Artifacts of variety fauna in the museum

1. Visit to museum of zoology
11th October 2017, KUALA LUMPUR – A visit to Museum of Zoology, University of
Malaya near the block of Mathematics department. During visit, we were guided by Mr Thary
bin Gazi Goh, a PhD student to accomplish our Malaysian Fauna (SIX 1007) assignment.
Firstly, we were told about the ratio of vertebrate and invertebrate species in the world.
Vertebrate is minority of diversity in the world.
First of all, we looked into coral. Coral are very colourful. Coral reefs look like tiny sea
anemone. It will build upwards creating its branching structure to reduce amount of ocean space
used. The colourful colour of coral comes from algae inside them. This is symbiotic
relationship where coral collects food and algae produce sugar to give to coral. Now, it is
undertrack due to development and rising of sea level. Rising of sea level reduce the amount
of sunlight obtained by coral. They are breeding and feeding ground for one-third of all marine
species and provide foods and live hoods for hundreds of millions people around the world
Besides, insects in Malaysia is uncountable as the researchers keep finding new species
of them. For example, the weevil is 2-3 mili metre long. The weevils are very hardworking
insects. They very useful to economy of Malaysia as they are pollinator of oil palm trees.
Actually, the beetles were brought from Africa (Cameroon). At first the palm oil trees in
Malaysia not producing high yield as in Africa. So, the researchers have look into this problem
and found out that the function of the beetles in Cameroon. But, nowadays we are facing
problem as the population of the beetles keep decreasing and worried may be extinct.
Next, the Mr Thary talked about king cobras. Cobras are species of venomous snake in
the family Elapidae. This snake quite famous in Malaysia. The longest king cobras recorded in
Malaysia is almost 6 metre long. Cobras can stand up to 1.5 metre height. Very few cases
recorded people being bitten by cobras, as every people saw them, they will run away. But,
there are news about cobra crawls into villagers’ houses especially in estate. It preys chiefly
on other snakes and occasionally on some other vertebrates, such as lizards and rodents. It is a
dangerous snake that has a fearsome reputation in its range, although it typically avoids
confrontation with humans when possible.There are guidelines in releasing the reptiles.
Usually, snakes caught by either the Fire and Rescue Department or the Civil Defence

2. Department will be handed over to the fire officer, and they will release them in a safe forest
reserved area.
After that, we listened about slow loris. Slow lorises are a group of several species of
nocturnal strepsirrhine primates that make up the genus Nycticebus. They are very cute little
creature. They have a round head, a narrow snout, large eyes, and a variety of distinctive
coloration patterns that are species-dependent and dense brown furry skin. Lorises are very
slow moving primate that spends most of the day time sleeping. Their arms and legs are nearly
equal in length, and their trunk is long and flexible, allowing them to twist and extend to nearby
branches. They have sharp fang. Their bites are also painful. The elbows play an important part
as defences mechanism. There is a patch inside of each elbow which is used to store smelling
toxin. The loris will suck some poison from the patch and mixed it with saliva right before bite.
Male slow lorises are very territorial animal, as they may kill each other and will pee around
the house if let they out of cage at night as they communicate by scent marking. They eats
small animal, fruit, tree gum and other vegetation.
Then, we moved to flying fox parts in the museum. Flying fox are bats of the genus
Pteropus, belonging to the megabat suborder, Megachiroptera. Commonly known as the fruit
bats. Malaysian called them ‘keluang’. The colour and texture of the coat differ between sexes
and age classes. Immature individuals are almost all dull grey-brown. Young have a dark-
coloured mantle that becomes lighter in males when they growing mature. This species feeds
on flowers, nectar and fruits. They are currently fully protected in Malaysia. They are also
pollinator agent for durian trees. But, the villagers shoot them as they steal the fruits and there
also shooting flying fox services in villages. Chinese people like to eat them also, for medical
purpose. These causes reduce in number of flying fox.
Malayan tiger is a tiger subspecies that inhabits the southern and central parts of
Peninsula Malaysia. Malayan tigers prey on sambar deer, barking deer, wild boar, Bornean
bearded pigs and serow. Malayan tigers also prey on sun bears, young elephants and rhino
calves. It is the only tiger species in Malaysia. The Malayan Tiger is one of the smallest tigers
of all of the subspecies. It is classified as critically endangered population. The specimen shown
by lab assistant is from 70’s. Nowadays, we can’t get that sort of specimen easily. There are
lots of regulations and people needs permits to have them as pet. Tigers have been hunted as
they are very valuable in black market. There are hunters from Myanmar, Thailand and
Cambodia that come for hunting the tigers. This is proven as members of Department of

3. Wildlife and National Park (PERHILITAN) found packets of foods in the forests written with
Cambodia, Thailand and Cambodia writing.
Moreover, the lab assistant talked about green sea turtles – Chelonia mydas. Sometimes,
called marine turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines. People action have killing turtles. It
is the largest marine turtles and also the most widespread. The adult turtle’s algae diet is
responsible for the green colour of its body fat. It grows to length of about 1 -1.5 metre and
weighs up to 200kg. Its front limbs are flipper – like and are used to propel itself through the
water. They have an excellent smelling sense. Green sea turtles are herbivorous and feed
mainly on marine algae and sea grasses. However, the juveniles have a diet of jellyfish,
sponges, nail, worms and small molluscs. The adults usually inhabit hallow lagoons, feeding
mostly on various species of sea grasses. The turtles bite off the tips of the blades of sea grass,
which keeps the grass healthy. Like other sea turtles, green sea turtles migrate long distances
between feeding grounds and hatching beaches. Many islands worldwide are known as Turtle
Island due to green sea turtles nesting on their beaches. The eggs can easily be found at markets
around Terengganu. This cause population of turtle cannot expand. The adult turtles, also being
hit by boat of fishermen. Some turtle might get trapped in the net of fishermen. But, now there
is renovation of net to fish. There is enforce of rule to use bigger mesh size of the nets used.
In addition, tortoise is another species were talked about. Tortoise is also reptiles of the
order Testudines like the turtle. Female tortoises dig nesting burrows in which they lay from 1
to 30 eggs. The eggs are left unattended, and depending on the species, take from 60 to 120
days to incubate in sand and soil. Tortoises generally have one of the longest lifespans of any
animal, and some individuals are known to have lived longer than 150 years. In most tortoise
species, the female tends to be larger than the male. The specimen shown by lab assistant is
from Bera lake. It was given by the ‘orang asli’. There is black colour formed from fire effect
on the tortoise’s shell as they used the shell as the pot to cook the tortoise. They killed the
tortoise and put the it upside down on fire. We can see there is backbone structure on the surface
of inside of its shell.
Lab assistant then explained about elephant. It is first largest land mammal in Malaysia
and second largest land mammal in the world after African elephant. It is the family
Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea. Entire trunk is made up of muscle and cartilage, no
bones. They are flexible and strong and able to kill people. The shorter life span is due to
poaching or illegal hunting, destruction of habitat and drought. Their tusks are worth a lot of

4. money in the black market, so large-tusked males are in constant danger of being poached.
Elephants are also captured alive for domestic use, such as tourist attractions. Also, as the
rainforest they call home are cut down, the closer these elephants must become to humans.
They will start feeding on farmer’s crops, which puts them at risk of being killed. Elephant can
have 40 teeth at a time. It is very dense. They can actually eat entire small trees at a time as
they have such heavy teeth. Elephant’s teeth have 4 times of replacements. As one tooth fall
out, another tooth will push outward. Elephant moved in group lead by female members. Their
lifespan almost like human.
Then, he talked about rhinoceros. The rhinoceros found in Malaysia is Sumatran
rhinoceros. They live in lowlands with small hills and valleys. Less than 20 population in
Sabah, Malaysian Borneo and fewer in Peninsular Malaysia. Rhinos feed before dawn, after
dusk and move about during the night. These browsers eat up to 50 kg of leaves and twigs of
young saplings and small trees. They also feed on fallen fruits. Major threats include poaching
and the fact that the remaining rhinos are so isolated that they may rarely or never meet to
breed. Rhinoceros are killed by humans for their horns, which are bought and sold on the black
market, and which are used by some cultures for ornamental or traditional medicinal purposes.
The horns are made of keratin, the same type of protein that makes up hair and fingernails. A
high proportion of females evidently have reproductive tract problems while many of the
remaining rhinos are old and possibly beyond reproductive age. Essentially, the death rate may
exceed the birth rate.
He also explained a little bit about the lesser mouse-deer. They also known as kancil,
are even-toed ungulate in the family Tragulidae. It is the smallest known hoofed mammal, its
mature size being as little as 45cm and 2 kg. They are living on the floor of primary and
secondary forests feeding on leaves, shoots, fruits and sometimes fungi. The fur is mainly
reddish-brown, with white markings on the necks and the underparts are pale. The legs are
delicate and slender, the body ached and the tail usually tucked beneath the hind-quarters.
Males have protruding canines. These teeth become effective weapons for males in fights over
females. Another species of deer is greater mouse-dear. Known as tragulus napu. When angry,
the male will beat the ground with his hooves at a rate of four times per second.the male is very
territorial, marking his territory with faeces, urine and secretions under the chin.
Lastly, before leaving the museum, we listened to lab assistant explanations about
different type of skull. They are human’s skull, Orang Utan’s skull and macque’s skull. We

5. looked into the size of jaw, size of teeth and size of brain. Orang Utan have strongest jaw
followed by macaque and lastly human. The males Orang Utan have longer teeth because they
used to display for threaten away danger and when they fight.
In conclusion, from the visit, I learn more new information about species of animals in
Malaysia. Besides, this visit gives me awareness about the importance of conservation
nowadays as there are lots of animals reducing to extinct. We have to take the responsible to
conserve animal species so that new generation got opportunity to watch them in live. We can’t
just say it because action speak louder than word. So, we have to try to reduce any actions that
may danger the species of animals in Malaysia. This help the conservation actions.