Wildlifeof Borneo
Danum Valley Field Centre
Research station
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The working heart of the Danum Valley Conservation Area — 438 square kilometres of primary lowland dipterocarp forest, thought to be over 130 million years old, that Yayasan Sabah's trustees chose to leave permanently unlogged back in 1980. The Field Centre opened in 1986 to support that decision with science, and has since become one of the foremost tropical rainforest research stations in the Old World tropics. Accommodation is functional rather than comfortable — resthouse and hostel blocks, generator power until 11pm — but the trade-off is direct trail access into forest that has never been touched, with a pre-dawn trek to the Bukit Atur viewpoint among the highlights.
Top highlights
- Bornean Orangutan
- Bornean Elephant
- Sunda Clouded Leopard
- Sun Bear
- Bay Cat
- Otter Civet
- Red Leaf Monkey
- Bornean Gibbon
- Western Tarsier
- Bornean Bristlehead
Where you'll stay / explore
Langom
Close enough to the Field Centre to use its trail network, but with its own 4x4 roads for Deramakot-style night safaris — a newer research-station base in the same buffer zone.
Accommodation
Accommodation is functional rather than comfortable — resthouse and hostel blocks, generator power until 11pm.
