New Trip Reports: Sulawesi and Java
Coke Smith has finished the reports for his family’s Christmas trip to Java and Sulawesi (where I met up with them). The highlight has got to be the glimpse of a Javan Rhino! But they saw a lot of other cool stuff.
Java http://cokesmithphototravel.com/expedition-to-java-barat.html
Sulawesi http://cokesmithphototravel.com/spectacular-sulawesi.html
Jon
7 Comments
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PandaSmith
Thanks Curtis! We had some very excellent luck for sure. The Rhino was extremely exciting! Thanks for the frog ID. Will update next round. I would not be surprised if we had that south-current you mentioned. It was stormy so I am really hoping this was just a really bad period of time and not indicative of the condition of the entire area… I did notice a map with all of the dive spots and we were only able to visit a couple just off the main island and about a km or so away at that….Cheers.
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Scary Israel
enjoyed both those reports. The mystery doves in the Sulawesi one are Stephan’s doves (Chalcophaps stephani). I was lucky enough to see anoa at the babirusa lick in 2009, but I missed the bear cuscus at Tangkoko even though they’re common there. Instead I saw a bear cuscus on Mt Rorekatimbo; the Sulawesi dwarf cuscus are common as anything at night on Rorekatimbo as well. The tarsier tree at Tangkoko is a depressing circus indeed 🙁 ……but I think if it keeps everybody away from all the other tarsier roosts then that’s a good thing.
Well done on the rhino too! I wouldn’t mind going back to Ujung Kulon to try again but I probably won’t get the chance.
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Jon Hall
Hi Israel, could you let me/us know a bit more about how you saw the Dwarf Cuscuses. Where do they live? thanks
Jon
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Scary Israel
that was at the top of the Anaso track on Mt Rorekatimbo in 2011 (while looking unsuccessfully for pigmy tarsiers). This is in Lore Lindu National Park in the centre of the island. Easy to get to: fly into Palu and take a public car to Wuasa where there are various homestays. I camped up the top of the Anaso track for several nights. The dwarf cuscus I saw only in the higher areas but I’m not sure if this is because the ones lower down are hunted more or if its just that they were easier to see in the more open canopy at higher altitudes. Note that they are strictly nocturnal. I’m guessing they sleep in holes or tangles of vegetation.
I also saw a bear cuscus on the lower Anaso track in 2009.
I think you’d be hard pressed to find dwarf cuscus near any settled areas (e.g. Tangkoko) because they are heavily hunted everywhere for food.
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Curtis Hart
I just spent the last hour or two enjoying your Sulawesi and Java trip reports. Excellent job seeing the Rhino. I believe your frog from Halimun is Leptophryne borbonica. I’m quite jealous you got to stay at the research station there, it wasn’t an option when I visited.
On Bunaken, where exactly did you snorkel? I went straight off where I stayed on the NE side of the island and it was some of the best snorkeling I’ve ever seen, unless the current was from the south, then there were trash issues. I wonder if you were in a different place, or if it had degraded that much in the last 4 years.
Seeing your report makes me want to go back to both Sulawesi, for more Babirusa, and Java to try for the Rhino.