A palm-sized freshwater hill crab peeking out.
Rising early isn’t just beneficial for health and productivity – it can reveal a world of wildlife hidden from the midday hiker.
Setting off on the trail by 5am gives you a headstart, especially if you bring a bright headlamp to guide you through that first hour of darkness.
The night is truly darkest just before dawn. And in this quiet hour, you’re likely to see elusive creatures stirring before the sun rises.
The pre-dawn hours, especially up until around 7am, are ideal for spotting little critters, as nocturnal animals are winding down and diurnal ones are just beginning to stir. Birds are often already singing, filling the air as the sky shifts from deep blue to morning light.
On a recent early hike to Bukit Laksamana in Penang, I spotted an animal I’d never encountered despite hiking Penang’s hill trails for nearly two decades: a freshwater hill crab.
An endangered Titiwangsa horned tree lizard scaling up a tree trunk, with lush greenery in the background.
Unlike the smaller Penang Hill vampire crab with its tiny 1cm-wide carapace, this crab was the size of my palm.The ground was damp from the rain and as I passed a fallen log, I caught sight of orange pincers moving beneath it. Initially mistaking it for a scorpion, I realised I had encountered one of Penang’s rare hill crabs.
Other hikers have photographed these crabs, typically a dull olive-grey. But the bright orange pincers suggested this one was a large male.
Freshwater crabs, however, are not as common as their coastal cousins.
While sea crabs release thousands of larvae, freshwater crabs produce fewer than a hundred larger eggs.
These hatch as fully formed mini-crabs, with mothers tending to them for a few days until they’re independent.
Given their low spawning rates and limited range, many freshwater crabs are endemic to specific regions and some species remain unstudied or undocumented.
Hiking is not just about sweating it out, tracking your progress and trying to be a few minutes faster than the last excursion; it’s an opportunity to appreciate nature’s rare offerings.
That same morning, I was also lucky enough to photograph a female Titiwangsa horned tree lizard, a species found only in Malaysia’s uplands and one classified as endangered.
So, set out early and let the natural world surprise you with its hidden gems.
