Kuala Lumpur 10th-14th February

A very short trip report!

Firstly, this was not a field trip but more of a long weekend/city break. However, I heard that Wallace’s flying frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus) occurs not too far away from the city. This is a species I have missed several times in Thailand, although it is found not far from Phuket where I live, they seem to spend longer periods without much activity in those areas for some reason. So for one evening I managed to escape the city together with Kurt Orion, a local expert who helped me to find the desired frog. After quite a long drive stuck in traffic, trying to get out of the city the weather conditions did not look promising. The forest floor was bone dry and only a few small pools remained on the edges of the forest trails. However, quite soon we could hear a couple of flying frogs calling from high up in the canopy. Of course too far away to see but this improved the prospects somewhat. After around three or four hours into our hike I finally spotted a flying frog sat perched less than a metre above ground! Moments later Kurt spotted another species high on my wish list, Norhayati’s Flying Frog (Rhacophorus norhayatii). This frog was sitting much higher up but with the help of a big piece of bamboo we managed to bring it down for photos. Soon after this we found another flying frog sitting around two metres above ground. I also enjoyed seeing a few individuals of the David Bowie spider (Heteropoda davidbowie) which is endemic to this part of Malaysia. I was happy to see my main target, although this forest was too dry to see some of the other exciting species that live there. I will be back for sure…