Latest news with #Sumatran
West Australian
a day ago
- West Australian
Magic Garden in Bali is an enchanting insect wildlife park
In Bali, there are about a dozen zoos and wildlife parks where you can see and, in some cases, interact with exotic Indonesian fauna like the Sumatran elephant, orangutan and Komodo dragon. But there is only one place on the island where you can play with one of the biggest insects on the planet. It's called Magic Garden and it also happens to be the only wildlife park in Bali that has not yet been put on a 'no go' list by animal welfare groups in Australia for being unethical and irresponsible. You can visit as a member of the public or on a half-hour guided tour. The first few stops on the tour are a bit meh. There's an orchid greenhouse containing around 500 kinds of orchids. A rainforest greenhouse with around 400 jungle plants and a dragonfly pond that doesn't seem to have any dragonflies. The volume on the fun meter increases exponentially at the next stop, Biota Lab, a sterile white room where science nerds in lab coats breed butterflies. In nature, only about 5 per cent of butterfly eggs become fully formed butterflies. But here the survival rate is ten-fold. Butterfly eggs, which come in small clusters, are separated with tweezers and placed in small fish tanks where birds and other insects can't eat them. There, they transition into caterpillars and spend a week or two stuffing their faces with leaves until they transition again into cocoons. The science nerds then step in again and carefully hang the cocoons on strings set inside a big rectangular glass enclosure where the cocoons hatch into butterflies – a fascinating metamorphosis most people are unlikely to ever see in the wild. The lab also has an insect petting zoo where stick creatures up to 30cm are allowed to crawl up your arm and shirt. Getting so close to these clever insects that use camouflage and the art of stillness to fool predators into thinking they are just twigs is like seeing an elephant or lion for the first time. You'll never again think of insects as just pests. The next stop on the tour is a small butterfly enclosure where horny male butterflies and fertile female butterflies mate on the leaves of flowering plants. There are 15 or 16 different species of butterfly here, though they all know not to get it on with members of other butterfly species. More than two-thirds of the butterflies bred at Magic Garden are released into the wild. The rest, about 100 butterflies per day, are released into a second, bigger enclosure. Taking part in a release with a guide who will show you how to delicately help newly hatched butterflies fly out of a small net box is the highlight of any visit to Magic Garden — a magical experience. 'Now you know where the name came from,' said our guide. + Magic Garden is part of Nuana Creative City on Jalan (street) Galiran in Nyanyi, about 90 minutes drive from the international airport or half an hour's drive from Canggu + Entry to Nuana is $5. Magic Garden tours are $15 per person + The best time to visit the garden is between 4 pm and 6 pm when it's not so hot + See
Time of India
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Man grabs a crocodile by its tail; what happened next will leave one speechless-- Watch video
Credit: instagram/@therealtarzan In yet another chilling video to prove that wild animals are anything but playthings, a video showing a man attempting to grab a huge crocodile's tail has gone viral, and for all the wrong reasons. The video was originally posted on Instagram by the account ' @therealtarzan,' aka Mike Holston, and it shows him sneaking behind a crocodile that is resting in what looks like a controlled setting for the reptiles. This video might have been recorded by a friend, as the man bends down, seemingly amused, and reaches out to grab the reptile's tail. What follows is sheer chaos. The crocodile was a giant Sumatran saltwater crocodile—startled and provoked, it whips its large tail at a terrifying speed and snaps back at the man. Imagine, had the croc's timing been a little more on point, this stunt could have ended in tragedy. How does the internet react? Like any other viral moment, social media was, as usual, quick to react. They criticized the man for his reckless behaviour. The comment section was flooded with disbelief. How can someone play with their own life? And invite death? Comments such as 'You love playing with your life,' ' Keep knocking on the devil's door ; something is going to open it,' and 'I hope the crocodile is okay after dealing with this stupidity,' a person commented sarcastically. All these comments showcase how stunts not only endanger human life but also disturb unprovoked wildlife. Several wildlife experts have also weighed in, urging people to respect boundaries and reminding them not to cross lines without trained professionals. This incident is just one of many where individuals risk their lives to get famous or go viral. This is part of a larger problem—crocodiles are apex predators and are known for their fast reflexes. Many sanctuaries and parks have now prohibited getting too close to wild animals, but in the case of this viral video, it's clearly being ignored. This viral video has gotten over 10 million views—but he risked his life, and for what? When he certainly knew this could have cost him his life. This video serves as a grim reminder once again that wild animals are not props, and provoking them unnecessarily is not bravery; it is sheer stupidity. Do not fall for such things, as they can take unexpected turns. You don't know how fast things can escalate.
Malaysian Reserve
7 days ago
- General
- Malaysian Reserve
Three Generations Strong: Bali Zoo's Silvery Gibbon Legacy Grows
From Boris's journey back to the wild to the birth of baby Seruni, Bali Zoo leads efforts to conserve one of Indonesia's rarest primates. BALI, Indonesia, June 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — In line with its mission Love. Conserve. Share., Bali Zoo shares a powerful story of hope in wildlife conservation. The silvery gibbon (Hylobates moloch), endemic to Indonesia and classified as Endangered by the IUCN Red List, is not only surviving but thriving through dedicated conservation efforts. This year marks the first birthday of Seruni, a healthy female silvery gibbon born at Bali Zoo in 2024. She is the offspring of Boris's sister. Boris, a male silvery gibbon born at the zoo in 2010, was successfully released into the wild at Situ Patengan, West Java, in 2019. After spending one year at a rehabilitation center, Boris was deemed fit for release. The reintroduction was carried out in partnership with The Aspinall Foundation and Indonesian conservation authorities. 'To have bred an endangered animal, released it into the wild, and now welcome the next generation of its extended family is an extraordinary achievement,' said Emma Chandra, Public Relations at Bali Zoo. 'It shows that our long-term commitment to conservation is working.' Bali Zoo's silvery gibbon family now spans three generations, beginning with parents Koko and Minul (both born in 2000), who raised Boris along with four other offspring including Paris, Syahrini, Cincin, and Dahlia. The arrival of Seruni, born to Boris's sister signals not only successful breeding but also a sustained effort to protect one of Indonesia's most endangered primates. Over the past five years, Bali Zoo has recorded key breeding milestones, including: One silvery gibbon, Seruni (born in 2024) One male Sumatran orangutan (born in 2022) Two male Sumatran elephants (born in 2022 and 2023) Multiple births of Indonesia's endemic and exotic species from 2020 to 2025, including: Javan langur, Yellow-crested cockatoos, Papua wallabies, Timor deer and Spotted deer. Since 2019, Bali Zoo supports the Chainsaw Buyback Program in collaboration with Yayasan ASRI. This initiative helps former illegal loggers transition to sustainable livelihoods while protecting vital forest habitats, particularly for orangutans. About Bali Zoo Bali Zoo is home to over 600 animals and is dedicated to the conservation of Indonesia's endemic wildlife. Located in Gianyar. Bali. Click HERE for more images.
Daily Express
15-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Express
When tobacco was important for Sabah
Published on: Sunday, June 15, 2025 Published on: Sun, Jun 15, 2025 By: David Thien Text Size: Grading and sorting dry tobacco leaves. ALTHOUGH its availability is now reduced to token quantities in Tamus (weekly markets), tobacco was crucial for the profitability of the British North Borneo Chartered Company. In 1884, the first bale of North Borneo-grown tobacco was dispatched to tobacco dealers in London and Amsterdam where it made an impact as comparable in quality to the Sumatran tobacco leaf and was most suitable for the cigar industry as wrapper-leaf. Advertisement An excerpt reads: … 'a similar plantation industry also developed in what is now the Malaysian state of Sabah in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. 'Roughly the size of Ireland, Sabah – then known as North Borneo – was administered from 1881 until 1946 by the British North Borneo (Chartered) Company and this tobacco industry was of crucial significance in the economic history of the Company's territory. 'Tobacco in the eighties,' wrote historian Owen Rutter half a century ago, 'played an even more important part in the destinies of the country than rubber has in later years. Until ousted by rubber it was the country's foremost planting industry…' (Rutter, Owen., British North Borneo: An Account of Its History, Resources and Native Tribes, London, 1922, p. 249) Today, local tobacco is planted in Tandek, Kota Marudu and processed mostly for local consumption and can be found on sale at local tamu markets as 'Sigup Daun' or tobacco leaves, 'tembakau' (tobacco), or 'sigup' or cigarette, or 'curut', the local (cheroots) version of cigar, or marketed online to niche pipe tobacco aficionados beyond Sabah. Not every smoker has a taste for such cottage industry processed products. 'Sigup' was locally hand-made, and 'rokok' refers to the foreign brands. Tobacco growers can earn a decent income to alleviate poverty in one of Malaysia's poorest districts. (Readers can view a YouTube video on this subject: 'Bagaimana Sigup Kampung Dihasilkan? Cara Tradisional | How To Process Tobacco'.) The origins of the North Borneo tobacco industry started with a plant of New World (Americas) origin. Tobacco was introduced to Southeast Asia in the later sixteen century when a missionary from Mexico carried seeds to the Philippines. The plant soon spread through the archipelago and by the mid-1800s 'the cultural adoption of smoking had become widespread and tobacco was planted in North Borneo south west of the Philippines. Although, in the absence of a fully-documented review of its history and organization, it rarely receives notice, a similar plantation industry also developed in what is now Sabah in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Roughly the size of Ireland, Sabah – then known as North Borneo – was administered from 1881 until 1946 by the British North Borneo (Chartered) Company and this tobacco industry was of crucial significance in the economic history of the company's territory. In today's Sabah, the importation of the multinational brands of other cigarettes has affected the demand and growth of its tobacco products. Smoking in the days of old was seen as a cultural passage of rites for males, other than drinking alcoholic drinks. A saying went, 'kalau belum pandai besigup belum lagi bujang tu (if you don't know how to smoke you have not grown up yet)'. So in order to be impressive and become a grown up, one must first learn how to smoke or 'pandai besigup'. The ability to smoke was equated with adulthood. Later the social habit also spread to the more affluent betel nut chewing fairer sex. In some parts of Borneo, 'daun kirai' is a tobacco leaf that acts as the outer layer to hold the tobacco. The tobacco was placed inside it and the leaf was then rolled up, much like today's cigarettes. The 'daun kirai' and the tobacco provided a combined taste to the smoker. In order to have a good smoke, one would need to know what kinds of leaf and tobacco to buy. Smokers praised the tobacco's good quality if it was 'licak' or smooth when held tightly in one's palm and if the ash it produced was white and did not fall on its own. The 'daun kirai' can also be replaced by a piece of thin paper. Despite this substantial difference, this kind of hand-made cigarette continued to be known as 'sigup'. US' first tariff regime destroyed North Borneo's tobacco sector IT was the United States' first tariff regime that brought down North Borneo's tobacco industry. In 1892 with the introduction of the United States President William McKinley's tariff (idolised by Donald Trump as an exemplar for his economic policy, who renamed a mountain after this president), the United States which was the chief importer of cigar tobacco, decided to protect its homegrown tobacco industry. This resulted in a sharp drop in demand for North Borneo tobacco, and a further drop in prices. Prior to this period of decline, tobacco planting had given the North Borneo Chartered Company a new lease of life. It stimulated the economy as a whole and led to an improvement in the financial resources of the North Borneo Company. From a company which was operating with losses since its inception in 1881, it was able to generate sufficient income from 1890 to cover its expenditures. It was due to tobacco's contribution that the company was able to pay its first dividends to its shareholders. In 1890, tobacco exports accounted for about 30 per cent of North Borneo's total exports, and this increased steadily to 50 per cent in 1891 and 60 per cent from 1892 onwards. As a consequence of the demand for labour by tobacco estates, an influx of Chinese and later, Javanese immigrants to Sabah changed the demography of the state. The tobacco boom was short-lived. By 1892, tobacco estates were beginning to experience difficulties. The rapid development of the crop in South-East Asia had resulted in shortage of skilled planters and supporting staff. Being new to the industry, the companies in North Borneo had to rely on the 'rejects' of the more established companies in Deli, Sumatra. This resulted in a decline in production quality. But it was the economic depression of the early 1890s which stalled the growth of the industry in Sabah. As most of the companies were new, they were in constant need of funds. The credit squeeze which came with the economic depression meant that many companies simply could not go on. The problem was also exacerbated in 1892 by the introduction of the McKinley tariff. North Borneo's trade ties with Shanghai in 1880s THE New Darvel Bay Tobacco Plantation near Lahad Datu was the last company which was wound up in 1930. After that, the tobacco industry continued on a small scale with the Imperial Tobacco Company taking over the New Darvel Bay Company's land in Segama in 1934. The tobacco leaf of Sabah was still in demand well into the 1930s as a wrapper-leaf. The Imperial Tobacco Company was revived after the war, but finally closed in 1960. Among the tobacco growing companies that operated in North Borneo include the North Borneo-China Land Farming Company that started in 1883 with growing sugar canes. After the sharp drop in the price of sugar then, the company shifted to tobacco and the experiment was a success. Sanders, a tobacco planter from Deli in Sumatra, was enlisted to explore the area south of the Marudu Bay at Bandau, Bongon and Bengkoka River in order to determine their suitability for the planting of tobacco. The company had acquired a land concession of 40,000 acres (16,000ha) in 1882. The first experiment was carried out by Sanders at the Suanlamba River near Sandakan as a project of the North Borneo-China Land Farming Company, a Chinese-European joint venture company that was floated in Shanghai. Thus, North Borneo had a business connection with Shanghai, China, in the 1880s. In 1884, the first bale of tobacco was dispatched to tobacco dealers in London and Amsterdam where it made an impact as comparable in quality to the Sumatran tobacco leaf. The wars in the 20th century ending with WWII closed down most of these companies and tobacco was replaced by rubber after rubber prices soared during the Korean War in the 1950s. Daily Express visited China Tobacco Museum which is the world's largest tobacco museum in Shanghai, China during its participation in the Belt and Road Journalists Course in July last year with media practitioners from Europe, Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia. The China Tobacco Museum is located at the intersection of No. 728 Changyang Road and Tongbei Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, across the road from Shanghai Cigarette Factory. The tobacco pavilion vividly displays the history of Chinese tobacco culture and interprets the rich connotation of tobacco culture through precious cultural relics, documents, models, scenes, real wax figures, photos, multimedia and other forms. 'The China Tobacco Museum is a national and professional national museum and the largest professional tobacco museum in the world. China Tobacco Museum is not only a treasure house of Chinese tobacco knowledge, but also a window for people to understand the history of tobacco development and experience tobacco culture,' says Li Wenhua, the guide for the visitors. This informative five storey museum is complete with important relics and artifacts, documents and exhibition spaces. The first three levels are dedicated as full-fledged exhibition halls while floor number four and five are kept as the business area. The China Tobacco Museum boasts of seven well maintained display halls that include the hall for tobacco development, the hall for tobacco agriculture, tobacco industry, the management of tobacco, culture, trade as well as a hall providing information on smoking. There is also a hall dedicated for smoking control. The museum has opened eight exhibition halls, namely 'Tobacco History', 'Tobacco Management', 'Tobacco Culture', 'Tobacco Agriculture', 'Tobacco Trade', 'Tobacco Industry', 'Smoking and Tobacco Control' and 'New Century Pavilion'. The Sabah Museum did not exhibit any of North Borneo's tobacco history at its premises although North Borneo had a tobacco culture heritage with Brunei. The China Tobacco Museum is designed with large merchant ships and Mayan temples as the concept, forming an external structure of about 80m long, 25m wide and 30m high. In the middle of the museum's outer wall, there is a 140m-long and 4.1m-high granite relief. The Mayan and other native Americans were said to be the first to have smoking habits, some with peace pipes rituals to avert conflicts and wars. European settlers later adopted these smoking habits and spread it as part of Western civilisation culture that went westward with Christopher Columbus. Starting on the third floor, bypassing the Exhibition Hall for Minors, is a history of tobacco. There are wax figures of happy Native Americans and a model of Christopher Columbus's ship, the Santa María, which brought him in contact with smokers on San Salvador Island in 1492. Malaysia is home to over 4.9 million adult smokers. A National Health & Morbidity Survey found that while most smoked manufactured cigarettes, older smokers and those living in rural areas were also likely to smoke hand-rolled cigarettes, a trend Sabah is well known for. More of the younger generations are involved in vaping now.
South Wales Argus
12-06-2025
- Health
- South Wales Argus
UK safari park announces the birth of three lion cubs
The cubs arrived in April to 12-year-old Amber, and have just had their first health checks, confirming two males and a female. West Midlands Safari Park's veterinary team and keepers have named them Nero, Nox, and Nancy. The next steps for the cubs will be an introduction to the outside world, with the keepers allowing them access to an outdoor area, next to the lion house. Just like a domestic cat, the lion cubs will need their second lot of injections and another health check before they are allowed to venture into the great outdoors to meet guests. The birth of the cubs is significant as lions are classed as 'vulnerable' in the wild by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The lion cubs' arrival follows a recent baby boom at the park, including three Sumatran tiger cubs, an Indian rhino calf, two blesbok calves, and a barasingha fawn.
