Danum Valley Conservation Area is a 438 square kilometres tract of relatively undisturbed lowland dipterocarp forest in Sabah, Malaysia. It has an extensive diversity of tropical flora and fauna, including such species as the rare

Bornean orangutan The Bornean orangutan (''Pongo pygmaeus'') is a species of orangutan endemic to the island of Borneo. Together with the Sumatran orangutan (''Pongo abelii'') and Tapanuli orangutan (''Pongo tapanuliensis''), it belongs to the only genus of great ...

gibbon Gibbons () are apes in the family Hylobatidae (). The family historically contained one genus, but now is split into four extant genera and 20 species. Gibbons live in subtropical and tropical rainforest from eastern Bangladesh to Northeast India ...

mousedeer Chevrotains, or mouse-deer, are small even-toed ungulates that make up the family (biology), family Tragulidae, the only extant members of the infraorder Tragulina. The 10 Extant taxon, extant species are placed in three genera, but sever ...

clouded leopard The clouded leopard (''Neofelis nebulosa''), also called the mainland clouded leopard, is a wild cat inhabiting dense forests from the foothills of the Himalayas through mainland Southeast Asia into South China. In the early 19th century, a cl ...

s and over 270 bird species. Activities offered are jungle treks, river swimming, bird watching, night jungle tours and excursions to nearby logging sites and timber mills. The area holds unique status in the sense that before it became a conservation area there were no human settlements within the area, meaning that hunting, logging and other human interference was non existent making the area almost unique. It is managed by Yayasan Sabah for conservation, research, education, and habitat restoration training purposes. There have been proposals to nominate the site as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Geography

The nearest town, Lahad Datu is about 82 km away (about a 2 hours drive on mainly logging roads). Danum Valley Field Centre is a research establishment for scientists and education purposes, and a nursery for propagating ''Dipterocarpus'' trees by the 100,000s. There are few lodges here for tourists, one of the most established lodges is the Borneo Rainforest Lodge. From here visitors can do guided walks through lowland rainforest trails and night safari walks or drives, and many people go there mainly for bird watching and wildlife sightings. Other lodges include Danum Valley Field Centre and the newest one, Kawag Nature Lodge. The valley is bowl-shaped, with a maximum land height of 1093m.

Natural history

Fauna

The lowland tropical rainforest is home to many birds and mammals. It is the only place where the enigmatic spectacled flowerpecker has been recorded.

s, Müller's Bornean gibbons, and other primates, including

Horsfield's tarsier Horsfield's tarsier (''Cephalopachus bancanus''), also known as the western tarsier, is the only species of tarsier in the genus ''Cephalopachus''. Named for American naturalist Thomas Horsfield, it occurs on Borneo, Sumatra and nearby islands ...

, as well as deer, wild cats and the rare Bornean pygmy elephant may be seen. Other notable species that inhabit the area are the sun bear and Bornean rhinoceros. The rich insect fauna has been one of the main areas of research in which the Danum Valley Field Centre has been active, and the

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as ...

fauna is also considered one of the richest in the world, with at least 61 species recorded from a 1-km-plot.

Flora

Flora is primarily that of the

Borneo lowland rain forest The Borneo lowland rain forests is an ecoregion, within the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome, of the large island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. It supports approximately 15,000 plant species, 380 bird species and several m ...

habitat, with dipterocarp trees predominating. In places the forest canopy reaches a height of over 70 meters. The greatest diversity of '' Dipterocarpus'' species occur on Borneo. Species endemic or native to the island include '' D. acutangulus'', '' D. applanatus'', '' D. borneensis'', '' D. caudatus'', '' D. caudiferus'', '' D. confertus'', '' D. conformis'', '' D. coriaceus'', '' D. costulatus'', '' D. crinitus'', '' D. elongatus'', '' D. eurynchus'', '' D. fusiformis'', '' D. geniculatus'', '' D. glabrigemmatus'', '' D. globosus'', '' D. gracilis'', '' D. grandiflorus'', '' D. hasseltii'', '' D. humeratus'', '' D. kerrii'', '' D. mundus'', '' D. ochraceus'', '' D. palembanicus'', '' D. sarawakensis'', '' D. tempehes'', '' D. validus'' and '' D. verrucosus''. The valley is home to over 15,000 plant species, though 94% of the plants belong to the dipterocarp genus. Other flora seen in the valley are pitcher plants. In 2019, the world's tallest tropical tree was discovered in the valley.

References

External links