Today, our focus is on the Proboscis Monkey. (Nasalis Larvatus). It is a red brownish monkey endemic to Borneo, mainly in mangrove forests, swamps and riparian forests.

Appearance wise, it has a long protruding nose and a very large belly. The male Proboscis monkey is very much bigger than the females and its differences in body types between the male and the females is larger compared to any other primate. The male Proboscis monkey can reach 28 inches in length, a 75cm tail and weighs up to 28 kg. The females are up to 60 cm long and weighs about 12 kg. Proboscis Monkeys live in small groups of about 10-32 animals.

Interesting facts about the Proboscis Monkey:

• they are good swimmers
• they are very shy animals
• they don’t fare well in captivity as they can become depressed and soon die
• the make leaders of the pack would be found at the highest part of the tree
• they can make a wide range of sounds such as roars, grunts and squeals

The green section of the map are the rough distribution of the Proboscis Monkey. IUCN classified the Proboscis monkey under its red list of ‘Endangered’. It’s now up to us to prevent it from extinction! As travellers, we should visit National Parks that maintains the natural habitat of Proboscis Monkeys instead of zoos that force the Proboscis Monkeys to adapt in an environment that’s not familiar to them!

The Proboscis Monkey will be featured soon in the Yogyakarta Travel Guide.

Photo credited to David Ronaldson

Today’s focus is on the Clouded Leopard, also known as Neofelis nebulosa. Another species from the Cat family, the Clouded Leopard is significant because of its coat, which is marked with large irregularly-shaped, dark-edged ellipses that looked like clouds, thus its name. At about 22.7kg, the Clouded Leopard is not a big cat, with its size about 2-3ft.

The distribution map of the Clouded Leopard shows the origin of this species which is found mainly in southern China, the eastern Himalayas, north-east India and mainland Southeast Asia. The population is estimated at below 10000 mature breeding individuals (IUCN 2005) thus putting it under the ‘Threatened‘ or ‘Vulnerable‘ group of animals. The population’s decline is said to be due to widespread deforestation and hunting for use in Chinese medicinal preparations.

It is not too late to help the Cloud Leopard’s population grow again! On very practical thing all travellers should do is, before purchasing anything abroad, ask what it is made of. Do not buy products made of Cloud Leopard skins or herbs that contain it. Likewise to all other animals that are endangered.

a4trip is featuring Cloud Leopard in the Malacca Travel Guide, and part of that total sales will donate to Cloud Leopard conservation project. You can also make a direct contribution to organisations that are involved in Conservation of the Cloud Leopard, such as WWF Malaysia, Melaka Zoo and Wild Asia.

We, a4trip strongly encourage environment preservation and animal conservation. Our travel guides have reflected our values by having it as an PDF e-guide instead of a 300 pages guide book to reduce the use of paper for printing.

In order to create awareness among international travelers, a4trip is featuring an endangered animal of that destination country in every travel guides. Mentioned in the guides are the brief introduction of that animal and the related conservation projects in the country. Currently we have highlighted Mekong River Dolphin in the our Siem Reap travel guide and also our a4trip website.

With each purchase of our travel guide, you are actually supporting animal conservation project. 5% of the proceeds will go to our animal conservation fund and it will be donated to the relevant conservation projects.You will make a significant and sustained contribution to the conservation and the environment in an alternative way.

Saving the wildlife, be a friend to our environment!