Ibrahim, Rohani

Mardan, Makhdzir

Universiti Putra Malaysia Institutional Repository

FOR Category Fl0800: Biological SciencesBIOINDICATOR SYSTEM FOR THE MONITORINGAND DETERMINING OF HONEY HARVESTINGCALENDAR FOR HONEY GATHERERS OF THEASIATIC GIAN't HONEYBEE (A. DORSATA)Makhdzir Mardan and Rohani IbrahimFaculty of AgricultureUniversiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor,MalaysiaKeywords: bioindicator, A. dorsata, bee tree, honeygatherers, honey harvesting.IntroductionHoney hunting is a unique and attractive ecotour item in therainforest reserve of Pedu Lake, Kedah. There can be asmany as 120 bee colonies nesting in aggregates on a single,emergent bee tree. One of the fascinating feature of this sed-entary and aggregating bee colonies is the behaviour of massdefecations during hot days as a mechanism to dispense heatload (Kevan and Mardan, 1990; Mardan 1994). During thehoney harvesting season, honey gatherers with their clanclimb the bee tree and cut honeycombs filled with honey,using traditional technique of using incantation, glowing em-bers with special containers and knife (Mardan et al. 1983).Promoting honey harvesting of the Giant honeybee in thePedu Lake rainforests is a fraught with the risk of unpredict-able arrival and absconding of the Giant honeybees from thebee tree, thus disappoints many.Honey gatherers, ecotour operators, promoters, hoteliers, etc.have no control on the arrival and absconding of the Gianthoneybee swarms thus they have no control on the happeningof the honey harvesting event. It requires pre determinationof harvesting dates for ease of ecotourists to watch the spec-tacular honey harvesting event. Attempts to promote honey-gathering activity for ecotourism is fraught with many diffi-culties which include the problem of determining of the exactdates of honey harvest in advance of 2-3 months ahead of thehoney harvesting event. Ecotourists need to book their holi-days in advance in order to facilitate hotel reservation, tick-eting, etc. A mechanism or technique is required to providepredictable, reliable determination of the honey harvestingevent in order to promote the ecotour product (honey har-vesting) as tourist attraction and destination. This project wasfocused to procure the relevant body of knowledge on a setof bioindicator-monitoring system or the development of areliable a honey-harvesting calendar guide for honey-gatherers of the Asiatic Giant honeybee (A. dorsata) andecotour activities.Materials and MethodsData gathering through observation, monitoring and analysiswere carried out to identify the level of relatedness and de-pendence between the associated factors of the flora-fauna,biophysical, physical and bee species-specific traits. Phase 1:The observation and analytical studies involved a tremen-dous hours of observation on the arrival and absconding of A.dorsata colonies at their nesting tree, inter-related speciesinteraction, degree of association or dependency between therelated species (predation, parasitism, commensalism, sym-biosis, etc.). The intensive observational studies were eitherquantified or qualitatively evaluated in terms of ranking datain order to generate a quantifiable data for analysis. Phase 2:To find a correlation between the flora and fauna that are re-lated to the bees, we determine the degree of relationship andits dependency between them are either ranked as predator,parasite, symbiosis, commensalism or happenstance. His datais important to consider whether the species is very critical tothe either the faunistic or floristic web of the honeybees.Phase3: Once the data have been collected and analysed theyare then illustrated in a food chain order of the bee ecologyweb in interactive multimedia and organisation of a seminarto tourists at the Desa Utara Resort at Pedu Lake.Results and DiscussionA set of biological (brood patch size, foraging activity, pres-ence of natural enemies, etc.), physical (lunar calendar, mon-soons rains, water source, etc.) and biophysical environ-mental factors were identified as criteria for the detennina-tion and monitoring of the Asiatic Giant honeybee ripenessfor honey harvesting. Associated flora-fauna species that areinextricably-linked to the sedentary Giant honeybees duringthe December-to-March season are, viz. Man, bear, flyingsquirrels, several species of birds (honey buzzard (P. apovi-rus), bee eaters (Merops spp.), Black-thigh falconnet, honey-guide, etc.), bats, moths (wax moths (G. melonella) hawk-moths, wasps, Dipterans, mites (T.clarea), bacteria, virus,etc. Their associations with the Giant honeybees on the beetrees were established and merit to be considered as bioindi-cators for the determination of colony ripeness for harvest.Whereas, biophysical factors that lends great influence on theabundance, arrival and absconding of bee swarms, broodemergence, pre-season and monsoons rains, lunar activity,water foraging bees, floral blooms, nectar and pollen. Atemporal, telltale and bee ecology web and food-chain wasdeveloped for the bioindicator system for honey-gatheringactivity for the honey-gatherers.ConclusionsA technique for the determination of method of honey-harvesting time was developed for honey-gatherers to par-ticipate in the ecotour promotion activities with the KedahState Government. Several products on interactive multime-dia courseware, drone-mating software, floral calendar,honey-gathering websites, ecotour activities, seminar, videodocumentary (Turner Broadcasting Corporation), radio (Na-tional PubliclNational Geographic Society), publications,were produced from this study.ReferencesKevan, P.G .• Mardan, M. 1990. Yellow Rain. J. Natural History.12(90): 54.Mardan et. al. 1983. The traditional art of honey gathering activity inPeninsular Malaysia. 6111 Proc. International Bee Research Asso-ciation.Mardan, M. 1994. Nesting and Defense Strategies of the Asiatic Gi-ant Honeybee. Colloqum of the Humboldt Stiftung. Bangkok,Thailand. 14-16 November 1994.Supported by IRPA Grant 08-02-04-0009231

Bioindicator system for the monitoring and determining of honey harvesting calendar for honey gatherers of the asiatic giant honeybee (A. Dorsata)

http://psasir.upm.edu.my/42714/1/Bioindicator%20system%20for%20the%20monitoring%20and%20determining%20of%20honey%20harvesting%20calendar%20for%20honey%20gatherers%20of%20the%20asiatic%20giant%20honeybee%20%28A.%20Dorsata%29.pdf

Bioindicator system for the monitoring and determining of honey harvesting calendar for honey gatherers of the asiatic giant honeybee (A. Dorsata)

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