Bats!

We have been getting nightly visits from the bats that reside in the ceiling.
We would have to catch the disoriented bat and release it outdoors. Fai is now accustomed to handling bats. The boys are fascinated with the way it uses its limbs to walk on the floor.

One bat decided to spring a surprise on JY and her friend that was in PD for a sleepover.

At 3am it emerged from its hiding place - JY swears it flew out from the air-con and started flying around her room, giving out clicking sounds, looking for a way out. this sent the girls scurrying out and they slept in the grandma's room after that.

Langs Cave and the Bat Exodus from the observatory 4March2011

Map of Langs Cave. Han likes maps and he traced his finger along the route we followed repeatedly.
Langs Cave was touted to have spectatcular cave formations

It was easy to explain the formation of stalagmite and stalactites when the kids could witness for themselves the dripping of the mineralised solution from the stalactite above.

Lots of information was readily available. Signboards such as the one above explained the science behind what we saw and at times posted puzzling questions for us to mull over.

Jellyfish like formations. Similar to the ones we came across in Gua Tempurung.

After admiring the formations in Langs Cave, we gathered at the bats observatory to witness the nightly exodus of bats as they fly out from the caves by the thousands from 5 to 6.30pm.

The bats can be seen circling and gathering above the entrance of the cave and then leaving in a spiralling ribbon towards the forest. A moment later, another group of bats will leave the cave and this will occur continuously until nightfall.

As each colony of bats left the cave, my kids cheered and Ooohed and Aaaahed with the rest of the crowd.

We sat there and saw at least 10 colonies leave the cave. It wa

Here's a video of the bat exodus. Enjoy!

As we walked back towards the park HQ for our ride back to the resort, we could hear the bats swoosh by over head.

It was an amazing sight catching sight of them among between the trees as they flew by.

Drawing by Fai depicting the bats using echolocation to locate their prey.

The bat with Xs for its eyes hit a stalagmite.

"It forgot to use echolocation and hit its head" explains Fai.

He also drew the plankwalk we walked on.

I will need to ask him what the circle on the upper righthand corner is as well as the orange sketches on the upper left corner.

Miri Crocodile Farm 3March2011

On the way to the crocodile farm, we passed a few road side stalls selling piles of tiny, pink shrimps at about RM8/kg.
The shrimps, known as 'bubuk', are in season during the months of March to May and is eaten fresh with some assam, lime juice, shallots...sounded like preparing kerabu to me. The leftovers are used in preparing cincaluk and belacan. Nothing goes to waste. We were told that the shrimp can also be caught in Melaka.


Map of the crocodile farm

Lounging crocs.

Being a weekday, we had the place to ourselves and the caretaker told us we had his undivided attention. He asked us if we wanted to feed the crocodiles for RM10.

He came back after a while with a bucketful of chicken pieces. Hooked the chicken onto a hook and line and told my hubby to lower the rod into the pit filled with young crocodiles.

The moment the crocodiles caught a whiff of the raw chicken, they began leaping into the air and splashing water as they landed.

After feeding the whole bucket to the crocs, the caretaker asked if we wanted to feed the bigger crocs for RM10.

He came back after a few minutes with 4 frozen chicken carcasses.

He hooked one chicken onto a hook and reeled the chicken to the middle of the enclosure.

One of the big crocodiles leaping out of the water.

They missed most of the time and were exhausted after 3 or 4 jumps and had to rest a while before attempting another jump.

The kids shrieked at the sight of the ferocious power shown by the crocodiles.

Fai and Han studying animal behavior.
The boys were entertained by the antics of the pig tailed macaque.

There were 3 young macaques and each of them exhibited mannerisms that were similar to one of the boys.

The breastfeeding macaque was clingy and never left the mother's side,

the middle one was mischievious and tried to evoke one of the bigger ones to play with him and was the most active,

the biggest of the three was thoughtful and was trying out different tactics to excape the cage - first by trying to squeeze his toes out from under the cage then by biting at the wire netting.

We bought a bunch of bananas for RM1 to feed the animals.

Ean insisted the civet cats needed their bananas peeled. The civet cats looking on impatiently as the 2 year old carefully prepared its meal.

The Malayan flying fox, similar to the ones we saw at Zoo Negara, climbed down the wire mesh to feed on the bananas. The kids could have a good look at the bats' anatomy.

Bats 24Feb2011

The night before the zoo trip, Han started jumping around the bedroom with a blanket tightly clutch around his shoulders.
He said" I am gonna sleep like a bat tonight" and lay down on the bed.
Fai said "Bats sleep hanging upside down Han"
Han asked " Why do bats sleep upside down mom?"
I had no idea.
So I said, " Would you like to go to the bats exhibit when we are at the zoo tomorrow? Maybe we can find the answer there"
Han "Ok"

The largest bat is the Malaysian Flying Fox. We saw a few clinging to the black nursery netting. They were squirming and flapping their wings.
Me: the bats do not wrap their wings around them.
Fai: Yea, I think they are hot.

What fine deduction that was!

It was about 2pm.
The heat must have been unbearable for the bats with just the nursery netting for shade.

Thea: And too bright too. Don't they sleep in caves?

JY: Look. They are fanning themselves.

Indeed they were. The bats were flapping their wings inwards, trying to direct cool air to their body.

No information on why bats hang upside down but there were a few informative posters.
Fai compared the sizes of the bones in the human's and the bat's hand.
Han matched the bones of the bat's and human's.