110702 CCNR, and some thoughts on the way humans tend to abuse wildlife.

Night blitz through one of the trails in our central forests with Ron.




Ron spotted my first colugo sighting. I heard some very sad stories from Shufen regarding colugo poaching. Apparently poachers slingshot colugo down from the trees and sell those that survive. It could be as low as 2 surviving colugo per 10 shot down. What a cruel practice and terrible waste.


There was some scratching noises in the plants which turned out to be a rat feeding.


Gold-ringed cat snake (Boiga dendrophila).


It was injured by something.


Underside.


Quite a large specimen, could be about 2 m long.


I managed to get very close to it without spooking it or getting attacked. Snakes generally ignore us if we do not attack or antagonize them. I hope that this specimen was not attacked by one of the stick-wielding people who like to walk along our nature paths but somehow feel that "snakes have no business intruding into human territory" and have the very twisted opinion that every snake deserves to be beaten to death.


Acanthaspis assassin bug.


Opiliones.


Phasmid.


Sac spider, about 1 cm long. It was hanging head down in mid air on a single web strand with forelegs splayed out (to catch flying prey?). It climbed back on the leaf like this when disturbed.