With October being right smack in the middle of the Ramadhan fasting month for all Muslims, the Naturetracker team turned to preparing for an Art Exhibition, showcasing some of our image collections to-date, instead of going for our usual weekend jungle tracking.

The launching of the Exhibition was officiated by Prof. Rahmat,  the Deputy Vice Chancellor of UiTM

Actually this Exhibition held at the Galeri Tuanku Nur Zahirah, Universiti Teknologi MARA is what we consider as  'Documentation in Progress' of our “Digital Visual Archive of Flora and Fauna of the Malaysian Tropical Rainforest Diversities at Taman Negara, Pahang”. This is just one of the many research projects within the 1.5 million research initiative between UiTM and the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, about the famous Taman Negara Rainforest, in Pahang.

Actually, although officially this research commences in June 2007, a team of staffs and postgraduate students from the faculty already got involvement with nature documentation as far back as 2005, purely based on our own personal interest on the beauty of own rainforest.

The research team members whose works are on exhibition till the end of the month.

The Exhibition Banting	Some of the artworks being pre-arranged before being hung for display

What was present in this exhibition is just a fraction of the data collected from our field trips to the Tahan National Park, thousands more raw data still in our harddisk. This is actually “a documentation in progress”, representing only the first phase of the data collection at Lata Berkoh. We planned for many more visits after this Eid Mubarak.

This is much different from any other art exhibition because the exhibits includes study sketches, digital images, video footages and artworks that encompasses in essence the spirit of nature of Taman Negara

Explaining something to Prof. Rahmat and Dr.Baha (partly hidden).

The exhibition gallery showcasing some of the works.

Not all can be shown on display, and what you see below are some of the images that we publish in our exhibition catalogue booklet. It is only meant just as a teaser, giving a glimpse of what we have collected to date. With four more research visits yet to be completed, we expect to see a thicker volume of our soon to be published book by the end of the project, by mid next year.

This exhibition showcases the beauties of our natural heritage as perceived from the creative eyes of the artists, designers, photographers and videographers, a truly fascinating experience that we will like to share with the public, before it gets destroyed by progress and development. In essence, we also would like to archive all these as a treasure trove of permanent knowledge of the natural history of the country.

A quick sketch study of the landscape at Lata Berkoh.

A study of the rock formations at the Lata Berkoh cascade

Closeup shots of some of the beautiful insects

More variety of the insect kingdom

Some of the beautiful, tiny jungle tree frogs

Everywhere you look is a story. These stories can be found in every leaf, stone, puddle, and tree. Learning to read these signs and the stories that they tell, and learning to record them through nature journaling, visual imaging and writing is a privileged experience for our research team.

The multi-coloured forest flowers is quite a sight to behold.

It comes in variety of shapes and sizes.

Spectrum of colour in nature.

From fungi to orchids, thousands of rainforest plants climb up, drape over or join together to form a vibrant and interconnected habitat. The observant trekker will notice how a strangler fig slowly surrounds and kills the host tree, leaving nothing but a hollow centre in its place. Investigate plants that attract, capture, and "eat" animals; how trees fight animal enemies; how plants recruit assistance to find a place to live; and what plants consider "fast food". 

On the forest ground, leaf patterns comes in a varieties of shapes

Even the forest mushrooms are spectacular.

As we all are aware, the one thing we should remember above all is that humans are also a threat to nature. A careless hand can destroy in seconds what has taken nature hundreds of years to develop. The first rule on interacting with the environment is: Leave it as you found it. This rule applies to the trees, the earth, the animals, even the flowers. Show respect to Mother Nature. As the slogan goes at the Taman Negara: “Take nothing away, but photographs and memories. Leave nothing behind but footprints”. If everyone works together to preserve our parks, wilderness, and other trekking areas, our future generations will be able to enjoy it too.

The mystic of the Tahan River

Majestic and mesmerising sound of the cascade

Even the rocks and pebbles in the riverbed are beautiful

This images sums up the unforgetable experience at Taman Negara

No amount of description can adequately convey the beauty of the Taman Negara most prized geographical asset. Only trekking in the tropical rainforest will confirm what the guidebooks say.

All this unique experience is exactly what we hope to capture for prosperity in our research, in this unique format we present for the benefit of our children and future generations.