-made matrix of trees has become home for a natural complex of animals and plants that established them as soon as habitat and environment could support them. This strikingly real yet artificial forest gives hopes for the future of tropical forests refuting the lament that once logged; a natural forest ecosystem is forever lost.

FRIM provides a ‘window' that allows visitors to see a simplified rain forest ecosystem. Many other new windows are opened to visitors who take the numerous self-guiding nature trails through different sections of the plantations

The full and sometimes bewildering complexity of a tropical rain forest unfolds in differing ways to different visitors. Some may chance upon a wild animal as it dashes off through the undergrowth, or stares down momentarily from the safety of a lofty branch. Others may be fascinated by the blending of an insect into the

hues and texture of a leaf or bark. Another may pause to watch the column of black termites moving over branch, twig, rock or root, a column without beginning or end, just movement without apparent purpose. Many take note of the ever present bird life be it a Malkoha sulking through the branches or an eagle winging high above the canopy.

The plant world, through immobile, has its own fascinating features, from the unexpected coloured flushes of young leaves, to the sinuous draping of innumerable vines sometimes spiraling and twisting in thin air to accommodate a tree now no longer in existence. Mushroom and fungi have an appeal beyond the universal, “Is it edible?” question. They can appear in an incredible range of colours and shapes from immaculate white, delicate pinks and yellows to dark browns and black;

 

from robust and solid boughs, to translucent little umbrellas, solitary among the forest litter.

To “see” through FRIM's window to nature requires not just a sense of sight but also involves the sense of hearing and even the sense of smell. Many a visitors' curiosity is aroused by persistent calls from unseen creatures in impenetrable thickets: or the melodies songs of innumerable birds, the hoarse vocalization of the forest gecko, the strident symphony of cicadas, the scream of an eagle perched regally on the topmost branch of an emergent tree, the symphonic sounds of frogs and toads in the forest. Forests have smells that may delight or offend. A subtle perfume may drift around the mighty buttresses of a giant tree issuing from unseen flowering canopies high above the ground. Sometimes an offensive odour emanates from a moonrat alarmed in his lair or from the fruits of a Kulim(Garlic Tree) scattered on the ground.

Besides opening windows onto nature, FRIM also showcases man's use of forest resources. Visitors are able to see some of the implements and artifacts of wood and other forest products that have been made by man in year gone by, many of them in the FRIM Museum. They also can visit two traditional wooden houses, carefully