Sukau Rainforest Lodge - March 15th

Black-Crowned Night Heron
As promised, they knocked on our door at 5:30 AM…we of course, were already up.  We headed down to the dining room for a cup of coffee and a snack before heading out at 6 AM.  I think this was my favorite of all the cruises we did here…it was still relatively cool and very quiet and peaceful as we cruised slowly upriver.  We saw several different birds including the Black Crowned Night Heron, Oriental Pied Hornbill, and our 1st Silver-Leaf Monkeys.
Silver Leaf Monkey

We went up a small stream and this is where we saw the Long-Tailed Macaques jumping into the stream to swim to the other side.  This is risky business as Saltwater Crocodiles are lurking everywhere (more about this later.)

We got back to the lodge around 8 AM and then had breakfast.

Just after lunch we went on a short walk on what is called the “Hornbill Walk” on the boardwalks around the property.  However, this walk was cut short when a large man in our group stepped on a rotted board and his leg fell through.  Luckily, he only had a scratch which they patched up, and no other injury. 

At 2:00 PM we attended the Orangutan Talk. This was supposed to be a 20-30 short slideshow about the orangutans. However, with Chris’s questions the talk took 90 minutes and one of the more experienced guides joined in to answer his questions.  It turns out that Orangutan means "person of the forest" in the Malay language. We learned a lot about the orangutans’ facial features and their intelligence and incredible ability to learn by watching humans.  Here is a link to a short video showing an orangutan driving a golf cart.  The Royal Family in Dubai has their own zoo with a number of orangutans.  Rambo is their famous one and you can see lots of videos of his life on their Animalia Youtube channel.

We were scheduled to go on our afternoon cruise at 4 PM, but they moved it to 3:30 PM to give us extra time to make up for the shortened hornbill walk.

We headed downriver for a short way as the Pygmy Elephants were back for an afternoon dip.

Swiftlet House

We passed by a couple of swiftlet houses (we had first seen these in Peninsula Malaysia).  A swiftlet house is built for the breeding of Swiftlets to collect their nests which are used in bird's nest soup among other things. These buildings imitate the cave environments to attract the Swiftlet to come and breed in the houses. Cleaner nests are produced, and it eliminates the danger of harvesting the bird nests. They often have a loudspeaker playing a particular sound to attract the birds. Bird's nest are a multi-million dollar business and are "Known as the “Caviar of the East”, raw or unprocessed bird’s nest is valued at RM2,000 to RM6,000/kg, ($500-$1500) whereas cleaned nest is retailed at the price range of RM8,000 to RM20,000/kg."($2000-$5000). Read more here...it is quite interesting.  Bird's Nest Industry in Malaysia
We passed a small cave in the cliff where we watched Mossy-Nest Swiftlets (not the kind of nests that you eat)  fly in and out of their nests.

Salt Water Crocodile

We finally saw some Salt Water Crocodiles (needed for the completion of our Borneo Big Five.)


Pig-Tailed Macaque

We also saw some Pig-Tailed Macaques (our first siting of these monkeys). We also saw some Red Leaf Monkey.

When we saw the Long-Tailed Macaques this morning, I mentioned more on them and the crocodiles later.  A number of monkey/orangutan bridges have been constructed over the river as Orangutans can't swim. These bridges are controversial as our guide said that the reduced # of macaques being eaten by the crocodiles as they swim across have caused the crocodiles to be hungrier and more aggressive toward humans.  Our good intentions once again, have unintended consequences when it comes to interfering with nature.

Buffet table made from boat
The Sukau Rainforest Lodge and environs has been the site of a number of documentaries including one filmed here by David Attenborough in October 2011 and another by Judy Dench - her Borneo Adventures in 2021.  The boat in the picture to the left has been repurposed to the buffet table in the lodge and was one of the boats used by David Attenborough.  He is a fierce advocate for this area of Borneo and recently helped the building of a bridge across the river.




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