Mysterious Batu Katak (Frog Rock )formation

Known as Batu Katak (Frog Rock) by local. Located halfway to Sibu Sarawak from Bintulu-Sibu Highway. According to local stories, this mysterious rock brings good luck to punters and during the highway construction, several attempts to destroy the rock failed even after being blast with numbers of dynamites by workers. In one accounts, claimed to be haunted and few peoples who tries to moved the rock end up dead. How far was the claim nobody knows but the rock formation still standing to this day and a roof was build by anonymous people especially punters especially Chinese to seek their lucky numbers.

Fadlee@Katana Blade
ParaCrypt Research and Study Group Member

-UPDATE-

A local visitor near the formation
Last September 2008, PRSG team lead by Fadlee went to the site to conduct investigation regarding the phenomenon. Based on their report submitted to the admin, the investigation shows that the rock was nearly fully written with lucky numbers visitors often came to the spot for wishing. According to interview and data collecting session, the formation already exist there almost 3 decades. And the clearing of the area for highway construction reveal the mysterious rock formation and later unexplained death cases and incidents occurred after several attempt to destroy the rock for highway constructions. PRSG Team also conducting night research near the area and encounter mysterious thick fog appeared near the area in certain time (PRSG didn't took this phenomenon as hard evidence of haunting due to location of thick forest at the side of the rock formation and temperature drop is normal in this kind of forest environment. But still it was taken as findings for reference in order to release future research articles based on scientific explaination) and apparition of dark figure and unexplained moving human shape fog crossing the road and vanished near the rock formation.

Ketaksuban terhadap Cenderawasih

Hanya kerana taksub terhadap kepercayaan tahyul burung cenderawasih mampu menarik kekayaan serta membawa ‘tuah’, ada golongan kenamaan dan kerabat diraja sanggup menawarkan RM1 juta bagi mendapat seekor burung itu yang diseludup masuk dari Irian Jaya, Indonesia.

Malah lebih pelik apabila helaian bulu burung itu yang direndam dalam minyak masak sebelum dibotolkan turut boleh dijual menjangkau harga RM5,000 sebotol.

Keghairahan luar biasa ini menyebabkan ada peniaga ubat-ubatan tradisional sanggup menipu dengan meletakkan bulu ayam atau burung spesies lain sebelum dijual kepada orang ramai yang taksub terhadap ‘keramat’ burung berkenaan.

Timbalan Pengarah Jabatan Perlindungan Hidupan Liar dan Taman Negara (Perhilitan), Celescoriano Razond, berkata kegilaan terhadap perkara mistik yang terdapat pada burung cenderawasih itu menyebabkan pemburu haram di negara jiran berlumba-lumba menyeludup masuk bangkai burung spesis ini ke Malaysia kerana menyedari terdapat permintaan tinggi di negara ini.

Anehnya penduduk dan rakyat di Indonesia sendiri tidak mengendahkan kewujudan burung berkenaan yang diyakini ramai penduduk negara ini berkesan sebagai ‘pelaris’ diri dan perniagaan selain turut diyakini boleh menjadi minyak pengasih.

Menurutnya, hal ini terjadi berikutan ramai pengamal perubatan tradisional dan individu yang berpegang kuat pada amalan mistik yakin bahawa burung ini hanya makan embun syurga malah ia didakwa mengeluarkan wangian yang sukar digambarkan.

“Akibatnya setiap inci badan burung ini termasuk isi perut dan bulunya mempunyai khasiat misteri dan kebanyakannya digunakan untuk perubatan, paling dicari adalah bulu cenderawasih yang yang dianggap pelaris paling besar.

“Bagaimanapun, menyeludup dan memiliki burung cenderawasih adalah satu kesalahan dan boleh didakwa mengikut Seksyen 68, Akta Perlindungan Hidupan Liar 1972 (pindaan 1988) yang membawa hukuman denda maksimum RM3,000 atau penjara tiga tahun, atau kedua-duanya, jika sabit kesalahan,” katanya.

Menurutnya, terbaru, pegawai Perhilitan sebelum ini pernah memberkas dua lelaki Indonesia berusia 30-an yang didapati menyeludup masuk lebih lima ekor burung cenderawasih ke negara ini.

“Mereka tidak sekadar cuba menjual burung cenderawasih yang awet itu malah turut menawarkan minyak berisi bulu burung cenderawasih yang didakwa boleh dijadikan minyak pengasih. Ini terbukti apabila kami menemui kotak kayu berisi berpuluh botol kecil yang didakwa minyak sakti burung cenderawasih

“Pegawai Perhilitan turut merampas satu kitab mengenai hikmat dan keajaiban doa burung cenderawasih dan pelbagai buku lain yang menceritakan kehebatan burung cenderawasih ini,” katanya.

Menurutnya, berdasarkan kitab yang ditemui itu, bulu burung cenderawasih didakwa boleh bertukar menjadi batu permata sekiranya jatuh ke bumi.

“Manakala isi perutnya dicampur dengan minyak kepala hijau dijadikan ubat pelbagai penyakit. Ia turut boleh digunakan untuk mengeratkan hubungan suami isteri dalam memperoleh kebahagiaan rumah tangga.

“Bulu burung ini pula jika dipakai di kepala atau dijadikan tangkal boleh dijadikan ubat pengasih, pelaris atau penunduk,” katanya.

Namun katanya, apa yang menyebabkan burung cenderawasih digilai golongan kenamaan adalah kerana kepercayaan ia boleh mendatangkan tuah ‘segunung emas’ selain memberi kekuasaan jika disimpan di rumah.

Bagaimanapun menurutnya, kepercayaan itu tidak berasas dan fakta disampaikan nyata tidak benar kerana cenderawasih sememangnya wujud sebagai spesies burung biasa di bumi dan bukannya berasal dari syurga seperti diwar-warkan.

Difahamkan terdapat 43 jenis spesies cenderawasih yang dibezakan daripada beberapa ciri seperti warna bulu dan saiznya. Kebanyakan burung jenis ini berhabitat di kawasan hutan tropika dan banyak ditemui di Australia Timur, Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea dan Kepulauan Maluku.

Malah menurutnya, Taman Burung Kuala Lumpur sendiri memiliki tiga cenderawasih berjenis Paradisea Apoda yang masih hidup untuk dipamerkan untuk tontonan pengunjung, sejak lima tahun lalu.

“Yang pasti burung ini lebih gemar berada di atas pokok menyebabkan dia dianggap sebagai burung keramat dari syurga dengan cerita palsu kononnya burung ini tidak pernah memijak tanah.

“Cenderawasih hidup dan mati seperti burung biasa. Mungkin cenderawasih yang dijual kononnya sebagai objek misteri tidak reput kerana ia sudah diawetkan terlebih dahulu,” katanya.

Menurutnya, orang ramai yang menjual atau menyimpan burung cenderawasih terbabit boleh dikenakan tindakan undang-undang kerana memiliki burung liar yang dilindungi mengikut Akta Hidupan Liar.

Petikan dari Harian Metro
Ditulis oleh Mohd Jamilul Anbia Md Denin

Cenderawasih- Real facts behind the myth

Cenderawasih/pheonix living among the clouds based on Malay and Chinese believed

Cenderawasih or Fenghuang/Pheonix by some culture refers to a mystical bird which have the power of healing and prosperity also good luck. Among the malay, cenderawasih considered as birds from heavean or bird of paradise due to physical look of the fauna- colourful feathers and unique looking believed to have mystical powers. But what actually are these bird and does it really exist or just a myth?

Cenderawasih or Paradisaea minor is a medium-sized, up to 32cm long, maroon brown bird of paradise (Paradisaeidae) with a yellow crown and brownish yellow upper back. The male has dark emerald green throat, a pair of long tail-wires and adorned with pale yellow and white ornamental flank plumes, the character of males are polygamous, and they perform courtship displays in groups. The female paradisae is a maroon bird with dark brown head and white below and usually lays two pinkish eggs with dark markings in tree nest high above ground. Maybe that's why people especially Malays believed the bird never touches the ground.

These species actually a members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes - the largest and most diverse commonly recognized clade of birds which largely distributed throughout the forests of Misool and Jobi Islands of West Irian Jaya, Torres Straits, Eastern Australia and northern New Guinea. The Passeriformes (or ‘passerine’ birds) are synonymous with what are commonly known as "perching birds"; this group also contains within it a major radiation commonly known as songbirds (oscine Passerines or Passeri). Of the 10,000 or so extant species of birds, over half (~5,300) are perching birds.

Melospiza melodia family

Perching birds have a worldwide distribution, with representatives on all continents except Antarctica, and reaching their greatest diversity in the tropics. Body sizes of passerines vary from about 1.4 kg in northern populations of Ravens (Corvus corax) to just a few grams. Perching birds include some of the most colorful and mysterious of all birds, such as birds of paradise from New Guinea and the bright orange Cock of the Rock from tropical South America. Because of their high diversity, generally small body size and relative ease of observation, collection and field study, perching birds have historically attracted the attention of a wide range of descriptive and experimental biologists, including systematists, behavioral ecologists, and evolutionary biologists. The tradition of recognizing perching birds (Passeriformes) as the most diverse and rapidly radiating clade has been questioned because there are few obvious “key innovations” that should cause systematists to recognize Passeriformes over any other arbitrarily larger or smaller monophyletic group within birds (Raikow, 1986). One point that has been missed in debates on this issue is that the branch leading to the songbirds (oscines), a group comprising 80% of extant perching birds, is the longest internal branch on the DNA hybridization tree produced by Sibley and Ahlquist (1990). This branch has also been one of the few to be well resolved in applications of mtDNA sequences to higher level questions in birds, presumably because it is long. Given the large number of clades that will require names under phylogenetic taxonomy, perhaps the length of branches leading to particular clades should be one criterion whereby systematists decide which of the many clades to name.

The basal lineages of passeriformes have for over a century included two major clades, the oscines and suboscines. Suboscines (sometimes called Tyranni, though this name has confusingly been used also for more restrictive groups within Suboscines) are a largely tropical group of about 1,000 species that reaches its greatest diversity in South America; most suboscines are thought to sing “innate” songs. Oscines (Passeri) include about 4,000 species and are what many laypersons refer to as “songbirds”; they are worldwide in distribution and are distinguished from suboscines by a complex voice box (syrinx) and song learning capacity. The German anatomist Müller first drew attention to the syringeal differences (Müller, 1878), and since then both morphological (Ames, 1971) and molecular (Edwards et al., 1991; Sibley and Ahlquist, 1990) analyses have confirmed this basic division of perching birds. However, it has recently been determined that an even more basal division within passerines is between the diminutive New Zealand wrens (Acanthisittidae; Raikow, 1987) and all others (Barker et al. 2002, 2004).

Male Paradisae Minor

The diet of these species consists mainly of fruits and insects. Paradisaea species having a kind of lek-type mating system ( a gathering of males, of certain animal species, for the purposes of competitive mating display. Leks assemble before and during the breeding season, on a daily basis. The same group of males meet at a traditional place and take up the same individual positions on an arena, each occupying and defending a small territory or court. Intermittently or continuously, they spar individually with their neighbors or put on extravagant visual or aural displays (mating "dances" or gymnastics, plumage displays, vocal challenges, etc).

Others, such as the Parotia and Cicinnurus species, have highly ritualized mating dances. Males are polygamous in the sexually dimorphic species and hybridization is frequent in these birds. Many hybrids have been described as new species, and in some forms, such as Rothschild's Lobe-billed Paradisaidae, even today some doubt remains whether they might not be valid.

Paradisaea apoda on the tree. Note the way of the bird hiding its leg

Male Paradisaea apoda

The largest member in the genus Paradisaea, the Greater Bird of Paradise (above picture) is distributed to lowland and hill forests of southwest New Guinea and Aru Island, Indonesia. The diet consists mainly of fruits, seeds and small insects. A small population was first introduced by Sir William Ingram in 1909-1912 to Little Tobago Island of West Indies in an attempt to save the species from extinction due to overhunting for plume trades. The introduced populations survived until at least 1958 and most likely are extinct now. Paradisaea apoda is a large, up to 43cm long, maroon brown with a yellow crown, dark emerald green throat and blackish brown breast cushion. The male is adorned with large yellow ornamental flank plumes and a pair of long tail wires. The female has unbarred maroon brown plumage. For further information on other genus of these bird, information can be found under the tag- Paradisaea in encyclopedia of birds.

Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist,physician and zoologist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of nomenclature and also known as the "father of modern taxonomy and ecology which was the most renowned botanist of his time, and was also noted for his fine linguistic skills named the species Paradisaea apoda, or "legless bird of paradise", because early trade-skins to reach Europe were prepared without feet by natives; this lead to the misconception of european that these birds were beautiful visitors from paradise that floated in the air and never touched the earth until death. The same perceptions also similar to the Asianb especially Malays and Chinese stories of the bird origins mystical powers.

Below are some of the genus of the Bird of Paradise:

Genus Lycocorax

Paradise Crow Lycocorax pyrrhopterus

GenusManucodia

Glossy -mantle Manucode, Manucodia atra

Jobi Manucode, Manucodia jobiensis

Crinkle-collared Manucode, Manucodia chalybata

Curl-crested Manucode, Manucodia comrii

Trumpet Manucode, Manucodia keraudrenii

Genus Paradigalla

Long-tailed Paradigalla, Paradigalla carunculata

Short-tailed Paradigalla Paradigalla brevicauda

Genus Astrapia

Arfak Astrapia, Astrapia nigra

Splendid Astrapia, Astrapia splendidissima

Ribbon-tailed Astrapia, Astrapia mayeri

Stephanie's Astrapia, Astrapia stephaniae

Huon Astrapia, Astrapia rothschildi

Genus Parotia

Western Parotia, Parotia sefilata

Carola's Parotia, Parotia carolae

Berlepsch's Parotia, Parotia berlepschi

Lawes's Parotia, Parotia lawesii

Eastern Parotia, Parotia helenae

Wahnes's Parotia, Parotia wahnesi

Genus Pteridohora

King of Saxony Bird of Paradise, Pteridophora alberti

Genus Lophorina

Superb Bird of Paradise, Lophorina superba


Eventhough science and zoology already explained what sort of species the bird was, what are the common diets, breeding etc, but still people who are believers of superstitions insist that the proof of the bird really have that power was by looking at the bird carcass which stay fresh eventhough already dead for long time. However this can be explained by using modern science, by injecting chemicals certain chemical into the carcass so that the carcass look natural and fresh. The issue of the bird mystical stories and tall tales still embeded in some culture and it is up to the believer itself either to stay in fantasies or to move on with modern reality.


Ezan
ParaCrypt Research Team