One night time monitoring mysterious colugos throughout treetops in Malaysia

My companions scanned the treetops with binoculars and a thermal-imaging monocular. I stared on the branches and leaves, pretending I knew what to search for. It was a cool June night simply earlier than sundown on a village street on Langkawi Island, Malaysia.

“There’s one! Up there,” one of many biologists referred to as out. I squinted on the spot, about 5 meters up the tree trunk, and noticed solely a brown knob speckled with grey. The place? Then the knob stirred. Its high edge rose and turned, and I used to be staring right into a pair of bulging eyes set on a small head with a brief snout.

My first colugo. The dimensions of a home cat, colugos are nocturnal mammals that reside in bushes. Colugos are additionally referred to as “flying lemurs,” which is a misnomer as a result of they can not fly and they aren’t lemurs. A colugo has a cape of pores and skin that stretches from its neck to the guidelines of its 4 limbs and tail. That pores and skin, furry on high, helps colugos glide far and conceal properly within the cover.

“Wait … Oh, it has a child!” referred to as zoologist Priscillia Miard of Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang and chief of that night’s search. She handed me her binoculars because the crew mentioned the id of this colugo.

A tiny head popped out from beneath the mom’s fur, like a baby peering out from beneath a blanket. Child colugos cling to their mom’s furless undersides till about age 6 months, nursing on nipples close to mother’s armpits.

I had seen two colugos simply quarter-hour into our search!

Latest observations by zoologist Priscillia Miard and others have proven how nocturnal colugos work together with their younger in addition to their hit-or-miss mating efforts.

The mom colugo lifted her tail. “It’s pooping,” mentioned Miard, with out the slightest notice of concern that we had been standing proper under. Miard later informed me that colugo feces are like dried lentils — nothing messy.

For an animal that’s the closest residing relative to all primates, having branched off about 80 million years in the past, colugos remain a big mystery (SN: 9/3/16, p. 17). Right this moment, the 2 residing species of colugos are discovered solely in Southeast Asia, although latest research recommend that two is an imperfect depend. Miard and different scientists have begun to upend what little data exists about these mammals, revealing how colugos talk and the way they glide greater than the size of a soccer subject.

Into the night time

Colugos popped unexpectedly into Miard’s life three years in the past. The then 28-year-old French researcher had spent 5 years in Borneo learning nocturnal primates, together with tarsiers and gradual lorises. In 2017, Miard visited Langkawi, well-known for its seashores and paddy fields, the place she noticed colugos “in all places” — in orchards, on golf programs, at resorts and alongside well-traveled village roads. As a result of colugos had been plentiful and straightforward to seek out and observe in Langkawi, Miard pivoted to review them. In August, she efficiently defended her Ph.D. thesis at Universiti Sains Malaysia for her analysis on colugo ecology.

However as I stood by her aspect trying up, Miard didn’t point out her Ph.D. She targeted on the mom colugo — now a couple of dried lentils lighter — which appeared prepared to begin her night time. The colugo climbed to the far finish of a department and turned her head towards the street. Then she leaped.

The colugo spun round, stretched her legs and tail, and glided like a magic carpet throughout the street to a different tree trunk. Then she hopped, hopped, hopped up the tree into the leaves and out of sight.

She glided to 4 different bushes over the subsequent quarter-hour. By then, Miard and her teammates — biologists Muhammad Fizri bin Ahmad Zubir and Célia Lacomme — had acknowledged the mom colugo’s fur coloration. They’d been following her for a while, naming her “Batwoman” as a result of, months in the past, locals thought the researchers had been trying into the bushes for bats.

Streetlights and passing vehicles and bikes lit the street, however a couple of meters away, the bushes had been darkish. Miard and Lacomme switched on their red-light head lamps to light up the treetops. One thing moved on a close-by tree trunk. One other colugo! Miard pointed her digicam, noticed testicles and introduced that the colugo was male.

Grasp gliders

All colugos are grasp gliders, thought-about among the many better of the 60-odd species of mammals that may glide. One Sunda colugo (Galeopterus variegatus) was recorded gliding 145 meters, nearly the size of three Olympic swimming swimming pools.

That sustained glide was reported in 2011 within the Journal of Experimental Biology by Gregory Byrnes, a biologist at Siena School in Loudonville, N.Y., and colleagues. On the time, most researchers assumed gliding was an energy-efficient means for colugos to journey. Byrnes’ crew examined that concept by gluing knowledge loggers onto wild Sunda colugos in Singapore and recording nearly 260 glides amongst 4 people.

Sunda colugos typically climb earlier than gliding. Within the research, a Sunda colugo might climb a complete of 320 meters and glide 1,342 meters in a single night time. “Nobody ever took into consideration that as a way to glide, you’ve obtained to climb,” Byrnes says. His crew fed colugo knowledge into metabolic fashions of different tree-dwelling mammals to estimate how a lot vitality colugos expend to each glide and climb. When climbing is included as a part of gliding habits, and in forests the place treetops overlap, a colugo might save vitality crawling by means of the cover reasonably than gliding, he says.

The “large benefit” of gliding is that it saves colugos time, Byrnes says. Gliding lets an animal cross open area in a couple of seconds in order that it will probably spend extra time feeding or touring even farther, he says.

Colugos pull off these long-distance glides with their gliding pores and skin, generally known as a patagium. Whereas different gliders like flying squirrels have a patagium that stretches to the hind toes, a colugo’s patagium continues all the way in which to the tip of the tail. A extra expansive patagium provides a colugo further “wing space,” which lifts and slows the animal, permitting a gentler descent than different gliders, Byrnes says. The additional pores and skin additionally helps the animal glide far.

And there’s extra to the patagium than pores and skin and fur. Byrnes and his collaborators have discovered that the skinny patagium is wealthy in muscle groups, and a few components are stiffer than others. A colugo could possibly flex these muscle groups to alter the form and stiffness of its patagium and thereby regulate its aerodynamics midair. Understanding the gliding biomechanics of colugos may assist in the design of robotics and wing expertise, Byrnes says.

That night in Langkawi, Batwoman glided down the street, throughout the street and up the street. By no means a sound. As soon as, she was gliding straight towards a tree, and simply earlier than impression, she turned, lower a pointy arc and landed on the subsequent trunk. Wow.

Author Yao-Hua Regulation tagged together with zoologist Priscillia Miard and colleagues to comply with colugos on Langkawi island, Malaysia, as they glided from tree to tree alongside a busy village street.

Excessive discuss

When Batwoman reached her fifth tree of the night time, one other colugo swooped in from the darkish and hopped up the trunk towards her.

Colugos had been as soon as considered solitary animals, Miard says. Social interactions had been transient and infrequently seen. However newer observations by Miard and others recommend that colugos kind unfastened social teams of females or a mom and her offspring — even these which can be weaned. Miard has seen as much as six colugos in a tree. Males, although, appear to journey alone, becoming a member of teams of females solely briefly.

Miard educated her digicam on the newcomer, which handed by Batwoman and continued into the cover. Not a look. Miard regarded disillusioned. “Oh no, he didn’t even say hello.”

To my ear, Batwoman hasn’t made a sound. However she might have been calling in ultrasound, inaudible to people. Miard and colleagues discovered ultrasound calls from colugos, reporting the discovering in 2019 in Bioacoustics. A microphone picked up the ultrasound indicators throughout a bat survey, and Miard tracked the supply to colugos. Many nocturnal animals, together with bats, tarsiers and gradual lorises, talk in ultrasound, most likely to keep away from detection by predators. Colugos probably do the identical. In November, Miard and colleagues will play the ultrasound calls within the subject and hear for colugo responses.

It’s 8:15 p.m., dinnertime. Batwoman crawled into the thick foliage and gingerly pulled some leaves for a sniff. Miard defined that colugos eat principally leaves. Batwoman shoved some leaves into her mouth and started to chew. Fizri and Lacomme recorded the observations on a habits guidelines on their smartphones.

“Wait, the infant is attempting to eat leaves,” mentioned Miard, trying by means of the binoculars. Lacomme shined her red-light head lamp at Batwoman. The newborn colugo reached out from beneath its mom, tugged a couple of small leaves and tried to nibble them. Possibly the infant is studying what to eat from its mom, Miard mentioned. It was too dim for me to inform if the infant truly ate the leaves. Lacomme’s red-light head lamp wasn’t brilliant sufficient. White mild might need supplied a greater view.

However Miard gained’t shine white mild on nocturnal mammals. “After we use white mild on colugos, they freeze, however not once we use pink mild,” she informed me later. The freezing, she says, is an indication that white mild disturbs the nocturnal mammals.

Miard’s concern is smart. White mild, which is usually utilized in nocturnal animal research, can shortly saturate the delicate optic cells in nocturnal animals’ eyes and trigger momentary blindness, says primatologist Amanda Melin of the College of Calgary in Canada. “These moments of blindness are probably disorienting and probably dangerous,” Melin says. “Purple mild is probably going far much less disruptive as it will likely be a lot decrease depth” than white mild.

The massive floor space of their gliding pores and skin, or patagium, helps colugos obtain among the longest glides amongst mammals. This composite of three pictures reveals a colugo gliding in from the fitting and making ready to land on a tree.Chien C. Lee

Keen pursuit

Round 9 p.m., one other colugo glided in and joined Batwoman on a tree. This one appeared extra than the final; he poked Batwoman and bit her sides. The newcomer, a male, wished to mate, Miard mentioned. However each time he obtained shut, Batwoman pulled away.

Miard clutched her digicam tight. Colugo romance makes prized footage. Gazing into the cover, Miard backed away from the tree and onto the street — into the trail of an oncoming automobile that simply managed to cease earlier than hitting her.

“F—, we’re going to miss a very powerful half. We all know they’re going to make infants, however I can’t see them,” Miard mentioned. She turned to Fizri: “The place’s the thermal digicam?”

Minutes later, Miard noticed the colugos close to the highest of the tree. “You’re actually fortunate,” she informed me. “Many thrilling issues tonight.”

Batwoman continued to check the male, which I made a decision to call “Keen.” She glided to a different tree, then one other and yet one more with Keen shut behind. The colugos lingered on one tree. Miard sat by the street, digicam in hand, eyes on Batwoman.

“Come on guys…. Please let him do it, please … Batwoman,” Miard muttered.

Our small group piqued the curiosity of locals. A pair, standing on the porch of a close-by home, watched us for about 10 minutes, then came visiting. “It’s a kubong,” Fizri informed them, giving the native Malay title for colugo.

The couple knew the title however not the animal. They thought colugos lived solely in forests. “Does it eat fruit? Is it like a bat?” they requested in hushed tones. Fizri lowered his smartphone and started to clarify colugo ecology. The chance to speak colugo with native residents and proper misconceptions is among the causes Miard likes to review colugos in villages.

Colugo conservation

Maybe as a result of they’re nocturnal and properly camouflaged, colugos reside hidden in plain sight. Zoologist Dzulhelmi Nasir, now with the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, has studied colugos in Borneo. Most locals have by no means heard of colugos, he says. Individuals typically confuse the animals with flying squirrels or a large fruit bat referred to as kluang in Malay.

Confusion or misconceptions concerning the colugos will be lethal for the animals. In components of Malaysia, orchard and plantation house owners see colugos as fruit pests and kill them, Miard informed me. However colugos rarely eat fruits and flowers, based on a research revealed in 2006 in Biodiversity & Conservation, in addition to Miard’s personal unpublished analysis. Fortuitously, right here in Langkawi, there are few industrial orchards, and locals go away colugos alone.

However throughout Southeast Asia, colugos are dropping their forest houses to agriculture and growth. The area lost 293,000 square kilometers of forest from 2000 to 2014, an space concerning the measurement of Arizona, based on a 2018 report in Nature Geoscience.

On the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature’s Purple Record of Threatened Species, the Sunda colugo and the Philippine colugo (Cynocephalus volans) are categorized as “least concern” for threat of extinction. The Sunda colugo, particularly, with its huge distribution from Vietnam to Indonesia, is unlikely to be threatened.

Colugos reside their complete lives in bushes. The gliders go to a number of bushes in an evening, consuming principally leaves reasonably than fruit.Evening Recognizing Undertaking

However that evaluation could be too rosy. These two species may very well be eight, or as many as 14, based on genetic evidence reported in 2016 in Science Advances. If that’s the case, as a substitute of the Sunda colugo being one broadly distributed species, there are a number of colugo species confined to smaller areas which may be extra inclined to native extinction.

Zoologists had all the time famous that colugos look totally different throughout Southeast Asia. By the Nineteen Fifties, about 20 species and subspecies had been acknowledged based mostly on bodily variations. However zoologists determined to simplify issues and lump all subspecies into two species, says geneticist Victor Mason, an writer of the 2016 report, who studied colugo phylogeny at Texas A&M College in School Station.

Mason and colleagues regarded for indicators of species range hidden within the genetic make-up of colugos, a activity that required samples of colugo DNA from throughout Southeast Asia. The researchers turned to museum specimens in Singapore and the US. “There’s a whole lot of colugo skulls simply sitting in drawers in tiny packing containers gathering mud” amassed greater than a century in the past by European explorers, says Mason, now on the College of Bern’s Institute of Cell Biology in Switzerland.

Utilizing DNA from the museum specimens, Mason and colleagues discovered as much as 14 colugo teams with important genetic variations. Extra work is required to weigh these variations and evaluation the variety of colugo species. And extra surveys of colugo populations and their whereabouts are wanted, Miard says, to reliably inform if and the place colugos are threatened.

The excellent news is that colugos seem to adapt properly to forested human environments, together with the villages in Langkawi. The animals feed on the leaves of 5 to seven totally different bushes nightly, Dzulhelmi says based mostly on his research in Langkawi and Borneo. He says that if a township might plant sufficient bushes in gardens, parks and zoos to help free-living colugos, locals might see and be taught concerning the animals and admire them.

After 50 minutes of courtship, Keen the male colugo has given up. Batwoman glided again up the street — with 4 people on her tail — and started feeding once more. We noticed a couple of extra colugos that night time, however we stayed near Batwoman.

Round 11 p.m., Batwoman was nonetheless plucking leaves. Instantly, I felt the air brush my hair — a colugo glided previous me to land on a tree about three meters away. I moved in for a more in-depth have a look at the one colugo I noticed earlier than my guides. Nevertheless it started to rain, and we ran for shelter.

The following morning, we moved our survey to a leafy resort on the island. In two hours, we discovered 17 colugos, all hugging bushes, immobile within the daylight. I noticed two earlier than Miard did and tried to cover my glee. However the thrill was not mine alone. Quickly after we discovered the eleventh colugo, Miard couldn’t maintain it in any longer: “I like colugos!”