Kuala Lumpur, 2 September 2021 – Researchers have just released a publicly accessible online resource that contains the most comprehensive information on Malaysia’s limestone hills to date. Containing detailed maps, photos, and data in the form of 7 separate eBooks, the resource is titled ‘Conservation of Limestone Ecosystems of Malaysia’.

Since Shariff Wan Mohamad from WWF-Malaysia originally posted his camera-trap database in Rimba’s Biologist Toolbox in 2012, a number of data management solutions have been developed by various researchers and organisations; some of which are freely available online. To join in the fun, he has decided to post a long overdue updated version of his camera-trap database, which he only just recently finalised.

For many years, scientists in Project Limestone have been frustrated by the lack of GIS information on limestone hills in Malaysia.  Till now, information on localities, shapes and sizes could only be obtained from books and journals, but not anymore…

Team Pteropus would like to share a few helpful tips and protocols on how to collect and study pollen. This isn’t just useful for budding botanists, plant ecologists or beekepers! It’s also relevant for wildlife ecologists who want to study the diet of animals that feed on flowers. It’s a good way to identify plant species in animal diet, as different types of plants have different, distinctive pollen shapes and sizes. In order to do this, you’ll need to start by collecting pollen samples directly from the flowers themselves, to build up your very own pollen reference library.

We have a treat for all you camera trappers out there, especially those with tons of photos lying in the depths of your hard drives gathering virtual dust and cobwebs. Shariff Mohamad, who is a field biologist with WWF-Malaysia, has developed a database for camera trapping data. He is delighted to share his software to make the lives of disorganized camera trappers much easier when it comes to processing camera trap photos for statistical analyses.

Like the fantastic wildlife photos we’ve been capturing through our camera-trapping work?? Well, using a camera-trap can seem daunting at first, but it’s easily learned, and constant practice will help you hone your skills in no time. 

This one is for all you biologists using cameras or camera traps out here! Certain cameras and camera traps, such as those from Reconyx, now store much of the image data in binary format in MakerNote. Apart from the Date and Time, which are the most important information we need for data analyses, Reconyx camera trap pictures have additional information such as Temperature and Moon Phases

Let’s say you’ve been travelling across Peninsular Malaysia looking for a particular animal or plant over the years and you’ve marked the GPS coordinates of its presence through an indirect sign (e.g., tracks or vocalizations) or an actual sighting. And one day, you decide to make a map of its distribution, but of course, you do not have the time and effort to look in every nook and cranny of the peninsula to make an accurate map. So wouldn’t you like to know potential places where your species might be found?

Have you been frustrated trying to find out how to upload a custom map (e.g. with grid cells and topo maps) to your Garmin GPS? We have. There are always conflicting instructions on the internet and there’s no one website which explains the steps clearly. We’ve decided enough is enough!