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Malaysian wildlife researcher Ravinder Kaur bags Marsh Award for hornbill research, conservation projects

Sanjitpaal Singh (front left), Ravinder Kaur (front right), Amidi Majinun (back left) and Helson Hassan. — Picture courtesy of Sanjitpaal Singh/jitspics.com
Sanjitpaal Singh (front left), Ravinder Kaur (front right), Amidi Majinun (back left) and Helson Hassan. — Picture courtesy of Sanjitpaal Singh/jitspics.com

PETALING JAYA, Oct 14 — Meet Ravinder Kaur, the wildlife researcher who has been dedicating her life to protecting hornbills in the country since 2006.

And recently, the researcher bagged the Terrestrial Conservation Leadership Award from the Marsh Christian Trust for her significant contribution to sustainable biodiversity at a local level.

In partnership with Fauna and Flora International, the award celebrates those who have been playing an important role in their communities, highlighting local leaders or organisations making a particularly special contribution to conservation.

According to Ravinder, the award means so much for her team and her as grants are harder to come by as donors are struggling to keep themselves afloat amid the Covid-19 crisis.

“The Marsh award was granted to me last month and I am hopeful that it will give my team members and I the exposure that will connect us to future long term funders such as the corporate sectors.

“I believe the pandemic is a wake-up call where we need to do more for nature and wildlife as human beings would be affected by continuous forest destruction and species extinction,” she told MalayMail.

Asked as to what piqued her interest in conserving hornbill species in the country, Ravinder said that it all stemmed during a trip where she accompanied a researcher during his field visits to Temenggor in Perak for a hornbill project.

“I had worked closely with Lim Kim Chye, a Taiping-based researcher who showed me several nesting hornbills and I was intrigued by the species of birds.

“He was so knowledgeable in the field of birds, and I used to watch him in awe as he jotted down all the names of the birds he saw or through the sounds they made.

“And during those field trips, whenever I saw a hornbill nest, I would be intrigued by it because it was not easy to spot a hornbill's nest as the birds are secretive of their nesting sites.”

She also recalled an unforgettable memory where she had volunteered to spend six months observing the critically endangered Helmeted hornbill nests for a study and was thrilled by the rare bird species.

And that ultimately made her pursue her masters degree in the field of birds in Universiti Malaysia Sabah where she spent weeks in the jungle to observe the hornbill species.

Upon finishing her masters, an opportunity came knocking at her door when she received a call from a sun-bear scientist based in Sabah.

“I was offered an opportunity to work with hornbills in Kinabatangan, with a non-governmental organisation called HUTAN/KOCP to install five artificial nest boxes for hornbills.

“While HUTAN is a French non-governmental organisation based in Kinabatangan, KOCP meanwhile is the orang utan conservation project in Kinabatangan.”

Ravinder and her teammates, Helson Hassan and Amidi Majinun who are Kinabatangan locals were tasked to collect seeds regurgitated by hornbills under nest trees to be grown in HUTAN/KOCP nursery.

“In 2013, HUTAN and its partners such as Chester Zoo, Beauval Zoo, Sabah Wildlife Department and Sabah Forestry Department decided to install nest boxes to provide vital nesting sites for Kinabatangan hornbills.

“Four years later, we recorded the first-ever successful fledging of a wild rhinoceros hornbill chick from an artificial nest box and in 2019, five rhinoceros hornbills chicks were produced from two boxes which were known as 'Phase 1 boxes'."

The first nest box used by a pair of Rhinoceros hornbills. — Picture courtesy of Sanjitpaal Singh/jitspics.com
The first nest box used by a pair of Rhinoceros hornbills. — Picture courtesy of Sanjitpaal Singh/jitspics.com

After joining the HUTAN/KOCP initiative in 2014, Ravinder and her team won the CLP Future Conservationist Award in 2017 to further improve breeding opportunities for Kinabatangan hornbills.

The team and her designed a new “Phase 2” set of artificial nest boxes based on her PhD research findings on temperature and humidity conditions inside hornbill’s nest cavities.

“We roped in Helson Hassan, a local carpenter who used to build boats with his father to enhance the design and produce the specially-designed nest boxes and representatives from Phoenix Zoo to assist in nest-box building and testing.”

However, the current alarming Covid-19 situation in Sabah has put a halt to Ravinder’s hornbill conservation projects.

“We now have reduced activities due to lower finances and lower risk of exposure. And the pandemic has also made us think more creatively on how to raise funds.

“As such, my husband, Sanjitpaal Singh has been developing artwork based on his photography excursions to help raise funds for conservation projects in Malaysia.”

Ravinder also said that the number of hornbills have been decreasing throughout the years due to poaching and habitat loss.

“Currently, the Helmeted hornbill is listed as a critically endangered species in the country and as such, we need to read about them and share articles to friends and family so that they would also be aware of their threats and declining population.

“Equip yourself with information such as participating in our online talks to help fundraise in your own way possible to projects that are in financial need especially amid the pandemic,” she said.