Ian G. Brennan

Postdoctoral Researcher
The Australian National University

  • Home
  • About
  • Publications
  • Current Research
  • SciComm
  • Seminar Posters
  • AusHerps
  • github

Myself, Jackie, Ben, and Adi on our way from Ba'kelalan to Merarap. 
photo credit: Jackie Childers

Travels in Sarawak

June 27, 2015 by Ian Brennan

After spending the past 3.5 weeks in Sarawak, Malaysia, I'm back home in Canberra. Usually I'd be happy to be back home, but Sarawak is such an amazing place to visit, I can't say I was ready to leave. At the beginning of June, I joined up with my friends Ben and Jackie in Kuching, and we started a trip that spanned Sarawak, West to East, lowlands to highlands. I can't thank Ben enough for putting together such an awesome and successful trip, and Jackie for her fantastic photography skills. We spent as much time in the field as possible, sampling primary forest in National Parks all over, and you can find a brief storyboard of the trip here. 

But maybe the best way to summarize the trip is via photos, I can't take credit for any of the photos below, so all praise is due to Jackie and Ben for their amazing photography skills. You can check out more of their work by clicking here. 

View fullsize  your intrepid explorer regally staring into space outside of Deer Cave, Mulu National Park. We were waiting for the sun to piss off so the bats would come out of the cave, and we could go looking for geckos without getting peed on. photo credit: Jac
View fullsize  an unhappy  Draco sumatranus . They spread their extended ribs into makeshift wings to glide between trees, and away from predators.  photo credit: Jackie Childers
View fullsize  Dendrelaphis formosus, one of many elegant tree snakes referred to as "bronze backs."  photo credit: Jackie Childers
View fullsize  Huge thanks to Uday/Jeffrey in Kampung Sebako for helping us in the forest, and giving us an amazing place to stay during our travels. Here he was just showing us how his family has harvested and dried peppercorns for the famous Sarawak black and wh
View fullsize   Rhacophorus nigropalmatus,  the largest of the flying frogs. instead of flattening out like the  Draco , these frogs use the webbing between their fingers and toes to glide.  photo credit: Jackie Childers
View fullsize  Admittedly, there are some pretty awesome mammals in Sarawak as well. Sometimes the orangutans (orang = man, utan = forest) seem a little too human-like.  photo credit: Jackie Childers
View fullsize  A very pretty  Cyrtodactylus  gecko. one of the reasons I went to Sarawak specifically.  photo credit: Jackie Childers
View fullsize   Aeluroscalabotes felinus , the Cat Gecko, so named for the retractable claws that disappear into sheaths, similar to cats.  photo credit: Jackie Childers
View fullsize   Pseudorabdion albonuchalis , maybe a bit poorly named here, as their neck is definitely red, not white.  photo credit: Jackie Childers
View fullsize  Having a close up look at the chompers of the arboreal viper  Tropidolaemus subannulatus.  Sorry mum! photo credit: Jackie Childers
View fullsize  And much like the frogs, snakes, and lizards, the geckos in Sarawak glide too. This  Ptychozoon kuhlii  uses the webbed feet, as well as extra strips of skin along the body, and a flat wide tail as a rudder to help it in flight.  photo credit:
View fullsize  Another very pretty  Cyrtodactylus  from Guning Gading.  photo credit: Ben Karin


June 27, 2015 /Ian Brennan
  • Newer
  • Older