Our first stop along the Kinabatangan River was a place called Abai.
We spotted a few monkeys in the trees from the boat as we made our way towards the lodge but our guide told us we would have plenty of time to see monkeys later in the day so we didn’t stop.
We asked the guide whether we were likely to see any elephants during our stay.
Sadly he informed us that the elephants move around a lot to get the best food and for the last few days had been seen further down the river, so it was unlikely we would see any around Abai.
That didn’t stop me from searching in the trees for the rest of the day in hope of catching something the guides didn’t!
After a much needed lunch we hopped into a smaller boat in search of some wildlife. Within just a few minutes we had stopped to admire some Long-tailed Macaques.
This was the first of many groups of these monkeys as they seemed to be quite common in this part of the river.
Very soon after starting to move again we came across a group of Proboscis Monkeys. I had seen photos of these large-nosed monkeys in the past but had no idea what they were called.
The baby monkeys are born with a blue face, which eventually becomes an orange-pink colour as they get older.
Most of the monkeys you see in a group have a pointy little nose – it is only the dominant male who grows the big nose. The bigger the nose, the more attractive it is to the females.
There is only one dominant male in a group, and once a young male reaches maturity he will likely be kicked out and have to live with other bachelor males.
I couldn’t stop taking photos of the Proboscis monkeys as I found them fascinating – they have a lot of facial expressions and movements like humans, and the babies were so cute!
The males tend to sit there and sleep a lot of the time, but at one point we did get to witness an argument where the dominant male had to step in to calm things down.
Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Malaysian Borneo – Kinabatangan River
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