Danum Valley Conservation Area is a 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 has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. It has an extensive diversity of tropical flora and fauna, including species such as the rare

Bornean orangutan The Bornean orangutan (''Pongo pygmaeus'') is an orangutan species endemic to the island of Borneo. It belongs to the only genus of great apes native to Asia and is the largest of the three ''Pongo'' species. It has a coarse, reddish coat and up ...

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 forests from eastern Bangladesh and Northeast Indi ...

mousedeer Chevrotains, or mouse-deer, are small, even-toed ungulates that make up the family Tragulidae, and are the only living members of the infraorder Tragulina. The 10 extant species are placed in three genera, but several species also are k ...

, clouded leopards and over 270 bird species. Visitor activities include jungle treks, river swimming,

birdwatching Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device such as binoculars or a telescop ...

, night jungle tours and excursions to nearby logging sites and timber mills. There were no human settlements within the area before it became a conservation area, meaning that hunting, logging and other human interference were non-existent, making the area almost unique. It is managed by Yayasan Sabah for conservation, research, education, and

habitat restoration Ecological restoration, or ecosystem restoration, is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, destroyed or transformed. It is distinct from conservation in that it attempts to retroactively repair ...

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

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Geography

The nearest town, Lahad Datu is about away, about a 2 hours' drive on mainly logging roads. Danum Valley Field Centre is a research establishment for scientists and educational 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. Many people visit mainly for birdwatching and wildlife sightings. Other lodges include Kawag Nature Lodge. The valley is bowl-shaped, with a maximum land height of .

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, 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 bear species in the Family (biology), family Ursidae found in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It is the only species in the genus ''Helarctos'' and the smallest bear species, standing nearly ...

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 molluscs, terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have gastropod shell, shel ...

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

Flora

Flora is primarily that of the Borneo lowland rain forests habitat, with dipterocarp trees predominating. In places the forest canopy reaches a height of over . 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 () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

. Species

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

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, a yellow meranti ('' Richetia faguetiana'') called Menara , was discovered in the valley. It was measured at , which ranks it as the world's tallest known living tropical tree.

References

External links