This One Time, On Tioman...

Home Sweet Home:
Melina Beach Eco Resort

It feels a bit strange returning from my fourth trip to Pulau Tioman (Tioman Island), located about 30 kilometers off the southeastern coast of peninsular Malaysia, and have yet to mention it here. Perhaps it's because each trip, though busy and full fascinating encounters with local flora and fauna, have also felt about the same.  I've come here each time with biology and environmental science students to engage and support them in a required lab or field study investigation for their coursework. So, while I've gotten to know certain parts of the island very well - the intertidal zone of the western coast or the modest resort and fishing village of Genting, for example - I know there are other points on interest on this outpost of natural treasures.

The pier at Genting on Tioman's west coast.

The mangrove swamps at low tide are fascinating places. These highly salt-tolerant
trees produce "knee roots," or pneumatophores, which take in oxygen from the air,
due to the anaerobic qualities of the mud they grow in.

A smallish water monitor lizard (Varanus salvator) soaking up some sun.

This place is a bug-hunter's dream: some brilliantly-colored Hemipteran.

This Anglehead Chameleon (Gonocephalus chameleontinus) let me get really
close for this photoshoot. The blue around its eye was stunning.

This hammerhead flatworm (Bipalium sp.)  is one of few
terrestrial platyhelminths around the world.

Meet the trilobite beetle (Duliticola hoiseni) one of the few known beetles
without the typical domed carapace characteristic of their kind.
(Also, one of the coolest insects I've ever seen!)

Related to the noxious "corpse flower" this species of Amorphophallus was a
surprise to see along the trail into the highlands of the island. 

This terrible blurry photo attempts to capture a "colugo,"
or Sunda flying lemur, of which it is neither.
Endemic to only a few locales in Southeast Asia, these
nocturnal are arboreal and clumsy, but they sure can glide!

Pulau Tioman is home to many animals and plants endemic to its forests and coastlines, including a handful of protected species.  Of course, it's not all rainforest hikes and tide pool exploring.  Most of the time is used helping students develop research questions, design a methodology, and collect data.  After four trips, I've learned more about the relationship between the size of a crab hole with regard to it's distance from a mangrove tree or where the abundance of rock oysters is greater (leeward or windward side of a boulder) than I ever cared to know.  But, watching these burgeoning scientists get excited watching their data take shape is a reward within itself.

With the abundant reefs and snorkeling opportunities, in addition to other old-growth parts of the rainforest to explore, perhaps I'll end up back here without a troupe of students and little agenda other than exploring.  Hopefully Malaysia recognizes the importance of such natural treasures and continues to support and protect them for the unique places they are.