Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Everywhere you look in a rainforest you see interactions between plants
and the insects that prey on them. And everywhere the leaves of trees in the
forest are stippled with the signs of fungal, bacterial, and viral infections.
Predation and infection are daily hazards of life for the plants and ani-
mals living in these complex ecosystems. Visiting photographers, however,
are more likely to be af ected by the defenses that plants have thrown up
against these predators than by the predators and pathogens themselves.
In Central America I have been bitten viciously by ants that were defending
young Cecropia trees. The trees provide special chambers in which the ants
can live, and benefi t from their fi erce aggression against any invaders. And in
Sarawak's Mulu River forest I accidentally brushed against a plant that was
probably a member of the Family Anacardiaceae, which includes the sumacs
and poison ivy. The resulting itchy red welt on my arm lasted for months
before it fi nally faded away. I had become collateral damage in the ongoing
warfare between plants and their enemies.
Pathogens and predators can play their diversity-maintaining role unim-
peded in relatively untouched rainforests like Manù. But their role is chang-
ing rapidly in forests that have been damaged by human activity.
In Malaysia's province of Sarawak in northern Borneo much of the rain-
forest near the coast has been clearcut to make way for oil-palm plantations.
But there are still extensive forests covering the Lambir Hills, and substantial
areas of forest along the Mulu River. The trees in these forests range from
small bushes, caught in a time warp and hardly able to grow on the forest
fl oor because there is so little sunlight, to mighty dipterocarps that tower
eighty meters into the full sunlight. These emergent trees can produce an
explosion of fl owers and seeds.
Arboreal animals such as monkeys and giant hornbill birds play essential
roles as eaters of fruit and scatterers of seeds. Browsing animals like tapirs
and wild pigs munch on leaves and trample seedlings. Only the strongest
plants survive this herbivory. But the animals and large birds that used to fi ll
Sarawak's forests are now unrelentingly hunted by poachers from peninsular
Malaysia. And the growing populations of local tribespeople now have smaller
and smaller areas of forest in which to practice their traditional forms of hunt-
ing, putting even more pressure on the birds and mammals that remain.
