Our strategy for seeing wildlife in Asia was to head zoos, wildlife rehabilitation centers, wildlife reserves and national parks. The first zoo on our radar was Zoo Negara in Kuala Lumpur, the national Zoo of Malaysia.
We wanted to ensure that we covered all our bases in terms of seeing wildlife we would potentially come across in Borneo and anything else we saw would be a bonus. We didn't realise that this zoo housed some very pampered Giant Pandas that were super cute, very photogenic as well as living in air-conditioned comfort in downtown KL. As I was acclimatizing to Asian heat - I may have spent a lot of the day photographing these animals...but meeting Giant Pandas was a first for me.
Flamingos - you are what you eat! So these prehistoric birds come in different colours depending upon the pigment of the organisms they have been eating. So vibrant oranges as well as pinks was a thing in KL.
So these upmarket bin chickens are called painted storks - fairly ubiquitous in this wildlife reserve.
These creatures with a face only a mother could love are the Endangered Malaysian Tapir. These guys have the longest inbuilt snorkel of all the Tapirs. Their babies are pretty cute with zebra type markings.
You travel across the world to see exotic animals and what do you see but animals from home. So these monkeys were running wild in the emu and kangaroo exhibit - think they are grey langur monkeys.
Not as dopey as you might think - a Malayan Tiger on a hot day in KL.
Not often you can sit centimeters away from a tiger with only a mesh wall between you.
This is a Malayan porcupine (or Himalayan) - a rodent that has become a bit of a delicacy in some societies.
The dread lord himself - a male orangutan looking like he was prepping for a date with his consort on the other side of the door.
An Asian Elephant.
A Bearcat.
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