Critically EndangeredGiant Clam
Tridacna gigas
Asia
Brunei is a small country on the northern coast of Borneo that keeps a far higher proportion of primary rainforest than its neighbours, around two thirds of its territory, largely because its economy has been based on oil and not on timber or oil palm. Ulu Temburong park, reachable only by river, protects intact dipterocarp rainforest and has a steel walkway that climbs to the canopy, more than forty metres above the ground, for the study of life in the trees. Brunei bay and the Temburong estuary keep extensive mangroves and flooded forest where proboscis monkeys are easily watched. The country is one of the three signatories of the transboundary initiative to protect the Heart of Borneo.
National animal: No official national animal; the proboscis monkey is the country's emblematic species
In the proboscis monkey, found only on Borneo, the males have a pendulous nose that can exceed ten centimetres and that acts as a sounding box to amplify their calls and attract females. It is also the best swimmer of all the primates: it has partially webbed digits and crosses the rivers by swimming or by leaping from the trees, sometimes to escape crocodiles.
Brunei maintains one of the lowest deforestation rates in South-East Asia and has committed a good part of its territory to the Heart of Borneo initiative, together with Malaysia and Indonesia, to maintain a continuous transboundary block of forest.
The Temburong estuary at dusk by boat for proboscis monkeys. Ulu Temburong at dawn from the canopy walkway. The Selirong mangroves for coastal birds and monitor lizards.
199 species found
Based on what we already know about Brunei.
