Matthew Miller

1 month ago | blog.nature.org | Matthew Miller |Justine E Hausheer |Lauren Pharr |Natalie van Hoose

Even where they’re numerous, seeing a wild orangutan takes a bit of luck. The rainforest is dense and the orangutans keep mainly to the trees. Sure, there are forest fragments and national parks where orangutans are more reliably viewed, but in much of their habitat they’re a rare sighting. Last year, I visited East Kalimantan in Borneo as a trip to see conservation that benefits orangutans and other species.

1 month ago | blog.nature.org | Matthew Miller |Justine E Hausheer |Dustin Solberg

Walking through the Borneo rainforest, you catch just glimpses of its wildlife. A hornbill soaring over a forest opening. A pair of otters darting along a riverbank. Perhaps just a rustling bush and patch of fur. But many of the charismatic creatures here remain out of sight. It’s not the Serengeti, where large beasts parade in large herds in the open, easily filmed for nature documentaries. In Indonesian Borneo, the charismatic wildlife exists in low densities, but in high diversity.

1 month ago | blog.nature.org | Matthew Miller |Cara Byington |Justine E Hausheer |Bebe Crouse

At first, it looks like just another clump of leaves. A large clump of leaves, but otherwise unremarkable in this dense forest. Look closer. As I strain my eyes, this isn’t just another rainforest plant. You can see the leaves and branches have been constructed as a platform. It’s been carefully constructed, almost like a hammock high above the rainforest floor. An orangutan nest. Our little group has been on a hilly hike through rainforest in Kalimantan, Borneo.

1 month ago | blog.nature.org | Matthew Miller |Cara Byington |Justine E Hausheer

I stepped outside my little cabin into the humid rainforest air, leaves still dripping from the previous night’s rain. Even at dawn, I could see little but I immediately heard a peculiar whoop echoing through the trees. Gibbons. For the past couple of mornings, the gibbon chorus greeted us as we traveled around East Kalimantan in Borneo. The gibbon’s morning call—a tremulous hoot—is one you almost feel as much as you see. Soon a local community member would lead us to search for these apes.

2 months ago | blog.nature.org | Jenny Rogers |Justine E Hausheer |Mary Terra-Berns |Matthew Miller

Ian Biazzo, then a University of Central Florida PhD candidate, was working on a controlled burn at The Nature Conservancy’s Tiger Creek Preserve in Florida when he noticed a single frog hop off a palmetto bush and land in a pile of ash. The fire was burning low and slow, and he watched as a few animals, like the frog, dispersed.