No Need to Look Very Hard

When I first started reading about Borneo and all of the wildlife that one can see I got very excited. Well of course everyone knows about the orangutans but it is not only these giant forest men that call Borneo home but also 9 other primate species including proboscis monkeys (funny looking pot bellied fellows with a hot dog nose), tarsiers (the smallest primate in the world that looks like ET) and red leaf monkeys (I think Dr. Seuss got the idea for the Grinch from these guys, he just painted them green) just to name a few. There are also elephants, cloud leopards, rhinos and hundreds of species of fantastic birds. The list goes on and on as should be expected from an island once covered in tropical rainforest and known as one of the most biodiverse places in the world.

With such a long list of potential animal sightings, we were both incredibly excited about our trip to Borneo. But after being in the Philippines for two years (also known as a center for biodiversity) and coming up pretty much empty handed in our search for wildlife, we did not want to be over-confident in our hopes for seeing many animals and then have our hopes dashed. Fortunately our time in Borneo has proven to be much better than the Philippines, as far as wildlife viewing is concerned. From our experiences in Kutai and Kayan Mentarang, we had already seen six orangutan, some gibbons and tons of macaques and hornbills just to name a few. Perhaps it was not the ideal picture that I had of a tropical rainforest as a child with exotic animals running and hiding in every direction, but with a bit of time and effort we had found quite a bit of wildlife. We still had many more animals on our Borneo checklist however and we had been told that eastern Sabah in Malaysian Borneo was the place to go to find them.

We headed to the longest river in Sabah, the Kinabatangan, which is known as a haven for the full range of Bornean wildlife and the animals are relatively easy to spot as well. Unfortunately one of the reasons that the wildlife is so easy to see is the fact that there is not much intact forest left in the area, because much of it has been converted to palm oil plantations much like the rest of Sabah. Another reason that it is easy to spot is the fact that the people who live along the river are generally Muslim in faith and thus do not traditionally hunt the wildlife, which means that the animals do not flee at the first sight or sound of man (this is much different from the wildlife in the Heart of Borneo which is heavily hunted). For these reasons the Kinabatangan has a great reputation for wildlife and there are many tourists that ply the river in search of it. This tourism has brought a good deal of money to the local communities but palm plantations continue to encroach on the area, further threatening the forest and the wildlife that call this area home. There are people working to protect and rehabilitate the forest as well as connecting the fragmented areas but sadly it is hard to say whether or not they will be successful in preserving this amazing area.

We had heard a lot about the Kinabatangan from various sources and were interested to see what it would be like. We knew that it would be a bit different from our usual hiking through the forest relying on our own eyes to spot animals far above and we would instead be paying hefty sums to ride in a boat with a guide to point out wildlife but we were willing to try it out. There are many options for tourists along the Kinabatangan ranging from jungle camps to homestays to swanky river lodges. We chose the Sukau B&B which was suggested to us as one of the cheapest options and we had also heard that it is nestled among some of the highest density of wildlife along the river.

We arrived in the early afternoon after being once again overcharged for transport along a bumpy dirt road and were greeted at the B&B by the son of the owner. This young 17 year old was incredibly personable and his English was exceptional (especially considering he dropped out of school when he was 13). He was knowledgeable and helpful when we asked about the area and what we might see and we found out that he usually helps out the family business by guiding but he had recently broken his leg playing football so he would be unable to take us out. But he did set up a cruise for the afternoon and evening for us with his father (who unfortunately was not so personable).

At around 3PM we started on our trip to the Menonggo River, an area frequented by many tourists from the lodges in the area. We heard that at times there can be 20 boats filled with 10 or more tourists a piece which does not exactly make for ideal wildlife sighting experiences since the noise from so many people has a tendency to disturb the animals. We were lucky though and there were only two other boats besides ours on the river. We were still always trying to jockey ahead of them to make sure we could get the first look at the animals before they fled.


Before even entering the small Menonggo tributary, we found our first troop of proboscis monkeys and were able to watch these strange pot bellied pigs scarf down leafs on a mangrove tree only 20 feet away from where we sat. Once we entered the small tributary, we soon realized why there can sometimes be so many boats and why it is such an attraction. There was wildlife everywhere you turned and they did not at all seem perturbed or frightened by our presence. Our little cruise down the river was greeted by about six groups of proboscis monkeys flinging themselves from tree to tree. We later learned that there are about 15 groups of these endangered primates on the Menonngo, probably making it one of the most densely populated areas on the entire island. We also saw our first silver leaf langurs, which playfully leaped across the river and posed for silhouette photos in the early evening. Many groups of pig-tailed and long-tailed macaques, the most common and social of the primates in Borneo, were also out in full force. Quite a few large monitor lizards swam in front or behind our boat or lazed along the riverbank. A green tree viper was also spotted by another boat and we made our in for a photo op. Casey got a little excited and thought that it was a good idea to get a really good shot by getting very close. Later learning that this snake is highly venomous and it could have easily struck him while trying to get the pic, he realized that maybe the photo op was not the best idea. But hey, he got a decent picture.

Our late afternoon cruise had been amazing and we were highly impressed and surprised with everything that we had seen. We were in 'keen naturalist' heaven. We had arranged to stay out a bit longer into the night in order to do some spotlighting of wildlife. There are just as many animals out at night as during the day and seeing them is a bit more difficult but we had a long list of species and we wanted to try our luck. So we sat for a bit waiting for dark and then our boatman turned on the power spotlight and we continued on our wildlife hunt. We were not quite as lucky as in the afternoon but we saw about 10 Buffy Fish Owls, a sleeping blue collared kingfisher that allowed us to get really close for some nice pics, eyes of at least one crocodile and an unidentified small cat or civet (our guess is a marbled cat). All in all not too bad for a few hours on the river and we decided to head back to the lodge for some rest.

When we got back, we met a nice British traveller, Sion, and the brother-in-law of the owner of our accommodation, who had been doing wildlife surveys and guiding on the river for about 10 years. He turned out to be an amazing guide on later river trips and just one of the nicest people that we have met on our travels. We decided that the next day we would not go out on the river since the boat trips were a bit pricey and would instead take a hike with Sion to a nearby cave. Unfortunately the next morning we started a little late and the wildlife was nowhere to be seen which did seem a bit odd after so much on the previous afternoon. The small cave was nice though and the hike was enjoyable (even with the pouring rain on the way home). Along the way we did see many signs of elephants (poo and prints) and bear (claw marks on the trees) and we decided that the next day would be our elephant searching day. In the afternoon we went for another short hike and we spotted a small female orangutan with a very young baby. Casey went to get Sion (since he was not along and he had not seen an orangutan yet) and while he was gone, Laura got to see this beautiful creature swing through the treetops with amazing speed and grace. It is so awesome how such a large beast can move so fast. These were orange creatures number 7 and 8 (after our 6 in Kutai, Indonesia).