Island critters
Trip Start
Jan 12, 2007
1
57
69
Trip End
Jul 11, 2007
Pulau Kapas, Malaysia
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Instead I headed north to Pulau Kapas, a fairly small island just off the coast. It's only about five or six kilometers around the island, and only the west side of the island has a beach, so that's really the only developed area. The island is part of a marine park, so it's uninhabited except for tourists. I stayed at a little place down at the very end of the beach - the first day I was there I pretty much just kicked back and enjoyed the sun.
Jumping over mini canyons
After that I got a little bored and had to go exploring.The east side of the island was great. It was all rocks, most of it pretty much cliffs, full of caves and little coves. I hiked around until I couldn't hike any more, at which point I climbed until I couldn't climb any more, at which point I put on my mask and snorkel and threw myself off a cliff into the ocean. Yeah!
There was good snorkelling, although the last day I was there we had a bit of a jellyfish problem. It didn't mean you couldn't swim, but if you did you were pretty much guaranteed to get stung a bit (they really don't hurt that much though - less painful than, say, a bee sting). Here's a list of the various critters that I ran into, both above and below the water:
Sharks! Yeah, I saw two more (or maybe it was the same one twice) black tipped reef sharks, probably about 4 to 5 feet long. Definitely still good for an adrenaline rush.
Sea Urchins: Ok, so urchins aren't quite as exciting as sharks, but there were sure a lot of them
The beach
. There was on species with really long spines (8-10 inches) who congregated in groups of 20-50 animals on the sea floor. When I floated over them, they all pointed their spines at me. "Be afraid! We're scary intimidating sea urchins! Yeah, you just keep moving if you know what's good for you!"Fish: Yeah, obviously, gazillions of fish in pretty much every color combination you can think of.
Other random marine invertebrates: Again, in random shades of color.
Monitor lizards: The rocks on the east side apparently made for great lizard sunbathing. I saw probably a dozen each day, most of which were only 1-2 feet long. There was one monster though, who had to be about 5 feet long from head to tail. It's funny how they move by whipping their bodies back and forth, almost more like snakes than an animal with legs... anyway, he decided to run away and I decided not to follow him.
Eagles: There were a couple good sized eagles that I surprised on one of my trips. They had white heads and bellies, a black back, and their heads looked like they may have had black spots... anybody who want to try and figure out what they were, feel free.
Bats: Lots and lots of caves meant lots and lots of bats. I've decided that bats really aren't very exciting during the day, and their caves are really quite smelly.
Anyway, after a few days of being out in the sun all day, I decided I needed to spend a day or two more or less indoors before I burned myself to a crisp, so I headed back to the mainland....
Comments
eagles
The answer is more than likely white bellied fish eagles (Haliaeetus leucogaster). They are not uncommon in Singapore/Malaysia and eat sea animals (fish, snakes, crabs, etc). However they don't 'dive' like ospreys, so they eat things off the surface (like eagles in the US). They mate for life and pretty typical eagles in behavior and all.