Brunei beasties

As promised in a post a while ago here are few of the critters we have encountered - and managed to photograph - on our adventure so far. Being a tropical country with a reasonable amount of forest cover remaining, and a low population, wildlife is abundant.

Big Man has been lucky enough to see otters on his way to work, which I assume are the asian short-clawed variety but I have not had the pleasure yet. So no photo. Can't leave here til this is done!

Long-tailed macaques Macaca fascicularis A troop of macaques are often seen on the grassy verge near the road or scavenging from bins at a nearby nature park.

Monitor lizard Varanus sp. Not sure whether this really captures the scale of these often massive beasts!

Oriental pied hornbill Anthraceros albirostris. My birds of Borneo book has this as 'widespread and locally common' but I believe we are incredibly lucky to see these rather large, clumsy and bizarre-looking birds almost every day.

Snakes alive!

Actually the snakes were dead. But the skins, skeletons and head parts were found IN OUR GARDEN last week, striking fear in our hearts. The remains were found on a pipe halfway up the back wall causing us to wonder what they were doing up there and if they could get in the nearby air conditioning vent. Then as I relayed the story to a friend (or so I had assumed!), she asked how big the snakes were. Not big I replied. Why?

Well... it turns out she knew the person who lived in our house before us and they had a small snake living in their loft space! This person didn't think she should tell me as I had mentioned my fear of snakes. Aaaargh!

Apparently the small loft-dwelling snake had been examined by the appropriate authorities and determined to be non-venomous. I still don't tread in a room until the light is turned on though!