Danum Valley Conservation Area is a 438 square kilometres tract of relatively undisturbed lowland dipterocarp forest in

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. 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 ...

s, mousedeer, clouded leopards 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 Restoration ecology is the scientific study supporting the practice of ecological restoration, which is the practice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human interrupt ...

training purposes. There have been proposals to nominate the site as a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

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 Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equatori ...

is home to many birds and mammals. It is the only place where the enigmatic

spectacled flowerpecker The spectacled flowerpecker (''Dicaeum dayakorum'') is a species of bird belonging to the flowerpecker family, Dicaeidae. It was first observed in 2009 in the forests of Borneo, but due to limited information and the lack of a specimen for scient ...

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 The sun bear (''Helarctos malayanus'') is a species in the family Ursidae (the only species in the genus ''Helarctos'') occurring in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It is the smallest bear, standing nearly at the shoulder and weighing ...

and

Bornean rhinoceros The Bornean rhinoceros (''Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni''), also known as the eastern Sumatran rhinoceros or eastern hairy rhinoceros, is one of three subspecies of Sumatran rhinoceros. The subspecies may be functionally extinct, with only o ...

. 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 '' D. retusus'' in Köhler ''Dipterocarpus'' is a genus of flowering plants and the type genus of family Dipterocarpaceae. ''Dipterocarpus'' is the third-largest and most diverse genus among the Dipterocarpaceae. The species are well known for ...

'' species occur on

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

. Species

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

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