Activities Report Mar 2000 Newsletter
QA ON RAPTORS
1. What is a raptor?
A raptor is any bird of prey – eagles, hawks, buzzards, falcons, ospreys,
shikras, kites, goshawks, bazas, vultures, condors, falconets. Even
owls are raptors! The infamous
Velociraptors in the film Jurassic Park have been said to be the ancestors
of modern-day birds – if
that is true, raptors are among the most ancient bird species on the
planet!
2. What's special about raptors?
Raptors are the highest avian species in a food chain and are a vital
part of the delicate balance of nature that preserves life on Earth.
Distinctive features of raptors are
their superb eyesight, powerful claws or talons and strong hooked beak.
Some have incredible
bursts of speed when hunting. They also have the ability to soar on
thermals.
3. What are thermals?
Thermals are rising columns of hot air created by the sun heating the
Earth's
surface. Large birds like Raptors need the rising hot air to lift and
carry them as they are too heavy
to flap their wings continuously over long distances or for long periods.
4. Why Tanjong Tuan?
Every year, thousands of raptors migrate across the Straits of Malacca
and
they use Tanjong Tuan as their cross-over point because it is the narrowest
part of this waterway.
The birds wait till it is sufficiently hot in Indonesia for them to
rise on thermals to a couple of
thousand metres, then they soar over the sea to Malaysia. As they cross
the water, they lose altitude
as the thermals cool. Soon they have to flap their wings to stay above
the water! They get incredibly
tired and desperately need Tanjong Tuan for two reasons:
-
as a roosting site to land on and rest
-
as a land-mass that generates heat for them to rise safely again
5. What is Tanjong Tuan?
Tanjong Tuan is one of Malaysia's oldest and most precious Forest
Reserves and Nature Sanctuaries. Gazetted in 1921 as a Protected Area,
it has remained virtually
unspoilt all these decades. It is one of the last remaining patches
of virgin coastal rainforest on the
west coast of Peninsula Malaysia, and the only one in the state of
Malacca.
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Created on 15th Mar 2000