The Nature Conservancy in Indonesia - Borneo, Indonesia - new animal species discovered in Borneo - new Borneo animals

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Day 3: A Sack Full of Bats

Several of us woke at 5:30 in the morning to look for and document the variety of bird species that lived in the area. We ate our usual sardines and tomato stew with rice, then several of us, including Noerdjito, an ornithologist with the Indonesia Institute of Sciences, climbed into a small boat and motored upstream.

After about 20 minutes we banked on a stony beach area, pulled out binoculars and began our search for birds. We spotted a brahminy kite, a blue-winged leafbird, and an oriental darter with its sleek dark body and long neck. Several times we looked up to see a variety of hornbills, their massive wings making a distinctive deep whooshing sound as they flew above our heads. We also heard the melodic call of a greater racket-tailed drongo. We never saw the bird, but a book Noerdjito carried with him showed the bird – it is a deep midnight blue with a small crest of black feathers protruding from the top of his beak and a long, forked tail that hangs twice the length of the bird’s body.

As we sat on the rocky beach, we noticed the footprints of a monitor lizard that can grow to be more than three feet long. On our trip back down the river, we slowly approached a large colony of gibbons – called “woop woops” by the local Indonesians because of their calls. The hoots grew louder as we approached a towering tree to our left, but we could not see the gibbons through the thick foliage. We later floated past a group of proboscis monkeys perched in a tree immediately next to another tree filled with macaques whose long tails dangled below them as they pulled their breakfast of leaves from the high branches.

We also saw the most beautiful bird I had ever seen - a stork-billed kingfisher which has a yellow body, orange bill and vibrant blue wings. During his four weeks with the expedition, Noerdjito documented a total of 124 bird species living in the Sangkulirang karst areas, nearly one-third of all the non-migratory, non-wetland birds found in Borneo.

That evening, Matt and Leo ventured into the dark jungle to erect traps to catch bats as they flew out of the caves. They returned several hours later, drenched in sweat and smelling of guano and carrying several canvas sacks holding live bats. Among his captures was a gold-tipped tube-nosed bat, documented only once before in Indonesia, about 50 years ago.

In all, Matt documented 34 species of bats in the Sangkulirang area, more than one-third of all the known bat species in Borneo and more than any other known site in Kalimantan, including protected areas. Several of the species he collected had never before been seen in Kalimantan.

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Learn more about Borneo and East Kalimantan, Indonesia:

Press Release: Scientists Discover New Animal and Plant Species Hidden Deep in Borneo Jungles
A team of international scientists led by The Nature Conservancy announced the discovery of at least two new fish species and a variety of previously unknown insect, snail and plant species living in the karst systems of Borneo.
Where We Work: The Nature Conservancy in Indonesia
Indonesia is one of the world’s most extraordinary storehouses of biodiversity. Although it covers only 1.3% of Earth’s land surface, it is home to about 17% of the plant and animal species of the world.
How You Can Help: Adopt an Acre®
Every second of every day, an area the size of a football field is cleared. That's 86,400 football fields per day, seven days a week. By adopting an acre, you are providing critical funds for rainforest acquisition and protection enabling the Conservancy and its partners to achieve their mission of protecting biological diversity.