School of Biosciences

Latest News and Events

First Field Course of 2013 at Danau Girang Field Centre

12 students and 4 teaching staff from University of La Verne (California, laverne.edu/) arrived on January 13, 2013  and are staying one week at DGFC to learn about tropical biodiversity ecology. All DGFC students (PhDs, Masters, PTYs), volunteers and staff are providing support in the field during the course. This is the first time that University of La Verne is organising a field course in Sabah and we hope that they will return every year. The field course is led by Professor Jeffery Burkhart, Professor of Biology at the university's Department of Biology.

Sime Darby Foundation funds research at Danau Girang Field Centre

Sunda Clouded Leopard

DGFC is proud to announce that Sime Darby Foundation has allocated a grant of 1.46 Million RM and 1.00 Million RM for a period of 3 years and 3 months for our work on the "Conservation of Sunda clouded leopards in a fragmented landscape in Sabah" and on the "Conservation and management of the endangered wild cattle, Bos javanicus lowi in Sabah", respectively. 

Bos javanicus lowi

The funding from the Sime Darby Foundation is in line with the Foundation's Big9 programme, which is to protect and conserve nine endangered animals, most of which are indigenous to Malaysia. They are the sun bear, orangutan, Asian elephant, Sunda clouded leopard, hornbills, banteng, proboscis monkey, Sumatran rhinoceros and Malayan tiger. Funding for three of these 9 species has gone to DGFC. So far, close to RM80 million has been committed towards the conservation of these nine species. The total commitment from the Foundation for its environment pillar is over RM111 million.

Decline in proboscis monkeys

Sabah’s proboscis monkey populations are declining due to habitat loss as riparian forest are continually destroyed to plant oil palm and mangrove areas reclaimed for development. Images courtesy of Rudi Delvaux/DGFC/SWD.

University researchers and conservationists in Sabah have shown that proboscis monkey populations throughout Borneo may experience population decline if nothing is done to stop their habitat degradation.

The study, carried out by the School of Biosciences & the Danau Girang Field Centre, the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), and Oxford Brookes University with researchers from Indonesia is published in the scientific journal Endangered Species Research.