Kinabatangan River Sabah

The Kinabatangan River is located in Sabah, on the island of Borneo.  This is one of few large rivers in tropical Asia where riparian forests still exist. The river flows for 560 kilometres (347 miles) through eastern Sabah to the Sulu Sea. The lower Kinabatangan is one of the best area for viewing wildlife animal and plant life. Kinabatangan River has such an abundance of jungle creatures at the river’s edge due to the huge amount of logging of the rainforest.

I visited Kinabatangan in October 2011, I was totally amazed on how there was so much animals available in just one small area. I stayed in Kinabatangan nature lodge which is located in Kampung Bilit. They  charters 5.30am morning cruise and 4pm evening cruise which last for around 2 hours. With the help of our guide we could able to spot lot of interesting animals and birds. It was misty in the morning so it was difficult to get sharp photos as I need to shoot using high ISO setting and also my zoom lens not enough to get a close shot. I think we need minimum 400mm lens to capture the birds.

The Kinabatangan River harbours a diverse concentration of wildlife and is one of two places on the planet where ten primate species cohabitate. These are the Tarsier, Slow Loris, Pig-tailed Macaques, Long-tailed Macaques, Proboscis Monkey, Silvered Langur, Maroon Langur, Grey Langur, Bornean Gibbon, and Orang Utan. We saw plenty of proboscis monkey and long tailed macaue here. The proboscis monkey is found only on the island of Borneo.  

Proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus)

Long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

Pig-tailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina) 

Silvery lutung (Trachypithecus cristatus) or Leave monkey,

Orang Utan (Pongo pygmaeus)
Finally able to see Orang Utan in wild but it was really far away from our view.

This river is a birds paradise; there are over 250 species of colourful tropical birds the Bornean Bristlehead, Purple Heron, the endangered Storm’s Stork, Blue Banded Kingfisher, and all eight species of Hornbills can be spotted. Commonly seen drying their outstretched wings in the sun is the Oriental Darter, that is an endangered water bird extinct elsewhere in Malaysia.

Wallace's Hawk-eagle (Nisaetus nanus)

Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus)

Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela)

 Rhinoceros Hornbill (buceros rhinoceros)

Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris)

Oriental darter

Stork-Billed Kingfisher

  Collared Kingfisher

Blue Throated Bee Eater (Merops viridis)

Pacific Sparrow

  Heron

  Crocodile

Monitor lizard on a tree

Lizard

Squirrel

Leech
Pleanty of leeches around the lodge, narrowly escaped from leech bite as one was found on my pant and I have to use mossy spray clear it.

The night trip was amazing and we saw kingfishers, some spiders and owl. But sad as we could not see the pygmy elephants.

It was a great experience to see all these animals in the wild but it was sad to see the deforestation happening right in front of you. Kinabatangan river is disappearing before our very eyes? Hope this spectacular kinabatangan forest stays intact for the next generation to see as most of the land is been destroyed for the oil palm plantation. Hope the government acts soon before it is completely destroyed.

Voice of the Forest

Earth Song