Wildlife Viewing in Oil Palm Plantation

Because the tropical rainforest is so thick it is difficult to spot wildlife even if they are close by. One way to try to get around this problem is to look for animals in places where there is less vegetation. One night we rode in the back of a 4x4 pick up to look for animals in oil palm plantations near Kuala Tahan.

A kid rode on the top of the truck shining it in the trees and looking for movement or eyeshine. We were visiting Taman Negara during the full moon and I was a little bit worried that the full moon would limit animal activity a little bit. For the first hour we basically saw nothing, so I was really starting to think that I had wasted some time and money. Fortunately, things picked up a bit and we had some good looks at animals that I have never seen before. Unfortunately, most of these photos are pretty bad, but here they are.

Owl



Python

This snake was lying right beside the rode so everyone got a very good look at it. It was about 3 meters long.


Head shot.


Besautiful coloration.


Another Snake

There is a little white snake crawling through the ferns on the side of the road.



Civet

We had pretty good looks at two civets. I think that civets are relatives of the racoon. I am not sure exactly which species this is. Because my photo looks like it has a mask, I will post the article about the Masked Palm Civet.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masked_Palm_Civet

Leopard Cat

The coolest thing that I saw was a Leopard Cat. Leopard Cats cats about the size of a large house cat that has markings like a leopard. We saw one of these cats walking through the plantation and were able to watch it for quick a while.

This blurry shot shows something about its coloration.


Here is a dark, far away shot.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopard_Cat