The guide clumsily steers the speedboat, and the boat glides on the water. A heavy rain made the Kinabatangan River even more turbid, and the ship's propellers rolled up a foul smell. The jungle on both sides of the river became more and more verdant after the rain, and the dense branches stretched out to the sky on the river to seize a wider territory. There was no wind on the river, but the canopy of the trees was moving, and the sound of "rushing" was constantly emitted, and even the sound of the speedboat motor could not be concealed. Staring at a cluster of trees without blinking, the branch was really stretching out in all directions, and then intertwined with other dense leaves that were also stretching, so that the sight was lost in the endless thick green, and could no longer be focused.
Kinabatangan River is located in the Sandakan region of Sabah
Winding 560 kilometres from its foothill source in southwest sabah to the Sulu Sea, the Kinabatangan River runs between Borneo and blends with the dense rainforests that nurture the world's richest biodiversity. She is the second longest river in Malaysia, and like the bottomless rainforest, the yellow and calm water throbbing with life like blood flowing in a beating pulse, and the Kinabatangan River is the origin of life in Borneo (the sandakan part).
Kinabatangan River is the second longest river in Malaysia and the most species-rich river
Robert, an American in the front seat, reached into the river as the speedboat tilted, "Robert, get your hands out!" "Immediately there was a clumsy and stern cry from the stern of the ship, and Robert withdrew his hand in embarrassment." If you still want your hand. Clumsy added, pointing toward the river, only to see a dead piece of wood floating on the surface of the water, drifting in the direction of the boat by the current, getting closer and closer, and then sinking. Stupid suddenly accelerated, driving the boat a few hundred meters away before slowing down. He moved the boat a little closer to the riverbank ahead, and pointed to the shore again, and on the muddy bank was also a piece of rotten wood, and the river kept pouring into the wood, almost merging it with the riverbed. At this moment, the wood came alive, and it plunged into the river and swam quickly toward us——
Estuarine crocodile, this terrifying creature has existed in this form since the Late Miocene, dominating the top of the food chain for tens of millions of years. As the world's largest crocodile, the male bay crocodile can reach 6 meters in length, weigh more than 1 ton, and has the strongest bite force on the surface of 16460 Newtons. Bay crocodiles prey on prey by ambushing prey in the water, dragging them into the water and drowning, their recipes are so extensive that this crocodile can even swim into the sea, hence the name saltwater crocodile, and the bull shark has also fallen prey to them. This is undoubtedly the most ferocious creature in the world. The bay crocodile sinks into the water, and the turbid river water is its best cover.
The Bay Crocodile, the world's largest crocodile, has an unparalleled bite force, can attack all living things including humans, and can adapt to fresh and salty water
On the canopy on both sides of the river, proboscis monkeys and long-tailed macaques leap through the green shadows, occasionally making shrill warning sounds. Looking around, there are many "dead woods" floating on the river, and the bay crocodile is swimming around with a tiger's eye, waiting for the monkeys who carelessly fall into the water, and maybe us on the boat...
The bay crocodile floating on the surface of the water is like a driftwood, and the guide will drive the boat away when it sees it, because the bay crocodile can jump out of the water
"If you've only seen the rainforests of Borneo, then you haven't really been to Borneo." Before getting on the boat, Stupid said so. For this mysterious land, even the clumsy person who grew up here and made his home is ignorant: her dense forest is a space that is difficult for the world's top explorers to survive and cross, and her river is as expressionless as a dead desert, but the combination of the two has bred the most diverse life in the world. She is the embodiment of Gaia, but in the guise of Medusa.
Borneo is home to proboscis monkeys, and after rains you can see many proboscis monkeys in the Kinabatangan River, which feed on leaves and do not eat fruit
A gust of wind blows, the rainforest and the river ripple at the same time, the wind is like a huge hand stirring the hidden creatures, for a time, the green waves churn, apes jump in the forest, insects and birds fly together, fish jump on the water; the sunlight hidden behind the dense forest is slashed into thousands of pieces by the waving sharp branches and leaves into the river, swallowed by the yellow, and then regained by the pulsating life to piece together its brilliance - the rainforest and the river are entangled with each other, blurring the boundaries, the rainforest is a green river, the river is a yellow rainforest.
Male proboscis monkeys in trees, male proboscis monkeys have a large nose, while females have much smaller noses, and the larger the male nose, the easier it is to attract females
Long-tailed macaques, monkeys scratching each other is actually looking for salt on each other
Clumsy drove the boat into a riverbank with more dense vegetation, the high grass reeds trembling violently, a huge gray head protruding out of the grass, two large fan-like ears fanning leisurely, long noses rolling grass, constantly sending into the mouth, and the raised nose pulled the muscles of the mouth, as if smiling.
The Bornean dwarf elephant, the smallest elephant in the world, has a more docile temperament than other Asian and African elephants
The wet air was filled with the earthy smell of grass, and it was the smell of near-joy, and I covered my mouth, but my eyes screamed. Pygmy elephant, I met a pygmy elephant!! As one of borneo's rarest endemic animals, pygmy elephants inhabit only northeastern Borneo. It is a subspecies of the Asian elephant, but also the smallest elephant in the world, the largest adult male elephant is no more than 2.8 meters tall, weighs less than 3 tons, relative to the largest African adult bull elephant on land (more than 4 meters tall, weighing more than 8 tons) is really a real "dwarf". A pair of large ears appeared in the grass, and the huge size was too big compared to the "small" skull, and all the people in our boat sat still in the boat at a loss, not even daring to move their fingers, and this precious moment was so fragile that it shattered when touched.
The dwarf elephant slowly emerges from the grass, the adult female elephant walks in front, the young elephant is sandwiched in the middle, and like the Asian elephant, the dwarf elephant is also a matriarchal society, but beyond that, little is known about the dwarf elephant. This rare and mysterious animal was listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List in 1986, and the population of pygmy elephants is declining as Borneo's rainforests degrade, fragment and hunt illegally. In 2008, the number of pygmy elephants was estimated at 1184-3652, occupying only 250-400 square kilometers of habitat. Regarding the origin of the species of pygmy elephants, some believe that captive elephants were donated by the East India Company to the Sultan of Sulu in 1750 and later released into the Borneo rainforest, but DNA analysis of the Borneo pygmy elephants shows that the Borneo pygmy elephants evolved from the Songdek elephant herd, is a native species of Borneo, and that hundreds of years are far less than a blink of an eye for the evolution of species, and further DNA research also shows that the pygmy elephants have been isolated from their close relatives on the Asian continent and Sumatra 300,000 years ago. It is the result of the miniaturization of the island effect. Whatever the truth of the matter, nature has its own laws, and in the 4 billion years of her life, she has created countless lives and witnessed their birth and demise. In the almost cruel evolution, adhering to the axiom of survival of the fittest, but also maintaining its own secrets. She allows any kind of creature to watch and explore her secrets, but she must not interfere, she arranges all beings in the form of domino cards and places them in the right place, and the fall of any card will cause a harsh chain reaction, so that in the diverse biosphere, life can perform its own duties and coexist for mutual benefit and even live forever. Five dwarf elephants lined up, probing the slippery slope with their front feet, and taking small and cautious steps down to the riverbank, until they seemed relieved to enter the water and began to play with the water recklessly. Elephants' longboouts are natural snorkeling respirators, which place their noses on the surface of the water, dive into the water, maintain their original formation and slowly swim towards the other side of the river, and then disappear into the bushes on the other side.
The "snorkeling" of the pygmy elephant, the long nose is a natural snorkeling tool
Our speedboats sped across the river, proboscis monkeys between the trees on both sides of the river, and the bay crocodiles in the water were still staring at each other, and at a certain moment, all of this suddenly produced a sense of intimacy that could be trusted. The wild nature of Borneo seems to be permeated with a kind of humanity, or whether there is still a memory of this wildness in the genes of Homo sapiens, so the two have a wonderful resonance under this scene. I think of the last scene in Tarzan of the Apes, where Jenny, encouraged by her father, jumps off the boat and swims to the primeval forest with her beloved Tarzan, and the scene of returning to nature corresponds to the state of mind at this moment. In this yellow rainforest, in this green river, people can see themselves more clearly and find their place and belonging in nature.
Kinabadang River Secret Realm