Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary

In the mid-1990s an oil palm planter clearing land at Labuk Bay found a troop of proboscis monkeys in the mangrove on his estate, stopped clearing that part, and over time turned about four hundred acres into a sanctuary with feeding platforms - which is the origin of the place and which frames what it is: a fragment of habitat kept inside a plantation, with the animals fed to keep them there. Proboscis monkeys are endemic to Borneo and hard to see, so the platforms deliver reliable close views of a species most visitors would otherwise miss, with the large-nosed males and the troops of females and young. Silvered langurs come to the same platforms and oriental pied hornbills to the feeders. The feeding is exactly the compromise it looks like, and opinion among conservationists is divided; the sanctuary is at least honest about how it began.

The landscape

• Proboscis monkeys at close range - at platforms, fed at fixed times.
• Habitat inside a plantation - four hundred acres kept when clearing stopped.
• Silvered langurs and hornbills - coming to the same feeding areas.
• A candid origin story - a planter who found monkeys and did not cut the trees.

When to go

February to October; feeding times fixed daily. Half a day.

Good to know

The monkeys are fed to keep them present, which is a real compromise and divides conservation opinion. Feeding times are fixed and the platforms are crowded. Do not touch or approach the animals.

Nearby

Sepilok and the Rainforest Discovery Centre are south; Sandakan is east.