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In the Dark Forest
Step into the world of writers and photographers as they tell you about the best, worst, and quirkiest places and adventures they encountered in the field.
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Southeast Asia
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By Tim Laman
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Darkness summons a menagerie of creatures that slither, leap, and buzz through Southeast Asia’s forests.
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Get a taste of what awaits you in print from this compelling excerpt.
As the day’s last light paints the tropical sky, I perch on the side of a cliff on Khao Luk Chang (Baby Elephant Mountain) in Thailand. A few feet (one meter) in front of me thousands of wrinkled-lipped bats stream out of their cave. Soon they will fan out and gorge on insects in the forest below. Human eyes that work so well during the day are of little use in this world. Out here, hosts of species are supremely adapted for making a living in the dark. Bats with their sonar, tarsiers with their acute hearing and night vision, and civets with their exquisite sense of smell are just a few examples. I wish my senses were a match for these nocturnal creatures. Though limited to my human perception, I do get a little help from technology. With headlamps, strobes, infrared camera traps, and night-vision scopes in my arsenal, I head off into the rain forest after dark. It’s as rich in life as it is by day but with an almost completely different cast of characters.
I have photographed creatures of the night in rain forests across tropical Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia (map). African and South American rain forests host a similarly rich assortment of little-known inhabitants. Of these three equatorial regions, Asia is losing its forests the fastest and has the fewest remaining. In Indonesia alone, illegal logging has led to what one scientific report called a “biological catastrophe.”
Whether I am strolling along a forest track, where I spotted this spiky caterpillar chomping on a wild ginger leaf, or making an exploratory night climb with colleagues into the top of Borneo’s forest canopy of dipterocarp trees, the night has many surprises in store for me. Few people have ever experienced them, and unless we protect enough pristine forest, few ever will.
If we act quickly to preserve what remains, generations to come will still be able to appreciate the wonders of the rain forest’s night shift.
Get the whole story in the pages of National Geographic magazine.
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Southeast Asia’s rain forests come alive at night with a cast of chattering, trumpeting, slithering characters.
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Nature’s engineering and engineering nature—intriguing choices for desktop wallpaper.
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| Step into our virtual Rain Forest at Night for rare encounters with some of Borneo’s most fascinating nocturnal creatures.
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| In More to Explore the National Geographic magazine team shares some of its best sources and other information. Special thanks to the Research Division. |
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As an increasing number of rain forest trees fall to the saw of timber companies, environmental organizations and businesses with an environmental conscience are proposing methods for reducing damage to vulnerable forests. One such effort is forest certification.
Coordinated by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), forest certification tries to ensure that wood products have come from well-managed forests by creating an inspection system that follows the wood from raw material to finished product. A well-managed forestry operation practices sustainable forest development by protecting the forest’s biodiversity and conserving its ancient natural woodland. Logging companies open their doors to the FSC, which inspects each shipment of wood. If the shipment attains the FSC’s certification, consumers know that this wood came from sustainable forestry. In the U.S., companies such as Home Depot and Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse have agreed to purchase only certified wood.
—Sue Banerjee
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Rainforest Action Network
www.ran.org
The Rainforest Action Network’s mission is to protect tropical rain forests around the world. Learn more about rain forest conservation at this site.
World Wide Fund for Nature / Forests for Life
www.panda.org/forests4life/
In 1996, the World Wide Fund for Nature launched its Forests for Life campaign. Learn more about the organization’s efforts to achieve greater forest protection at this website.
World Resources Institute
www.wri.org
Go to the World Resources Institute’s website to find information on environmental problems such as deforestation and habitat loss.
Forest Stewardship Council
fscus.org/html/index.html
The Forest Stewardship Council is a nonprofit organization that brings together diverse groups such as environmentalists and timber companies in an effort to promote sustainable forestry. Its website contains information on the FSC’s forest certification effort.
Sights & Sounds: Rain Forest Gliders
www.nationalgeographic.org/ngm/0010/feature4/media.html
Flying frogs, leaping lizards, airborne squirrels—a host of creatures employ
gravity-defying means of travel. Come fly with them as author/photographer Tim Laman tells us their story.
Wild Gliders
www.nationalgeographic.org/ngm/0010/feature4/index.html
See web exclusive photographs and find out more interesting facts about these fascinating animals of Borneo.
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Bernard, Hans-Ulrich, ed. Southeast Asia Wildlife. APA Publications Ltd., 1991.
Sharp, Ilsa. Green Indonesia: Tropical Forest Encounters. Oxford University Press, 1994.
Whitten, Tony, and Jane Whitten. Wild Indonesia. MIT Press, 1992.
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Laman, Tim. “Wild Gliders: The Creatures of Borneo’s Rain Forest Go Airborne,” National Geographic (October 2000), 68-85.
McCarry, John. “Suriname: Can the Rain Forest Save South America’s Youngest Nation?” National Geographic (June 2000), 38-55.
Powzyk, Joyce A. In Search of Lemurs: My Days and Nights in a Madagascar Rain Forest. National Geographic Books, 1998.
Grupper, Jonathan. Destination: Rain Forest. National Geographic Books, 1997.
O’Neill, Thomas. “New Sensors Eye the Rain Forest: Data Gathering on the Belize Frontier,” National Geographic (September 1993), 118-130.
Wilson, Edward O. “Rain Forest Canopy: The High Frontier,” National Geographic (December 1991), 78-107.
Raven, Peter H., and others. The Emerald Realm: Earth’s Precious Rain Forests. National Geographic Books, 1990.
Hughes, Carol and David. “Teeming Life of a Rain Forest,” National Geographic (January 1983), 48-65.
Morrison, Hedda. “Jungle Journeys in Sarawak: Cameras at Ready, the Wife of a British Colonial Officer Meets the Peoples of Borneo in Longhouse and Rain Forest,” National Geographic (May 1956), 710-736.
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