when seeing species for the very first time. In the ecology class I teach at BCIT students are required to learn to identify BC’s fish, mammals and birds (including the vocalizations of about 40 species of songbird). Visiting a new place with new species puts me in their shoes for a bit ... which I think is good learning!

It also makes a huge difference when you are able to find someone who really knows their birds. The guide from the Sam Veasna Center was great and we had a very productive morning tallying about 40 species in 3 hours (many of which were brand new for me). Some of the highlights included: Peaceful Dove, Open-billed Stork, Little Green Bee-eater, Oriental Darter, Cotton Pygmy Goose, Cinnamon Bittern and the Indian Roller!

What I did not get was some good photos of these species as I could not get close to many of them. My guess is that perhaps they are hunted... so they keep a safe distance (even from my 400mm lens!).

I did though get some nice shots of the Lotus flowers (Nelumbo nucifera) that were abundant in the wetlands.

Lotus Flower (Nelumbo nucifera)

Angkor What? Angkor Wat!

China has the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors, India has the Taj Mahal and Cambodia has Angkor Wat. All are UNESCO World Heritage Sites and each site draws millions of visitors from around the world every year. The Terracotta Warriors defend the tomb of the 1st Emperor of China, while the Taj Mahal is the burial place of Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of Shah Jahan. What is Angkor Wat?

Angkor Wat (and associated temples) is one of the largest religious sites on the planet (if not the largest) covering an area of about 400 square kilometres. It is also one of the most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia. The Angkor Archaeological Park includes the remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. Angkor Wat is just one of many temples. Angkor Thom is also amazing and has the Bayon Temple with its outstanding sculptural decorations.

Originally a Hindu temple when it was first started Angkor Wat gradually shifted from Hindu to Buddhist use. There is so much history associated with the site it is tough to keep it all straight (at least for me!).

As you can imagine many of the temples have fallen into disrepair (which is to be expected as many are over 1000 years old) yet restoration work has been underway for many years. Cambodia is a poor country and would never be able to fund the restoration on its own, but many countries around the world (eg. Czech Republic, Japan, France) have contributed funds for the work to continue.

You can spend days visiting all of the temples and because they are so spread out a tuk tuk is recommended although some visitors do explore by bicycle (I went the tuk tuk route).

On my last day of temple exploring I walked up to the top of the 'mountain' to get to Phnom Bakheng to watch the sunset. Unfortunately a large cloud got in the way of the setting sun. Oh well, there’s always next time!

Bird Saliva Soup

From what I’ve seen in the past few months it is virtually impossible to go for a day without seeing a swift (or two … or two hundred). They seem to be everywhere (at least everywhere I have been). We don’t have many Swifts in Canada but they are abundant in Asia.

What is a Swift? Swifts (and their relatives the Swiftlets) are small birds that resemble Swallows (they may look like Swallows but Swifts are in fact more closely related to Hummingbirds). In south-east Asia they can be seen soaring and swooping on stiff boomerang shaped wings feasting on the abundance of insects in the tropical skies.

Most Swifts nest in caves and many create a unique nest using their own ‘saliva’ (yes you read correctly). The essential ingredient for “Bird’s Nest Soup” is the saliva of the bird. For centuries these nests have been a delicacy in China and other Asian countries and have also been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (for anything indigestion to increased longevity) and historically was believed to have aphrodisiac powers (although there is no scientific evidence for this).

A bowl of Birds Nest Soup (as it is more commonly known) can fetch anywhere from $30 to $100 per bowl in Hong Kong (depending on its saliva purity – which is dependent on the species of swift that the nest came from - almost pure in the nests of some species).

Swift Nesting House in Northern Malaysia

Indonesia & Malaysia have long been major suppliers of nests for the Bird Nest Soup market as natural limestone caves in Borneo have been used by swifts for nesting for centuries. But because the swift nests are found high up on cave walls it is a lot of work (and also very dangerous) to collect the naturally created nests. A creative entrepreneur realized that more money could be made if he could find more nests and eventually came up with the idea to make artificial nesting sites.

Swift Nesting House

So rather than taking nests from the wild these entrepreneurs have created buildings that have holes for the swifts to nest in. As we were driving along a road in northern Malaysia I noticed a large cement building beside the road which turned out to be one of the swift “hotels”. These large concrete structures are built solely for swifts to nest in – but upon construction the nest is removed to be sold off to fill someone’s bowl.

When we stopped to take a closer look at one of the swift hotels they were even playing the songs of swifts through a PA system (I assume to encourage nest building). The sound though is not appreciated by some locals who don’t like the sound blasting out of the speakers all day long (I am not sure if they turn off the sound at night).

Isn’t that a bit of an overkill may ask? Well the Bird Nest Soup industry makes many millions of dollars each year in Asia. In Indonesia alone the economic contribution of the Birds Nest Soup industry is equal to about one quarter of the country’s entire fishing industry.

Not bad for a bit of bird spit.

UPDATE: I just visited one of the 'swift nesting houses' on the outskirts of Manado in North Sulawesi, Indonesia today (June 9) and got some more information. The 'sounds' that are played on the loudspeakers are played 24 hours a day ... and are not 'songs' per se but more like clicks. I made a recording and will add that to the Blog soon.

And ... the value for one kilogram of swift nest ranges from 7,000,000 Indonesian Rupiah IDR (about $780 Canadian) to 20,000,000 IDR ($2200 Canadian). It takes about 120 nests to make one kilogram.

And the cost to build one of the swift nesting houses (although they do vary in size) is about 4,000,000,000 IDR (about $440,000 Can). So... I think you can see that the bird nest soup industry is BIG BUSINESS!

And oh... once the nest is created... they replace the nest that is removed with an artificial nest so that the birds can continue incubating the eggs to hatching. I am not sure though about the success rate of real nests vs. fake nests. I will need to do more research.

Kamakshi Child Home/Orphanage

Being mobbed (in a very nice way) by staff and kids at the Kamakshi Child Home

Sometimes I forget how fortunate I have been to be raised in a loving family environment (although admittedly my older brothers did rough me up fairly consistently when I was young - I am the youngest of seven kids in the Catt family). This really hit home when I visited the Kamakshi Child Home near Kulim in northern Malaysia. The home was established and is financed primarily by one key donor, a pediatrician living in the area who saw the need to create a place for the less fortunate and parent-less children to live, learn and grow.

 

My visit to the orphanage was arranged by members of the Rotary Club of Kulim. I had offered to give an informal presentation to the kids and all was ready to go when I arrived. The kids were so amazing! They were incredibly well behaved, asked excellent questions & never ceased to smile throughout my presentation. And when they were asked questions by their teachers after my talk their understanding and retention of what I had presented was outstanding! I was really very impressed!

All of the students have a story to tell. Many have no parents and live full time at the home. Others have just a single parent who is struggling to make ends meet. One student was very special and has a wonderful story. This particular student suffers from Cerebral Palsy and had been pretty well left on the streets. He actually went to the Kamakshi Child Home on his own accord, not to be taken in but because he was seeking a job to help support himself. As it turned out… the amazing people who operate Kamakshi took him in, gave him a home, love, respect and an education. That young man is now entering into a Master’s program in IT at a local university.

Supporters, staff and students at the Kamakshi Child Home

Plastic Plastic EVERYWHERE!

Some of the hundreds of millions of tons of plastic in the oceans of the world

Plastic is the bane of the oceans and also plagues the terrestrial environment all over the planet. If you want to learn more about the amount of plastic in our oceans simply Google ‘The Great Pacific Garbage Patch”. In the Pacific alone the amount of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch alone is estimated at 100 million tons!!!

On my journey so far I have seen a lot of plastic! In India it was everywhere… on the streets, beside railway lines, in and along rivers, lakes and ocean. Everywhere I looked I saw it (yellow, blue, green, orange... every colour of the rainbow). Nepal’s plastic problem is similar to India's but I was very impressed with China’s country wide decision to ban plastic bags (they did so in 2008) which is a huge step in the right direction!

Thailand and Malaysia (as most countries around the world) also have huge plastic problems. As I have traveled across Asia over the past few months it is apparent that the average citizen thinks nothing of tossing plastic bags or plastic water bottles out the window of a bus or car or simply throwing it down on the street.  We simply have tons and tons and tons of plastic in the environment and we are the ones putting it there.

There is hope though. I was very impressed by the efforts of some companies (e.g. KFC) in Malaysia and also the Rotary Clubs of Malaysia in their efforts to curb the plastic problem.
The Rotary Clubs across Malaysia have created a program focusing on reducing plastic across the country. It is called, “I choose to re-use”. Have a look at the video!

Fish Farming – How to Feed the Planet!?

Fisherman from Pulau Aman taking us out to the Fish Farm Pens

When I was born on a mid-June day in southern Ontario (yes, I am a transplant to the west coast) there were a mere 3.1 billion people on the planet. When I graduated from high school there were 4.5 billion; when I started teaching at BCIT there were 5.8 billion and just last year  we reached 7 billion. If you believe the estimates… within my lifetime (in the next 40 years) we will surpass 9 billion. 
 

Fish Farm on the Malaysian Coast

With that in mind you would think that the farming of fish to feed an ever growing human population would be a great idea. In fact I thought so for a long time. But when I looked at the practice of fish farming more closely (from a basic ecology perspective) I realized that the story is not quite as rosy as I thought originally.

In the warm tropical waters of Malaysia (and neighbouring countries) a number of species of marine fishes are farmed. Just off the shores of Pulau Aman in Malaysia there are dozens of farms that raise   Sea Bass, Snapper and Grouper. We asked one of the boat captains from the village to take us out to see the farms and he took us to one that was operated by the Malaysian government. The majority are privately operated.

Fish Farm on the Malaysian Coast

We were shown the different pens where the three species are raised. The Snapper and Sea Bass are fed in their marine sea pens for 8 to 10 months while the Grouper take 12 months to reach marketable size. It was interesting to learn that the Sea Bass and Snapper are primarily raised for local markets while the Grouper are raised for the more lucrative "live fish" market to be taken by ship to Hong Kong (the key market).

So, what’s the issue?

Most fish each other fish (they are piscivorous) and as I learned when I visited Chile during Catt-Trax 2 farmed fish are fed fish, in the form of pellets … but pellets made up of ground sardines, mackerel and anchovies and other small fish species.

Fish Feed for the Fish Farm

Fish Feed for the Fish Farm

And depending on whose formula you use, it can take 4 to 5 kg of small fish (converted into fish meal) to create 1 kg of farmed fish. So the issue is that we are taking protein from the sea (that could feed a growing human population) and we are converting it into a smaller amount of protein by feeding it to carnivorous farmed fish (such as Sea bass, Sapper, Grouper in Asia as well as salmon and trout in North America, Europe and South America).

It’s like taking four or five loaves of bread and tearing them apart and putting them back together as one smaller loaf of bread. Is that going to feed the world?

The manager of the fish farm also pointed out that he was having great difficulties with fish mortality and disease. There are many other issues related to fish farms that are cited by conservation groups. I am most certainly not against farming ... I just want to ensure that we do it in an ecologically sensible manner and there is a net benefit for a planet that needs food.

Fish Farm Manager Explaining Some of the Challenges

Tropical Paradise - Pulau Aman, Malaysia

Village on Pulau Aman, Malaysia

When my Malaysian friend Salva asked if I would be keen to visit a beautiful tropical island on the Malaysian coast how could I refuse? I mentioned to him though that I preferred to visit a non-touristy island so he picked Pulau Aman. “Pulau” in Malay (and Indonesian) means ‘Island’.

Salva mentioned that he visited the island on a day trip last year and was looking forward to having more time to explore what it had to offer.

According to the brochure the island had jungle trekking trails, boardwalks in the mangroves, sport fishing, swimming beach areas, kayaking and to top it off ‘amazing seafood’. I was in!

There is a small village on the island and they have for generations focused on fishing as well as a small bit of rubber production in the interior of the island. When we arrived a small fleet of fishing boats were scattered in the small harbor and on the edge of town there are still lots of rubber trees complete with small 'rubber' collection pails at the base of the trees.

Salva pulling the rubber on a Rubber Tree

But as everywhere in the world times are changing and this once sleepy fishing village is in a state of transition.  The island itself is within view of the city of Penang (or the other way around as at night you can easily see the glow of the city lights). The community does benefit from tourism but mainly from day visitors who come across from the mainland on the small 20 passenger ferry to feast on regular udang (shrimp) or the larger centipede prawns.

Salva with a Centipede Prawn

It seems the government decided to help the residents develop a tourism industry to supplement the island’s fishing focused economy. What appeared to be a tourism ‘cooperative’ set about doing a whole range of things to prepare for over-night tourism. A ‘homestay’ program was established; waterside chalets were constructed; a trail was built around much of the island (constructed out of cement); a boardwalk was built to allow visitors to walk through the mangroves on the adjacent small island (which can be accessed only by boat except on very low tides); local fishermen offer ‘boat tours’ around the islands and a new jetty was constructed to (I assume) handle the boom in overnight visitors. Well as of yet the ‘boom’ has not come.

If you look at the brochure you would think wow … this place looks amazing! Wellllll… brochures can be deceiving … as some of you may very well know.

I don’t know exactly when most of the structures were built but it was obvious that the planners failed to include one very important line in their financial plans for the project – and that is upkeep and maintenance. The cement trail is at some places falling into the sea and the gorgeous boardwalk through the mangroves (which must have been fabulous when it was first built) is now in shambles … as a large percentage of the wooden planks have rotted. Apparently last week an Australian visitor fell through the boardwalk and was lucky not have sustained serious injury.

And one of the saddest parts is the amount of plastic that is strewn across the shores in and around the village (on both islands). Plastic drives me nuts! (see upcoming post on plastic)

Malaysian Flag on Pulau Aman

We still had a great time hiking, exploring, relaxing and in fact it was a fabulous three days. I just hope that the village is given the support to fix the structures that are in disrepair and maintain the ones that are still in decent shape.

Fisherman on Pulau Aman

Fishermen on Pulau Aman