Danum Valley and Primary Rainforest in Borneo (Sabah)

Part of the Borneo (Sabah) travel guide — see every topic in All Borneo (Sabah) Guides.

Danum Valley is a 438-square-kilometre conservation area of primary lowland dipterocarp rainforest in eastern Sabah, never logged and never settled, and it is among the most biologically rich forests anywhere. The canopy reaches seventy metres; the tree diversity in a single hectare exceeds that of the whole of Europe. It holds orangutans, clouded leopards, sun bears, gibbons, eight hornbill species and, until recently, the last Sumatran rhinos in Malaysia. Access is limited and expensive, which is why it survives.

What is there

Undisturbed lowland dipterocarp forest — the richest terrestrial habitat on earth by tree diversity — with emergent trees reaching seventy metres above a closed canopy. Wildlife includes Bornean orangutans at some of the highest densities anywhere, Bornean gibbons whose dawn calls carry for kilometres, red leaf monkeys, sun bears, bearded pigs, sambar and mouse deer, clouded leopards for the very lucky, and over 340 bird species including all eight Bornean hornbills. Pygmy elephants pass through. The insect and plant life is beyond counting.

Staying there

Two options. Borneo Rainforest Lodge is the upmarket one: chalets on the river, guided walks with resident naturalists, a canopy walkway, night drives and full board, at roughly 2,500–5,000 ringgit per person for a typical three-day stay. The Danum Valley Field Centre, a working research station, offers much simpler accommodation and is considerably cheaper, aimed at students and researchers but open to visitors. Both are two to three hours by road from Lahad Datu, which has flights from Kota Kinabalu.

What a stay involves

Guided walks morning and afternoon, a canopy walkway at around twenty-six metres, night drives with spotlights that turn up civets, flying squirrels, slow lorises and occasionally a leopard cat, night walks for frogs, stick insects and tarantulas, and a pre-dawn climb to a viewpoint for the mist over the canopy and the gibbon chorus. Guides at the lodge are exceptional and are the main reason the wildlife is seen at all. Leeches, humidity and heat are constants; this is genuine rainforest rather than a park.

Maliau Basin and the alternatives

Maliau Basin, the "Lost World of Sabah", is a 588-square-kilometre bowl ringed by an escarpment, almost entirely unexplored until the 1980s and accessible only on multi-day guided treks with basic camps — the most serious rainforest expedition available in Malaysia. Tabin Wildlife Reserve is more accessible and good for elephants and mud volcanoes. Deramakot Forest Reserve, a sustainably logged concession, has exceptional night-drive mammal viewing including clouded leopards, and is favoured by wildlife photographers.

Danum Valley and Primary Rainforest at a glance

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