MALAYSIAN NATURALIST(Volume 77.1 Sept - Nov 2023 & Volume 77.2 Dec 2023 - Feb 2024)

This is a combined issue of volumes  77.1 and 77.2 with different perspectives and first hand experience to share with the reader. The Malaysian Naturalist welcomes all readers to relish the adrenalin-fuelled adventures herein, from the ordinary to the unusual. From the deep sea meetup with giants, Simon Siow opens the pages to share the thrill and minutes of heart stopping moments when Man loses control of himself and throws all caution to the wind to meld with poetic creatures that command and roam the niches of the blue sees.

Suffice to say, Man has to manage its own blessings in the form of seas and oceans for perpetuity to enable marine lives to survive well. MNS has often teamed up with the corporate sector to play its part in keeping the sea clean. Read about the concluding MNS beach cleanup series aptly named the Sunplay Series with Rohto-Mentholatum.

This issue also covers MNS's Hornbill conservation efforts and progress at the Belum-Temenggor Forest a key project that focuses on all the 10 species of intriguing Hornbills found in Peninsular Malaysia."Father Hornbill" Yeap Chin Aik  will walk you through the inspiring work of his team from MNS.

More bird talk awaits the readers with Han Yong Kwong's encounters with Waders at the tip of Asia's Land End at Tg. Piai and the editor's brief visit to inner sanctum of the threatened Lesset Adjutant Stork of Johor. While these baldies attract laughter from their comical looks, the wild pigs of Panti may not be around to hear our laughter anymore.

In the following article of the missing Pigs, the editor will examine  the issue and consequence tied to it. As innocent victims of the African Swine Fever, the scourge has caused havoc to our wild pig population, triggering an imbalance of the predator-prey relationship. To understand more of this, follow the disccussion within the pages of the article.

Next Kedah's Chairman, Phang Fatt Khow present a prelude to the coming MNS's scientific Expedition to the vaste Ulu Muda Forests. With its extreme biodiversity richness, there will be a great need of many participants, from academicians to citizen scientists to explore the length and breadth of the vast areas of the Ulu Muda Forests to conduct surveys and inventory. It may result in the discovery of new species and first records to build up the needed to be presented to the Kedah state government. This is with the hope that the move will result in the final gazettement of a new Kedah State Park that wull save and conserve the valuable remaining forest of Ulu Muda.

It is not all work at MNS. Let Liu Xin Lu revel you with some durian talk when this lady from China retraces MNSJ's recent annual visit to the ex-volcanic island of Tinggi, where the main draws are the gunine island snow white beaches, insular ecology and the semi-wild organic durians that will titillate your taste-buds.

If you love to open up the vista and broaden the mental horizon of children and young adults on Nature Education, follow Belinda Wong and the dedicated MNS Johor team's scientific expeditions to the Panti Birds Sanctuary with school children from Europe and Japan.

Or let the dreamy Hoyas or wax flower complete your reading of the final pages of the Malaysian Naturalist with a smile and a merry heart.