Sabah Borneo (17 days in-country)
There is little doubt that Borneo is one of my favorite wildlife destinations, not only in Southeast Asia, but the planet! We ended up with over forty species of mammals and a tad over 130 species of birds and poop-loads of herps for the trip! We designed our trip there with few destinations but max-time-spent-per-destination as possible.
Be sure to check out the images below for a sample of the amazing species we saw in the wild in Borneo. Also, click the links below for more spectacular images of Borneo critters and landscapes!
Mammals of Borneo
Birds of Borneo
Reptiles & Amphibians of Borneo
Landscapes and Flora of Borneo
Kompasia excelsa tree along the Kinabatangan River, Borneo.
Kinabatangan River (seven full days)
Clearly one of the world’s great wildlife viewing destinations, Kinabatangan rarely disappoints. Due to the EXTREME environmental degradation in the surrounding regions, the wildlife is concentrated in most likely unnaturally high densities. While there we spent most of our time at the Sukau Rainforest Lodge which I can highly recommend – great food, wonderful atmosphere, splendid location with a very high eco-ethic effort. I really appreciated their electric motor boats and the willingness of their guides to go the extra mile for our needs. We ended up with a private guide for several of our days there – name Jumaidi – great guide and with a willingness to work on the “targets”.
Our sightings there included masked and common palm civets, lesser mouse deer, sambar (rare there!), plain pygmy, plantain, Prevost’s squirrels, tons of Bornean pygmy elephants, bearded pigs, silvered and maroon langurs, orang-utans, southern pig-tailed and crab-eating macaques, proboscis monkeys, smooth otters, wrinkle-lipped bats, lesser woolly horseshoe bats and over 90 species of birds and countless herps. One sad point – my first two days on the river I was recovering from a horrible spider bite and missed my one opportunity to see a Bornean clouded leopard which was spotted by my boat the one night I was too ill to go on a night cruise….. Many folks got some great shots of it however….
Tabin Wildlife Preserve (5 full days)
We were very pleasantly surprised at the amazing variety of wildlife we were fortunate to see at Tabin. Although I have to admit our luck was in a large way NOT due to the horribly managed Tabin Lodge…oh my god! In all my years eco-traveling and leading safaris myself, I have never seen such a poorly managed lodge ever. The food was horrendous and they try to put all clients in the non-AC, rat-infested river-front cottages. Be sure to request the lodges on the hill – great spots! But we made the best of it as it really is the only comfortable lodging in the region. We were actually able to get some good safaris out of Jody while there and did have some great luck. Species encountered there included Hose’s langur, crab-eating and pig-tailed macaques, orang-utans (including “Toby”, a rather unsuccessful Sepilok release that refuses to sleep in trees and tries to board any car that passes by – a really sad sight to see…), Bornean gibbons, moon rat, lesser tree shrews, masked, common, small-toothed, Malay civets, binturong, Malaysian field rat, Bornean Pygmy elephants (heard only), bearded pigs, oriental small clawed and smooth otters, sambar, red giant and spotted flying squirrels, and Prevost’s, and ear-spot squirrels and at least 17 leopard cats along the road between the park and the surrounding oil palm fields – one of the few dividends of the oil palm plantations.
Sunrise over the Danum Valley
Danum Valley Wildlife Area (5 full days)
Being one of the last remaining tracks of primary forest, the Danum offers great opportunities for wildlife watching! But also due to the maturity of the forest, seeing the wildlife is also more challenging than some other locations like the Kinabatangan and Tabin. We stayed at the Danum Valley Field Centerin their guest rooms which were more than adequate. The food was plentiful and OK. We did spend an afternoon at the famous Rainforest Lodge – wow! Talk about cush! We arranged a day trip there from Borneo Ecotours which included a guided trek to the canopy walk, dinner, a shower room (which ended up being the prime-minister’s suite!!!!!) and a night safari drive back to the DVFC. The night drive was fantastic – not necessarily due to the diversity of sightings, but because of the rig. The put us in the back of a Hylux with a padded teak bench safely secure to the back of the bed for my wife, son and I to relax and enjoy. And during the 45+ km drive back we had two experienced spotters nailing both sides of the roads. We were all fairly inebriated by the start of the trip and the party continued until after midnightwhen we finally arrived at the DVFC! Night drives are doable at the DVFC but having your own vehicle would be better as the rangers are not the best spotters. We hooked up with a couple with their own truck. This combined with my wife’s and my spotting experience, we were able to lock in some great stuff.
Sightings in the Danum included Orang-utans, crab-eating and southern pig-tailed macaques, Sunda slow loris, common, small-toothed, Malay civets, leopard cats, a new and distinct subspecies of maroon langur, tons of sambar, Bornean pygmy elephants, bearded pigs, giant, Prevost’s and plain pygmy squirrels, red giant, black and Vordermann’s flying squirrels, large flying fox, oriental small clawed otters and Bornean gibbons brachiating right in front of us at the cantina of the DVFC.
Be sure to check out the images below for a sample of the amazing species we saw in the wild in Borneo. Also, click the links below for more spectacular images of Borneo critters and landscapes!
Mammals of Borneo
Birds of Borneo
Reptiles & Amphibians of Borneo
Landscapes and Flora of Borneo
