Swamp

During our time in Semporna we stayed at the Scuba Junkie backpackers lodge.

Out the back of the lodge there is a well-shaded swamp. One of the staff at Scuba Junkie told me that Komodo dragons lived in there - hundreds of them. I was amazed at this piece of information, and then the staff member pointed at one of the dragons - it wasn't a Komodo dragon, but rather a water monitor lizard. Water monitor's are large in size but far less deadly than Komodo dragons.

Later, when Steph and I were looking down at the swamp through our window we spotted other animals there. We saw egrets, a pair of bitterns, some other kinds of water fowl, and also a kingfisher. Sadly, the swamp appeared to be overcrowded with all of these animals - their original homes having been destroyed, they were pushed into living in this tiny pocket of vegetation in a city otherwise surrounded by palm-oil plantations. In what seemed to me to be a final insult, the water was also completely filled with human/plastic waste.

The swamp.

A bittern, possibly Schrenk's Bittern, Ixobrychus Eurhythmus.

Water monitor, Varanus salvator macromaculatus, lurking in the darkness.

Cattle Egret, Bubulcus Ibis, looking over the water.

A bittern or heron. Species unknown (to me).

Sample of the rubbish that fills the swamp.