Orangutan and baby in Deramakot by Chris Townend

Tour Dates: Tuesday 15th – Wednesday 30th June 2027 (Sandakan to Sandakan)
Tour Price: £4,999 plus flight
Estimated Flight Price: London to Sandakan approx. £800 return
Deposit: £700 per person
Conservation Donation from Wise Birding: £250
Minimum Number: 4 people
Maximum Group Size: 6 people

Target Species Mammals: Sunda Clouded Leopard, Sunda Leopard Cat, Marbled Cat, Flat-headed Cat. Bornean Pygmy Elephant, Philippine Slow Loris, Western Tarsier, Bornean Orangutan, Proboscis Monkey, Maroon Langur, Bornean Gibbon, Prevost’s Flying Squirrel, Thomas’s Flying Squirrel, Sunda Giant Squirrel, Sunda Stink Badger, Yellow-throated Marten, Moonrat, Small-toothed Palm Civet, Banded Palm Civet, Otter Civet, Binturong & many more!

Birds: A good selection of Bornean birds including up to 8 species of impressive Hornbills, a good selection of Trogons and Broadbills, Woodpeckers including the huge Great Slaty Woodpecker, raptors such as Wallace’s Hawk Eagle and also some nice endemics such as Storm’s Stork, Blue-headed Pitta, White-fronted Falconet and Bornean Bristlehead, plus many more!

Tour Summary
Borneo is without doubt another of those bucket-list destinations if you are fascinated by birds and mammals. This 12 night tour encompasses the very best of Borneo’s mammal and bird habitats in the Sabah region of Borneo. We start the tour in the forests of Sepilok experiencing the impressive canopy walkway and an added option to visit the Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre / Sun Bear Conservation Centre. Despite the Orangutans here being not “truly” wild (though we should see wild animals later in the tour), we like to support their work and of course the canopy walkway here is fantastic for birding!  We then progress to the now famous Deramakot Forest where we become nocturnal with an exciting 7 nights of spotlighting where so many amazing mammals await us and of course we hope for some special cats! We then travel to the Kinabatangan River where we focus our time on seeing primates and birds whilst taking a number of day boat trips as well as a number of night boat trips where with luck, we hope to find Flat-headed Cat.   Our final destination is the famous Danum Valley where we will be staying deep in the forest at a newly opened centre where we will once again be mostly nocturnal, but still enjoying some birding during the late afternoons before searching for mammals again.
Note: There will be a clear focus on mammals for much of this tour, particularly when at Deramakot where will spend most time out at night spotlighting. Therefore our bird list will clearly be far less compared to a focused birding tour. However, our daytime visits to the canopy walkway at Sepilok and our morning boat trips on the Kinabatangan River should allow us time to see a good selection of some of the speciality birds as well as the more common, but none less impressive species. If you want to see more birds, then we recommend our Borneo Birding Tour.

ACCOMMODATION: 15 nights in Borneo 2 nights Sepilok, 7 nights Deramakot Forest Reserve, 3 nights Kinabatangan River and 3 nights Danum Valley.
Inclusive Meals: Full-board

DAY 1: Arrival Sandakan and transfer to Sepilok
The Sepilok-Kabili Forest Reserve is a great place to acclimatise at the start of our tour and the surrounding habitat is a fantastic birding area. The nearby Rainforest Discovery Centre, with its spectacular canopy walkway over 600 metres in length and suspended 25M above the forest floor also makes for an excellent birding viewpoint allowing us to find many canopy birds at eye level.  We will visit both these sites during our short stay here. Once settled in to our comfortable accommodation, we will explore the lodge grounds before dinner and then head out for a night walk in the forest to search for the abundant nocturnal wildlife. Mammals we will be hoping for include Red Giant Flying Squirrel, Philippine Slow Loris and the tiny Western Tarsier, probably the best site on the tour for viewing this highly sought after primate. Other species we will be looking for include Sunda Scops Owl and a whole host of reptiles and amphibians. Overnight Sepilok

Marbled Cat, Borneo by Phil Telfer

DAY 2: Full day exploring the Sepilok Forest Reserve
We will spend the full day exploring the forest and canopy walkway and forest trails starting with an early morning visit to the Rainforest Discovery Centre and its impressive solid canopy walkway. The real jackpot bird here is the endemic and striking Bornean Bristlehead. It has been seen many times from the walkway, but is completely random and we just need some good luck! Other species from the walkway may include numerous Hornbill species such as Rhinoceros, Black, Oriental Pied, Bushy-crested and White-crowned, raptors we will look for include Rufous-bellied Eagle and Wallace’s Hawk-Eagle and a good selection of other species such as Bornean Black Magpie, Rufous-collared Kingfisher, Blue-throated Bee-eater and Black-and-Yellow Broadbill to name just a few! A visit to the forest floor trails might reward us with species like Blue-headed Pitta, Black-crowned Pitta, Red-naped and Scarlet-rumped Trogons, White-bellied, Buff-rumped and Buff-necked Woodpeckers and maybe even the huge Great Slaty Woodpecker. After a wildlife filled start to the day birding in this wonderful forest, we return the short distance to the lodge for breakfast and then continue on to the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary. Here, we have the opportunity to enter the rainforest reserve and observe some of the Orangutans in their wild habitat. They are provided with daily supplementary food and this additional food is purposefully designed to be monotonous so as to encourage the apes to forage for themselves. Visitors can learn more about the conservation efforts being undertaken to protect this critically endangered species in the visitor information centre. These sites are all very close to our base so there is very little traveling and all are actually within walking distance. Another evening session in the forest should produce some more avian and mammal surprises! Overnight Sepilok

DAY 3: Transfer to Deramakot Forest Reserve
After a final morning birding around our accommodation grounds we will then head make our way to the town of Telupid on good roads for 2 hours and then another 2 hour drive along bumpy forest tracks until we arrive at Deramakot Forest Reserve. We will then take our first night drive looking for mammals! Overnight Deramakot Forest

Sunda Clouded Leopard, Borneo by Phil Telfer

DAYS 4 – 9: Deramakot Forest Reserve
During the next six days we will explore the now famous Deramakot Forest Reserve at night, as we will be spending most of our time spotlighting for mammals from open-topped 4-wheel trucks. The forest is considered the  jewel in the crown of the Sabah Forestry Department due to its amazing density of wildlife. The reserve is managed as a commercial forestry operation with the logging done highly selectively to the point where you can barely tell which areas have been logged recently and which have not. Over half of the reserve is lowland mixed Dipterocarp Forest, with the remaining area (including Kerangas Forest) part of a seasonal freshwater swamp forest. It covers an area of over 100,000 hectares along with the adjacent Tangkulap Reserve and is now famous for its astonishing mammal and bird diversity.

Colugo, Deramakot by Chris Townend

We will get into a routine of resting / exploring the lodge grounds during the day and then focusing on mammals during the night. We will average around 8 hours of night drives each night with some coffee breaks. Cats will be a big focus, and although Sunda Leopard Cats are to be expected, we simply have to put the time in when hoping to find the other cats. Marbled Cat, Flat-headed Cat and Sunda Clouded Leopard are all very possible, but we just need time in the field at night, determination and some luck!  Of course whilst looking for the very difficult cats, the other mammal species that can be found here is simply incredible. The commoner species we will be looking for include Common Palm Civet, Malay Civet, Bearded Pig, Red Giant Flying Squirrel and Thomas’ Flying Squirrel. Other species we could find include Banded Civet, Small-toothed Palm Civet,Otter Civet, Binturong, Sunda Stink Badger, Bornean Pygmy Elephant, Colugo, Black Flying Squirrel and even Malay Sun Bear. Although most of our time will be spent focused on night mammals, Deramakot also has an impressive bird list. Much of the day will be spent resting, so birds will not be our primary focus, but any time we do have should result in a small selection of species which may include a nice selection of Pigeons, Pittas, Leafbirds, Hornbills, Malkohas and Trogons. Overnight Deramakot Forest

DAY 10: Transfer to Kinabatangan River
After a final late night driving session from the previous night, we will return to the lodge for some rest and then transfer to our next lodge on the Kinabatangan River. We will arrive at the lodge by boat and we will see a number of great birds and mammals en route. The Kinabatangan River and the adjacent forest is particularly rich in primates and we should find Proboscis Monkeys and Long-tailed Macaques. Birds, as always, will be plentiful and we will be keeping an eye out for species such as White-bellied Sea Eagle and Great Crested Tern and numerous Hornbills including the enormous Rhinoceros Hornbill. After dinner, we will take the first of our night boat trips to focus on trying to see Flat-headed Cat. However, it is important to be aware that the key to seeing this difficult species is the water level. Of course, we have no control over this, but if the water levels are low then we can see further into the wet forest floor and increase our chances of finding this tricky feline! Of course there will be other mammals like Civets, Loris and maybe other cats to keep us interested! Overnight Kinabatangan River

DAY 11 – 12 : Full days exploring the Kinabatangan River
We will spend two full days exploring more of the Kinabatangan River by boat searching for birds as well as primates. Highlights should include species such as White-crowned Hornbill, Oriental Pied Hornbill, Wreathed Hornbill, Wrinkled Hornbill, Storm’s Stork, Diard’s Trogon as well as Silvered Langur, Maroon Langur, Bornean Gibbon and truly wild Bornean Orangutan. However, our key focus here will again be night boat trips searching in particular for the Flat-headed Cat. Our luck depends on the water level of the river and just how far back into the flooded forest you can see, but sightings here have been good in recent years. As always with cats, we just need a little bit of good fortune. Overnight Kinabatangan River

Maroon Langur at Danum Valley by Chris Townend

DAY 13: Transfer to Danum Valley
Today is mostly a travel day. After breakfast, we will then take the transfer of around 2.5 hours to Lahad Datu where we will have lunch. We will then travel another 3 hours until we reach our accommodation in Danum Valley, at the recently opened Langom Research Centre. Overnight Langom

Helmeted Hornbill in Danum Valley by Chris Townend

DAYS 14 & 15: Danum Valley Langhom
Nestled deep within Sabah’s famed Danum Valley Conservation Area, the newly inaugurated Langom Control Centre and Research Station marks a pivotal advancement in tropical rainforest research and conservation. This facility has been specifically built to bolster biodiversity studies, sustainable land management, environmental stewardship and eco-tourism. It offers good accommodation and fantastic habitat all within a short stroll from your room. We will explore this exciting new area both by day and night where we hope to find many of the most sought after mammals and birds of Borneo. Clouded Leopard, Marbled Cat and Sun Bear are all possible as well as the more expected mammals  such as binturong, banded civet, Malay civet, Porcupine, Western Tarsier, Philippine Slow Loris, Giant and Thomas’ Flying Squirrels, Greater & Lesser Mouse Deer and more.

Birds are also plentiful here with a great selection of hornbills, including Rhinoceros, Wreathed, Wrinkled, Helmeted and White-crowned as well as forest skulkers such as Black-crowned Pitta, Giant Pitta, Hooded Pitta, Blue-headed Pitta. Plus Rufous-backed Kingfisher, Great Slaty woodpecker, Maroon Woodpecker, Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot, Crested Goshawk, Changeable Hawk-eagle, Blyth’s Paradise Flycatcher, Great Argus, Red-bearded Bee-eater, Black-and-Red Broadbill, Yellow-and-Black Broadbill and much much more!

DAY 16: Transfer to Sandakan for our return flight back to Kula Lumpur and the UK.

Please note this is a flexible itinerary which may need to be adjusted slightly dependent on arrival / departure times, weather conditions and the most recent information from our local guides

Leaders: Wise Birding leader plus local guide throughout tour
Included in cost: Accommodation in twin en-suite rooms, all meals, bottled water, all entrance fees, boat trips, ground transport, internal flight and services of leaders
Not included in cost: International airfare, travel insurance, drinks other than water and any airport/visa fees
Single Supplement: £450
Transport: 4X4 open trucks
Difficulty: Easy – There is a not a great deal of walking on this tour as we will mostly be in vehicles or boats. However, do be prepared for some walking on sometimes muddy and slippery trails.
Climate: Hot and very humid and a wet tropical climate with rain typically falling as short heavy downpours in the late afternoon. For most of the tour temperatures ranging between night and day at around 24°C – 32°C.
Tour Start Point: Sandakan airport, Borneo
Tour End Point: Sandakan airport, Borneo
Suggested Airlines: Malaysia Airlines via Kula Lumpur

Boat cruise on the Kinabatangan River