Site icon THE FIGS OF BORNEO

Ficus variegata, Danum BRL, Sabah

uluulublog

This tame female Whiskered Treeswift  Hemiprocne comata  is one of a pair that use the support ropes of the canopy walkway at Danum BRL as hunting perches. Only 100 years ago most of Borneo was covered in virgin forest with abundant tame wildlife.  The forest at Danum BRL  is an increasingly scarce example of how Borneo used to be.

The Danum Borneo Rainforest Lodge Canopy Walkway

This particular Ficus variegata was  growing next to the Coffin Trail about 100m from the suspension bridge that crosses the river. This fig tree  was surrounded by figs that had fallen uneaten to the ground. Why had these figs not been eaten when wildlife is so abundant at Danum ?

By opening up the fig it we found out why the figs had not been eaten by the local primates and civets at Danum BRL.  From the white male stamens surrounding the ostiole in the open figs it is easy to see that this is a male fig. Male figs act as brood chambers for pollinating fig wasps and like all male figs are rarely eaten by animals.

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