Gomantong Forest Reserve is a protected forest reserve in

Sandakan Sandakan (, Jawi: , ) formerly known at various times as Elopura, is the capital of the Sandakan District in Sabah, Malaysia. It is the second largest city in Sabah after Kota Kinabalu. It is located on the Sandakan Peninsula and east coast of ...

and

Kinabatangan District The Kinabatangan District ( ms, Daerah Kinabatangan) is an administrative district in the Malaysian state of Sabah, part of the Sandakan Division which includes the districts of Beluran, Kinabatangan, Sandakan, Telupid and Tongod. The capital ...

s of

Sandakan Division Sandakan Division ( ms, Bahagian Sandakan) is an administrative division of Sabah, Malaysia. It stretches diagonally from the northeastern coast of Sabah to the state's central region. With an area of 28,205 square kilometres, it occupies 38.3% o ...

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. It was designated as a Class 1 Protection Forest by the Sabah Forestry Department in 1984. Its area is . The

Gomantong Caves The Gomantong Caves are an intricate cave system inside Gomantong Hill in Sandakan Division, Sabah, Malaysia. The hill is the largest limestone outcrop in the Lower Kinabatangan area. Description Situated in the Gomantong Forest Reserve, the c ...

are within the reserve. Gomantong's terrain consists of low to moderate hills and flat areas with swamps. The forest is a mixture of

dipterocarp Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 16 genera and about 695 known species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus ''Dipterocarpus'', is derived from Greek (''di'' = two, ''pteron'' = wing and ''karpos'' = fru ...

and swamp forest.

Flora

Gomantong Forest Reserve hosts threatened tree species such as ''

Hopea beccariana ''Hopea beccariana'' is a species of tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is named for the Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari. Description ''Hopea beccariana'' grows up to tall, with a trunk diameter of up to . It has buttresses. The bark is f ...

'', ''

Shorea atrinervosa ''Shorea atrinervosa'' is a species of plant in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The species name is derived from Latin (''ater'' = dull black and ''nervosus'' = nerved) and refers to leaf venation which is black in herbarium specimens. It is an em ...

'', '' Shorea hypoleuca'' and '' Dipterocarpus confertus''. Swamp species include ''

Mitragyna speciosa ''Mitragyna speciosa'' (commonly known as kratom, an herbal leaf from a tree of the Rubiaceae family, ) is a tropical evergreen tree in the coffee family native to Southeast Asia. It is indigenous to Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and ...

'' and ''

Nephrolepis biserrata ''Nephrolepis biserrata'' (giant swordfern, 长叶肾蕨) is a tropical fern, endemic to Florida, Mexico, the West Indies, Central America, South America, Africa, and southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-Ea ...

''. The reserve hosts numerous ''

Diospyros ''Diospyros'' is a genus of over 700 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs. The majority are native to the tropics, with only a few species extending into temperate regions. Individual species valued for their hard, heavy, dark tim ...

'', ''

Tristaniopsis ''Tristaniopsis'' is a group of shrub and tree in the myrtle family Myrtaceae described as a genus in 1863. They have a wide distribution in Southeast Asia, New Guinea, New Caledonia and Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth ...

'', ''

Campnosperma ''Campnosperma'' is a genus of rainforest trees in the Cashew Family (Anacardiaceae). They are found in the East Indies, south Asia and the Seychelles. Species , the ''Plants of the World Online'' accepts 14 species: * '' Campnosperma auriculatu ...

'', ''

Syzygium ''Syzygium'' () is a genus of flowering plants that belongs to the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. The genus comprises about 1200 species, and has a native range that extends from Africa and Madagascar through southern Asia east through the Pacific. I ...

'' and ''

Cordia ''Cordia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae. It contains about 300 species of shrubs and trees, that are found worldwide, mostly in warmer regions. Many of the species are commonly called manjack, while ''bocote' ...

'' species.

Fauna

Gomantong Forest Reserve hosts migrating

elephants Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae and ...

. The reserve is home to

orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...

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 ...

and wild boar.

References

Forest reserves of Sabah {{Sabah-geo-stub