KUALA LUMPUR, 22 July 2017:
The Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) will conduct its first firefly walk on Sunday July 23 under the Urban Community Forest (UCF) initiative.
“Here in KL, we are still lucky to find a diverse number of fireflies in the urban forest, e.g. in Bukit Kiara, where the world’s biggest firefly has been spotted and verified by the Malaysian Nature Society’s officers,” it said in a statement.
The event, conducted with local communities – the Friends of Bukit Kiara – is to highlight why Bukit Kiara should be conserved. Members of the public are invited to meet at the first guardhouse along the trail at 7.30pm.
The remnant forest patches in urban KL are a refuge for small urban wildlife, especially insects, including the much-loved firefly.
The firefly is a good indicator of a healthy ecosystem and most recognisable as it uses biological produced light to communicate for only one reason, mating.
There are over 2,000 firefly species worldwide, but how many there are in Malaysia is still unknown as there are very few firefly researchers here, so many of the fireflies may be new to science.
What we see along the river mangroves are only a few firefly species as the bulk of firefly diversity is located in other forested areas.
The MNS UCF initiative is programme to conserve urban forest for the wildlife, provide environmental education for urban kids, encourage night activities and enrich back the secondary forest of urban green areas like Bukit Persekutuan and Bukit Kiara.
This is the first initiative to protect Bukit Persekutuan which is the last 74ha of forest in the KL city centre, where fireflies also live.
MNS is launches its UCF initiative on Thursday July 27 at 2pm at its headquarters located at JKR 641 Jalan Kelantan, Bukit Persekutuan, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.