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Kinabatangan Wetlands - Proboscis Monkeys of Borneo
 Sukau
has long captured the imagination of visitors. It forest are believed
to be some of the oldest in the world and it is home to countless plants and
animals seen nowhere else in the world. An example is the remarkable
proboscis monkey with its undeniably distinctive nose.
First Impressions
When anybody sees a
proboscis monkey in the wild for the first time, they are staggered.
Not uncommonly, they make a remark such as "I don't believe that
animal!". Even seeing them in zoos is not enough to prepare one for
seeing these extraordinary animals in their natural habitat, with all the
noise and spectacle involved.
What Are Proboscis
Monkey?
Proboscis monkeys
belong to the group of animals called Primates. Unlike may other group
of animals, you cannot point to one particular feature of a primate and say
right, that is what makes this animal a primate. Most or all primates have
hands and feet well adapted for grasping objects, with separated and very
mobile fingers and toes, and nails rather than claws.
The order to Primates
includes humans, as well as apes, all monkeys, and a group of smaller,
generally nocturnal animals known as prosimians.
Where Are They
Found?
The only place in the
world where proboscis monkeys occur is the island of Borneo in South-East
Asia, and they are not even found throughout all of Borneo. They are
forest-dwellers and are limited mainly to coastal swamp forests and to
forests next to large rivers, again, generally not far inland. Even
more limiting, they are not found in all areas of coastal swamp
forest. These swamps mainly comprise mangrove and pear swamp forests.
Nobody knows why
proboscis monkeys have such a very limited distribution, and why they are
not found in the vast tracts of rainforest throughout inland Borneo...
 Sukau
provides the best sighting of proboscis monkeys, where they can be viewed
from a very near distance and are well adopted to visitors and some of them
actually like to pose or show off.... for visitors!
Social Life
Proboscis monkey do
have a set of social system, but it is more flexible and possibly more
subtle, than that of many other primates. They live in harems which
are a group containing only ONE male, one to eight females and their off
springs, the average harem size being about nine animals. One of the
most AMAZING feature of these monkey is their social life where the male has
a 24 hours erection...!
Find Out More!
Interesting? You must
come and visit these monkeys at Sukau and will almost certainly be both
exciting and entertaining. A very good book of Prosboscis Monkey by
Authors Elizabeth Bennett and Francis Gombek is also available from Natural
History Publications (Borneo) Sdn. Bhd. and they could be contacted
at: Tel:+6088-233098 Fax: +6088-240768 email:chewlun@tm.net.my
Source: The Proboscis
Monkey of Borneo by Elizabeh Bennett and Francis Gombek.
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