It was 1881 when William Pryer, the founder of Sandakan also the first British Resident in the area visited the Kinabatangan river. Based on his journal records, he had spotted bright blue kingfishers and hornbills too. It’s more than a century now, and still, the sighting of the kingfishers and hornbills are equally common as one cruises along the river during the highly sought, morning or evening river cruise.

The mighty Lower-Kinabatangan River sustains one of the world’s richest ecosystems. It is also recognized as Sabah’s first and Malaysia’s largest RAMSAR site. Other than being home to Borneo’s indigenous orang utan and proboscis monkey, the surrounding forest is one of only two known places in the world where 10 species of primates can be found.

This is Malaysia’s second-longest river with a massive length of 560km from its source in the Southwest Sabah to its outlet at the Sulu Sea, on the East Coast. A total of 26,000 ha was gazetted as the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary under the State’s Wildlife Conservation Enactment of 1997.

A river cruise along the river at dawn or dusk is the best opportunity to see the wildlife. You might even sight the Bornean pygmy elephant feeding along the river banks, witness stunts of the Proboscis jumping from tree to tree or even catching sight of a wild orangutan. Crocodiles? Yes the saltwater crocs frequently make themselves visible as they linger by the riverbanks… or even more thrilling, is to spot their eyes slightly protruded from the water (well stay away…).