The Gunung Besar Hantu Scientific Expedition

1. This year the Peninsular Malaysia Forestry Department can only organise one forest biodiversity scientific expedition and the locality chosen was Gunung Besar Hantu, Jelebu, Negeri Sembilan. The locality could be accessed either from Seremban via Kuala Kelawang or from Semenyih via the Selangor-Negeri Sembilan border. From the trunk road junction we traveled on 4x4 road for about 15 km inside passing through a few the temuan villages.

2. It was launched and flagged off by the Chief Minister of Negeri Sembilan on the morning of Monday 2nd at the Sri Negeri, Seremban. This time it has attracted scientists from UNIMAS, UMS, USM, UM, FRIM, Tama Botani Putrajaya, SIRIM, UiTM, UPM, UKM, Department of Wildlife & national Parks and of course from the Forestry departments

3. As usual the scientists from SIRIM collected leaf litter and soils for bacteria and actinomycetes; Prof. Wan Ruslan from USM and Dr. Kamil UPM studied the water quality; Regina and Tuan Marina from JPSM studied the Temuan communities; Damanhuri collected mosses; Razali Jaman collected ferns; Datuyk Seri C K Lim studied gingers and palms; Hazman and pak Din collected gingers too; students of Dr. Rusea Go and A Rahman Jalil collected orchids; Ranger Salleh from Terengganu observed the dipterocarps; students of Dr. Nizam established plots; students of Dr. Fauziah of UM studied beetles; students of Dr. Norela caught moths and butterflies; Dr. Cy Choong studied the odonates; Azman Sulaiman caught cicadas, student of Dr. Y F Ng caught the thrips; students of prof. Idris trapped wasps; assistants of Dr. Shahrul Anuar caught bats, birds and small mammals; Dr. Pan of FRIM observed hornbills; Dr. Norhayati caught amphibians; Dr. A Hamid of UMS and Dr. Abdullah of UKM caught freshwater fishes and Azman of UiTM surveyed the recreational potential.

4. Some of the significant findings were:
a) The forests in the valleys and foothills are poor as indicated by the proliferation of bamboos and other pioneer species; lack of dipterocarps and palms. They are in the process of slow regeneration.
b) The waterfalls at lata Kijang was spectacular
c) Th gorges at Jeram Berunggut was also beautiful
d) Gunung Besar Hantu is still undisturbed at the altitude of about 1200 m a.s.l.
d) There are two endemic but rare Corybas
e) The red-flowered Etlingera which was put previously under E. littoralis complex needs further elucidation as Datuk Seri C K Lim thinks it warrants sp0ecific recognition
f) A few new records of mosses
g) Dr. Pan recorded on video the male Buceros rhinoceros feeding and caring the female in roosting site

5. The state plans to develop the 9,000 ha area as Taman Alam Liar Negeri or State Wildlife Nature Park together with Ulu Bendul Recreational Forest and Sungai Menyala Forest Reserve as ecotourism destinations. The basic infrastructures are already in place and we recommended the three localities must be developed with the biodiversity knowledge as the main educational attraction