Danum Valley - Guide For a Day

Our next stop in Borneo was the Danum Valley Field Centre. Danum Valley was attractive because it is a 130 million year old primary growth (never been cut) forest. As we drove in on the bumpy rodeo ride of a gravel road, I was glued to the van window amazed at the tall trees, thinking - “we’re in Eden”. 

I’m guessing we all maintain some imaginative notion from childhood of primeval jungle - whether it’s from Eden, Rousseau, or our first children’s books. This place has that feeling, like no place I’ve ever been. 130 million years - is that a lot for a forest? I really had no idea and still have no real grasp of such a time span. How old are the forests in North America? They date back to the last ice age, 8,000-10,000 years. How about the Amazon rainforest? At least 55 million years. Oh. 130 million is a lot more. Are these S.E. Asia forests, the oldest? The Daintree Rainforest in Queensland, Australia at 125m YO is considered the “oldest” on earth, though not extant quite as long, because its flora exhibit a “direct lineage” of plant life to back then,  predating the breakup of the earth’s supercontinent, Gondwana. Wow. Ok, we must go there. But for now, it’s Danum Valley, around since the arrival of the dinosaurs after the Triassic-Jurassic Extinction ~200 million years ago, and much older than their demise 66 million years ago in the last mass extinction, the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction. How privileged we are to visit such a place.

Teresa, our guide Jeffery Ansoon, Bill

They roll up like a nut when threatened

The Danum Valley Field Centre is really a research post that takes in tourists to augment their funding. They were originally funded by the Malaysian Royal Family but have had to diversify their funding in recent years. We met some of the researchers and really enjoyed our time with them. Since we’ve travelled with all kinds of accommodation, I found it interesting what separates research accommodation from low-end backpacker accommodation. They both are basic and unluxurious, but there’s something unmistakably more comfortable and “homey” about researcher-grade accommodation. What is that exactly? It’s simple but avoids the anonymity and indifference to style that low-end accommodation seems to have. Beyond that, we had no internet or cell service during our stay there. This only added to the rarefied otherworldliness of the place. And power was turned off from 11pm-7am. I loved this actually, especially in the morning because I could go out and record nearby without any generators going. I absolutely loved this place and our whole experience there. It was kind of like going to that imaginary forest from in one’s childhood but real and until now, never really experienced.

Ok, so what did we do there? Let’s see some pictures…!

Ebony

As a tourist, you’re not supposed to go onto the forest trails without a guide. Before they had this rule, at least one tourist per year would get lost and it would be a big effort to find them. Trails do branch off and new animal trails emerge, so evidently some people do get lost. With GPS phones this seems avoidable but that’s the rule. So our guide would take us on two or three hikes per day, usually morning, afternoon, and sometimes evening. And show us information on the birds we were hearing.

Because I planned to do a lot of audio recording, I arranged in advance to have a private guide who could take me out, away from the others to record the forest silently. Our regular guide, Jeffery Ansoon would sometimes take me out, or sometimes Juhinwin (Joe) Sariman who is part of the research staff working there on fig trees would go out with me.

Juhinwin (Joe) Sariman out with me on a recording hike

I got to know both of them a bit and really appreciated their interest in what I was doing and their earnestness in helping capture wonderful forest scenes in audio. One of the scenes in particular, on our last evening there with Jeff was - as I mentioned to him - one of the best concerts I have ever heard. We stayed still for about an hour to capture the evolving ensemble of life in that section of the forest. It was beautiful.

They would occassionaly take pictures of us as well.

Bill and Juhinwin out recording

Aside from escorted hikes, we were free to wander as long as we stayed on or near the roads connecting various buildings on the site. I took advantage of this at all times of day and made some terrific recordings. I’m looking forward to editing and sharing in various spatial frameworks. One afternoon I was out recording a dispersed but evidently communicating group of squirrels. They had a more pronounced and more resonant sound than squirrels at home but their rhythms were similar and were wonderfully musical to listen to as a spatial ensemble. I couldn’t actually see them but confirmed later that these were indeed squirrels and not some kind of birds.

As I was recording, I heard leaves not far away and above me shaking. Something bigger was coming. I was hoping it was a gibbon because they have wonderful calls and are very shy and hard to get close to. I watched that space to see what it was while maintaining my footing so as not to make any sound on the squirrel recording. And then it came out and moved a bit past and above me. It was an orangutan! I tried to point my phone to record it on video, again without moving my feet or posture. I followed its sound through the trees with my phone and watched the area it emerged from as more leaves were rustling. Another orangutan emerged! I’m pretty sure they didn’t know I was there. I was under tree cover and the way they moved unhurriedly past me seemed very exposed and vulnerable. I did my best to angle my camera behind me to follow their movements. At this point I was very keen on also capturing the sound of their rustling leaves trailing overhead on the audio recording and so wanted to be careful not to make any noise to spoil it as well. And then, here comes another one - a third! They moved through the trees slowly and beyond where I was recording.

I was trying to follow their movement without turning around. Missed some framing.

I mentioned it to Teresa when I got back to our room but assumed they were long gone and it was just a lucky passing moment. It didn’t occur to me to let others know about it. What’s the point of running around telling folks what they missed?

But a couple hours later when it was time for our hike with Jeff, word had spread that I saw orangutans and everybody wanted to see them. Again I figured they were long gone but I pointed in the direction they went. So we went looking for them and actually did find them lounging in some nearby trees! An all-points bulletin went out on the guides’ walkie-talkie band and everyone started showing up. It was nice to see these three orangutans again but I also kind of enjoyed seeing the crowd that gathered to see “my” orangutans. I don’t think I grasped how important this was for many of the others.

I had been trying all week to record some gibbons. I heard two groups some distance apart one morning around 5:30. There was one soloist in particular that I would be happy to listen to all day. They were still some distance away so I’m not sure if the recording I made will inspire, but we do treasure old recordings of Caruso don’t we? I will treasure hearing this one again. That was as close as I got while spatial recording. However on our last day, as we were leaving, one showed up at our lodge and sang beautifully. My equipment was packed up and in the van, but Juhinwin was there, pulled out his phone, and sent me two wonderful recordings of that gibbon. Thank you Joe!

Gibbons are wonderful to see and hear. And the orangutans and other primates certainly as well. But the insects and frogs, especially at night are amazing to hear. I really enjoyed recording those. And beyond these wildlife, I was really taken with the forest. I took lots of pictures of the forest.

Leeches seeking attachment

Edible mushrooms