A Message From The Forest
Date Posted May 22, 2023
Text by: BOSF PRM Team at Camp Nles Mamse, Kehje Sewen Forest, East Kalimantan
Camp Nles Mamse, located in the Kehje Sewen Forest, is surrounded by the beauty of nature and its unique flora and fauna. Our Post-Release Monitoring (PRM) teams regularly encounter exotic animals like monitor lizards (Varanus salvator), binturongs (Arctictis binturong), orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), malay blue-flycatchers (Cyornis turcosus), Baram River frogs (Hylarana baramica), and Rhinoceros hornbills (Buceros rhinoceros).
Read also: Rainforest Spotlight: Kehje Sewen!
When the BOSF team members encounter strange and curious creatures when working on projects around Camp Nles Mamse, they capture the experience not through traps, but with photographs. While also fun, this serves a very important purpose as we aim to record the vast biodiversity at home in the Kehje Sewen Forest.
Taking good pictures is one of the most important steps in identifying an animal. Through photos, our team members are able to study and analyze the physical characteristics of these animals. Taking pictures is not only a form of documentation, but also a means of communication, capturing a moment that may never be captured again.
Our team members work alongside animals in their natural environment, going about their way. Therefore, it is important to minimize activities that might interfere with this. As ‘neighbors’ of these exotic animals, it is important for us to help maintain the stability of the forest ecosystem. If we are mindful of keeping the Kehje Sewen Forest ecosystem stable, this, in turn, will help keep animals safe – including Bornean orangutans, which, as the name suggests, are endemic to Borneo.
Let’s all be biodiversity warriors by remembering to leave only footprints and take only photos in our own wild adventures!