Long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis)
We booked a 3 day, 2 night Sungai Kinabatangan trip through Nasalis Larvatus Tours Sdn Bhd and stayed at their Nature Lodge Kinabatangan, Kampung Bilit, located in the Sukau area.The state government declared the Lower Kinabatangan as a Gift to the Earth in 1999. In 2005 26,000 hectares of the Lower Kinabatangan were gazetted under the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997 as a wildlife sanctuary.
Sukau falls within the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary Area which is a veritable hotspot for primates - ten species are found in this area. The lodge is situated conveniently close to the Menanggul tributary where our knowledgeable and enthusiastic Sungai guides took us for our boat trips.
We were wishing beyond all hope to see truly wild orangutan, and our hearts burst with awe, our lungs with hushed cries of gleeful delight when we saw glimpses of this huge retiring male, sit and unhurriedly partake of its dinner.
We were able to watch the evening mealtime of the harem and bachelor troupes of fabulous Proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus). They are endemic to Borneo, which makes it all the more worthwhile travelling to Kinabatangan in order to be sure to see them in the wild.
According to a 2011 report, authored by Dr. Marc Ancrenaz of Hutan, a French NGO (N 1/09696) established to study orangutans in Sabah, and Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Project (KOCP), 80% of the floodplain having been deforested and converted to palm oil plantation over the past 30 years, "less than 50,000 ha of non-contiguous patches of natural and degraded habitat is left along the Kinabatangan River... Research undertaken by KOCP and Cardiff University found that the majority of the isolated orang-utan sub-populations found in Lower Kinabatangan are facing a high risk of extinction unless contiguous corridors of forests are recreated urgently."
Which explains the high density of primates and wildlife in the narrow strip of rainforest trees bordering the Menanggul tributary.
Southern pig-tailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina)
Interspecies altruism.
However it is not all desperate news, currently there is an initiative, the Kinabatangan-Corridor of Life (K-CoL) to re-establish a rainforest corridor along the Kinabatangan River to connect the patches of natural forest of the fragmented Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary Area together, the coastal mangrove swamps with the upland rainforests and to grow the population of fruiting trees that are sources of food for orangutans and other frugivores.
In 2008 Hutan, together with the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), established a KOCP Forest Restoration Unit and tree planting programme to replant 56 acres (more than 20 ha) located in Lot 1 of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary. The unit has employed and trained local villagers to research appropriate trees and experiment to develop techniques and strategies for reforestation plantings. Seedlings are bought from nurseries that are operated by the villagers of Abai and Sukau.
WWF-Malaysia has Memorandums of Understanding with Borneo Samudera Sdn Bhd and Asiatic Development Berhad to revert palm oil land back to natural forest to create the K-CoL; let's hope the tracts are more generous than we can imagine and that even more estates come on board.
Given the value of the associated ecotourism let's hope the members of KiTA (K-CoL Tourism Operators Assoc) which was established jointly with WWF-Malaysia in 2008 contribute proactively and generously to the reforestation process. We sincerely hope that these initiatives further and fairly invest in the expert level training and full-time employment of the distribution of socio-economic benefits to the local Sungai people so they too can embrace and participate in local conservation initiatives and ensure their land and cultural heritage is safeguarded.
Maroon (Presbytis rubicunda) and silvery (Trachypithecus cristatus) langurs.
Storm's stork (Ciconia stormi)
We would very much have like to have tried out a trip organised by the highly recommended community based tour company Red Ape Encounters but it was not to be for 2015, we're watching their web page for future updates.
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