Jungle Out There, but She Loves It

obmar · Jungle Out There, but She Loves It

Jungle Out There, but She Loves It
By Anita Anandarajah

JULIANA SENAWI

Wildlife scientist

AS Malaysians continue to migrate to the capital in seek of greener pastures, one woman heads into the depths of the Pahang rainforest to seek her pot of gold. Telephone conversations with her are interspersed with static and echoes as a lone aerial acts as a vital connection between bustling Kuala Lumpur and the Department of Wildlife and National Parks office in sleepy Bukit Rengit, Lanchang.

Juliana Senawi, 28, is fresh from an ethereal journey into the pristine Maliau Basin, also known as the Lost World of Sabah.

She was a member of a privileged team of scientists, park rangers and media under the Akademi Sains Malaysia banner to enter a previously unexplored region of the basin.

Juliana, or Julie, was there to document reptilian species found in the mossy forests standing some 1,000m above sea level.

As more than half of the area has yet to be discovered by Man, Julie was hoping to stumble across reptiles with prehistoric characteristics.

Better yet, there on the spongy ground, she spotted the Kinabalu brown pit viper, a snake so rare that it was last reported seen in Mount Kinabalu 94 years ago.

These are exciting times for Julie as she is one of five research scientists with the newly-established research section in the Institute for Biological Diversity.

Julie's boss, director of the Institute of Biological Diversity, Dr Sivananthan Elagupillay, is proud of his protege's dedication.

"We need people like her. Not many people want to work away from the city, what more for a woman to give up the comfort of home to work in the jungle.

"Julie is among pioneer researchers of different expertise in our new department. Their task is to build up a database of endangered species like the tapir and elephant so that someday we will be able to provide answers for management to questions like `How many elephants can we keep translocating to the same place?'.

Julie is currently studying elephants in human-wildlife conflict areas.

"We are trying to estimate the population in Pulau Besar, Terengganu as this is where we translocate elephants from the East Coast," she explained.

Her work involves placing collars on these animals to monitor their movements.

The petite Batu Pahat native's true passion though lies in the winged creatures of the night.

"Did you know that there are 98 species of bats in a pristine forest like the Krau Wildlife Reserve in Pahang? A logged forest would contain about 50 species while forests on the fringe of cities would only host four or five species," said the bat scientist.

Interestingly, bats eat up to 70 per cent of their body weight - they eat insects and fruit - and so play a vital role in pest control and the pollination of durian trees.

Her Master's degree dissertation was on the diversity of insectivorous bats in Krau.

"I hope to integrate my research and conservation activities towards sustainable development. We have to teach people to respect the resources we have. When the forest goes, the bats will too," she said.

Julie's passions have taken her to the national parks of New South Wales as a volunteer with Earthwatch's Vanishing Frog Expedition and to La Bundo Bundo in Sulawesi with Operation Wallacea to study the bat species on the island.

She also co-wrote A Pocket Guide: Amphibians of Ulu Muda Forest Reserve and Amphibians of Endau Rompin State Park with Lim Boo Liat and Norhayati Ahmad.