Borneo Wildlife Holidays
A clearing of pale cracked mud inside lowland rainforest, vapour rising from the surface in late afternoon light.

Sabah · East coast

Tabin

Forest that was logged, left alone, and grew back full of animals.

Tabin sits in the middle of the Dent Peninsula, north-east of Lahad Datu, between the lower Segama River and the Silabukan Forest Reserve: roughly a hundred and twenty thousand hectares, which makes it the largest wildlife reserve in Sabah. It was gazetted in 1984, and unusually it was gazetted for the animals rather than the trees.

Most of it is regenerating lowland dipterocarp forest, and that turns out to matter. A forest coming back thick and low is easier to see into than old-growth, and it suits the species that like an edge. Nine primates are present, three of the cats, and more than three hundred bird species have been recorded, enough for the reserve to be listed as an Important Bird Area.

The thing Tabin is really known for is its mud volcanoes. They are active, the mud is mineral-rich, and animals come to them for the salt. The result is a bare open clearing in the middle of closed forest, with a watchtower at the edge of it, and a set of tracks in the mud each morning that tell you exactly what walked through in the night. It is the closest thing in Sabah to wildlife coming to you rather than the other way round, which is why photographers keep going back.

It is also the most comfortable of our interior destinations. You stay in a timber lodge with a private balcony and hot water rather than a research station. Pleasant, and not the reason to come. The reason to come is the mud volcano at dusk, the birding towers at dawn, and a guide who takes no more than five people at a time.

Speak to a specialist

Alvin Wong

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Tabin works well as three or four nights inside a longer Sabah journey, and it pairs naturally with the Kinabatangan. Tell Alvin your dates and what you are hoping to photograph or record, and he will build it around that.

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Why it is different

~120,000 ha
Sabah’s largest wildlife reserve About 300,000 acres across the centre of the Dent Peninsula. Inno’s own published figure, converted.
Since 1984
Gazetted as a wildlife reserve Declared for the animals in it, not for the timber. The Sabah Wildlife Department is custodian of the wildlife; Forestry of the trees.
IBA MY027
Listed Important Bird Area More than 300 bird species recorded across four families.
Five per guide
Maximum party on a walk Inno’s own stated ratio, set to keep the pressure on the wildlife low.

The shape of a four-day stay

Days at Tabin follow the animals rather than the clock: early, late, and quiet in the middle. Nights can be added and the balance shifted towards birds, mammals or photography.

  1. Day one — In from Lahad Datu, and the mud volcano

    Road transfer from Lahad Datu into the reserve and into your lodge. In the afternoon, the walk along the elephant trail to the active Lipad mud volcano, where the first job is reading the footprints. After dinner, a night drive for the nocturnal species.

  2. Day two — Birds at dawn, the waterfall by day

    An early bird walk, then a drive towards the core area and up the birding tower, and a walk through to the Lipad waterfall, where you can swim. A dusk drive as the light goes, and a night walk on the trails near the lodge afterwards.

  3. Day three — Slowly

    Walks near the lodge morning and afternoon, with the middle of the day free, which in this heat is not laziness but strategy. Another night drive after dinner, on a different loop.

  4. Day four — Out

    A last bird walk at first light, then the transfer back to Lahad Datu for onward flights. Most guests continue to the Kinabatangan or into the interior.

Most of our guests spend eleven to seventeen days in Sabah in total, with Tabin as one chapter. See how a longer journey fits together.

Before you come

Getting there
Fly from Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu, then road transfer into the reserve. It is the most straightforward access of any of our interior destinations.
Where you stay
Tabin Wildlife Resort, which opened in 2004: twenty timber lodges, ten by the Lipad river and ten on the hillside. Rooms have an en-suite bathroom with hot water, air conditioning, a ceiling fan and a private balcony over the forest or the river.
Wildlife

Nine primate species, three of Sabah’s cats and over three hundred birds have been recorded here, and the mud volcanoes concentrate a good deal of it into one clearing.

This is wild forest and every sighting is a matter of patience and luck. We do not promise particular animals — anyone who does is not being straight with you. What we will do is put you in the right place at the right hour with someone who knows what they are looking at.

Walking
Undemanding by the standards of the interior. Trails are short, mostly flat and often on road, and the drives do a lot of the work. Tabin is the destination we suggest when someone wants serious wildlife without serious trekking.

Often combined with

Tabin in pictures

Go and see it

Tell us roughly when you would like to travel and how long you have. We will come back to you with a suggested route through Sabah and what it costs.

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