Deramakot aerial: Christian Loader/Alamy; orangutan: Anup
Shah/naturepl.com;frogandhornbill:ChienCLeeD
uring an early morning
drive in the back of
a pickup truck on a
logging road, I hear
the co-ordinated and
exceptionally loud
vocalisations of a pair
of Bornean gibbons for the first time. The
noise resounds through the lush forest like
a car alarm as the Endangered primates
proclaim their territorial boundaries. They
are not alone: the hum of cicadas andintermittent drumming of a woodpecker
also fills the humid air.
I can’t see the gibbons but our guide
Terance Bin Bukarak paints a vivid picture
with an amusing impersonation of them
high up in branches, peering out across
the mixed dipterocarp forest: “They know
we are here,” he says. As a member of
the Dusun Kota Belud tribe, Terance was
taught how to hunt for food in the forest,
recognise plants with medicinal properties,
and navigate his way through Sabah’s