Gomantong Caves, Sabah

Accessible via roads in less than 2 hours' drive, 110km from Sandakan are home to millions of swiftlets and bats. Gomantong is one cave that is definitely worth a visit but one must make sure that the visit coincides with the harvesting seasons of the birds' nest which happen to be in the months of February, April, August and December after the young swiftlets have abandoned the nests. Gomantong caves have been the place for collecting edible bird nest for centuries and before any regulations were put in place, harvesting of birds' nest in the caves was managed by families on a rotational basis and their rights was inherited and passed down for generations. These day, the permit was issued by Wildlife department based on tenders. Heavy fines are imposed for unlicensed collection and during non-harvesting seasons, guards are posted to keep poachers from entering the caves.

Rest House for workers

Cave Entrance

This cave is known as Simud Hitam ( Black Cave ). Nests collected are of poorer quality and as the name of the cave implies, black nests are collected mostly from this cave.

Some 90m up from this cave is another called Simud Putih ( White Cave ). The prized white nests are found here.

Noticed that a couple of huts located inside and outside the caves. They were guard houses to keep poachers or thieves from entering the caves.

We stayed until dusk to see the daily mass exodus of bats set out from the caves on their hunt for food. Weaving like a ribbon in the wind producing an intense hum, sound that can be heard for miles. Raptors can be seen perched on treetops or capturing their prey in mid-air. It was a sight to see and lasted about an hour.

Niah Caves, Sarawak

Accessible via road in less than 2 hours, 120km from Miri. The cave is where prehistorical human remains found dating 40,000 years ago. The cave was one of the largest producer of "black nest" in Sarawak with annual nest yields of 18,500kg in 1931 and the swiftlet populations was in the range of 1.7millions in 1935.

Arrived at Niah National Park.

Took a short boat ride to cross the river.

Took a long plankwalk to the caves main entrance.

Traders Cave is a long low cave with old trading stalls made out of Belian wood, some of them nearly 100 years old.

Main cave

Look out for the swiftlets living in the ceilings of the cave. Some parts of the cave have low ceilings, spotted some swiftlets as well as bats resting during the day here. Picture above shows the hanging sticks left for climbing and harvesting the nests in the ceilings of the cave.

Going back to the past, from cities to caves for swiftlets..

Swiftlets nest from caves had been farmed commercially in Malaysia for over more than 100 years and Niah caves of Sarawak is the first ever recorded for such activity since 1878. Some species of swiftlets are said to have moved from caves to other areas for more than 100 years, so in order for me to to gain a better understanding of how they survive in the past and present environment, I've started my journey into caves by flight, boat, car and foot. Along the trail, I was on the lookout for anything new not on our list that might throw light on the characteristic of the species.