@ralph Indeed! We stopped on one of the tributaries of the Kinabatangan known for Oriental bay owl at night to look for them. Once we heard one, our guide Romzi and we started going into the forest and we found the civet unexpectedly while following the bay owl sound. It was completely unbothered by us and looked at us for a bit before scurrying away slowly deeper in the forest. Sadly this is the only decent shot I could manage (but the face is blurry).
A few metres after, we had visual on our first (of two seen) bay owl. We heard at least 5 of them on that same tributary. Kinabatangan is a very special place!
Bay owls are really cool. I got lucky and got some great views of a wild one in Thailand in 2023.
For this year, I'm planning a trip to Malaysia/Borneo (and Singapore), and it's likely I'll be including Kinabatangan.
Will most likely do some night walks/cruises as well, and hopefully I get to see some cool nocturnal mammals.
@ralph For sure a lucky sighting. It's the only one we saw during the trip and the only one I've seen in my life though I've only been to Sumatra and a single day each in Bukit Tinggi in mainland Malaysia and Jakarta in all of SEA.
Would definitely recommend Romzi if you need a guide for Kinabatangan! He has his own boat which makes wildlife-watching easier than going with the boat tours that the hotels surrounding the river offer (which are generally targeted for generic tourists so won't stop at random birds or small mammals). He also makes your chances of seeing a Bornean ground cuckoo much more likely as he knows the spots for the species very well (though they're now easier to see at a hide in Sungai Kapur near Tabin).
Thanks for the report. I'll have to read it more thouroughly when I have the time, but for now, I've skimmed over the part about Kinabatangan.
My itinerary is not set in stone yet. I'll land in Kuala Lumpur and depart from Singapore, but everthing else is still open. Right now, I am considering flying to Sandakan after spending 2 days in/around KL, visit the Rainforest Discovery Center, travel to Sukau spend a few days around the Kinabatangan, then fly to Kuching to do a few days of Bako NP, and then return to the mainland and spend the final days in Singapore.
Danum Valley seems to demand just a bit too much of our budget though.
I found a few organised trips online that offer transportation, accomodation, food and a bunch of wildlife tours at Kinabatangan for an affortable prize. However, those won't be personalized and I might be better of organising everything myself seperately. One step would be finding the right tour guide, but it seems like you already pointed me in the right direction.
Like every 'normal' tourist, I also want to see proboscis monkeys, orangutans and elephants, but I am also interested in seeing the more obscure species, like the ground cuckoo you mentioned.
It seems like you've spotted a lot of the species that I want to see. Besides the big 3 (proboscis, orang, elephant) I am also eager to see multiple hornbill species; wrinkled, white-crowned, black, bushy-crested, rhinoceros and (very unlikely) helmeted. (I've already seen wreathed and pied in Thailand). Another bird species that would be a main target is the Storms stork, which you've seen as well! Borneon gibbons would be nice, as would any other primate species that is not the long-tailed macaque! And ofcourse, any nocturnal mammal (civet, loris etc) would be a highlight.
