Young Penan boy holding large winged seeds fallen from a typical rain forest tree
The Penan are a nomadic aboriginal people living in Sarawak and Brunei. They are one of the last such peoples remaining. The Penan are noted for their practice of 'molong' which means never taking more than necessary. Most Penan were nomadic hunter-gatherers until the post-World War II missionaries settled many of the Penan, mainly in the Ulu-Baram district but also in the Limbang district. Wind-dispersed fruits are only practical in the rain forest for very tall trees that emerge from the forest canopy: there is too little air movement inside the forest. Large seeds produce seedlings that can establish and survive in deep shade. What is food for a seedling is also food for a beetle, rat, pheasant, or a pig, but mast fruiting at long time intervals can satiate these seed predators so that many seeds escape consumption to grow into seedlings.
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Photo credit: © Scenics & Science / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: boy, dipterocarp, dispersal, fallen, forest, gatherer, holding, hunter, jungle, large, native, penan, rain, rainforest, seeds, tree, typical, wind, winged, young
