Night drives
Tabin Wildlife Reserve
A 122,500-hectare lowland reserve bordered by oil palm, Tabin is Sabah’s premier destination for night drives. The sharp forest edge concentrates small cats and civets along the boundary roads.
The wildlife
The plantation edge
Tabin’s regenerating lowland forest borders oil palm estates. The plantation edge attracts resident leopard cats and civets, making night drives the main attraction. Spotlighting also offers a chance to see a Sunda clouded leopard with luck. By day, trails lead to the Lipad mud volcano, where a Bornean pygmy elephant may visit the mineral lick in season.
The night drives are the primary reason to visit Tabin. Spotlighting from a private vehicle allows for 4 to 6 hours of continuous scanning at your own pace. Extended late-night drives regularly encounter Malay civets, small-toothed palm civets and the Sunda colugo clinging to vertical trunks.
Wildlife & highlights
What to expect
- Explore 122,500 hectares of regenerating lowland forest in eastern Sabah.
- Stay in a timber chalet beside the Lipad River.
- Spot leopard cats consistently along the dark plantation boundary edge.
- Join night drives spotlighting wildlife along the Tomanggong boundary road.
- Trek to the Lipad mud volcano to look for passing wildlife.
The Sunda Clouded Leopard
A clouded leopard is seen with luck on a night drive through the dense secondary growth, though Deramakot Forest Reserve offers statistically better sighting odds.
With Danum
Pairing Tabin with Danum
Tabin pairs exceptionally well with a stay at Danum Valley. Combining the deep ancient primary forest of Danum with the highly active plantation edge of Tabin creates a complete mammal-watching itinerary. See the combination itineraries for suggested day splits.
Getting there
Travel and health insurance is advised, and evacuation cover is sensible. Permits are arranged with the stay. AirBorneo operates daily flights to Lahad Datu, then it is an overland transfer. See getting there.
Related
Keep planning
Danum Valley
2.5 hours by road from Lahad Datu, Danum Valley is 438 square kilometres of lowland rainforest that was never logged with three very different places to stay inside it.
Sepilok
25 kilometres west of Sandakan, the Sepilok complex holds Sabah's principal orangutan and sun bear rehabilitation centres, set on the edge of a protected dipterocarp forest reserve.
What Happened to the Borneo Rhino
The extinction of the Bornean rhinoceros in Malaysia is a biological tragedy that conservationists are now using as a blueprint to save Saba
Tabin Wildlife Resort
An hour and a half from Lahad Datu, Tabin Wildlife Resort is a collection of 18 timber chalets on the Lipad River. It suits wildlife travellers and photographers seeking productive night drives and small cats.
Utan Rainforest Lodge
Situated 2.5 hours from Lahad Datu, Utan Rainforest Lodge offers a 14-room wilderness base between the dipterocarp forest and coastal mangroves.
The wildlife
Enquire directly
Send the team your dates, group size and birding or night spotlighting interests so they can arrange private vehicle upgrades and specialist guides.