Beastly Borneo

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I’ve been spell-bound by the thought of Borneo for many years. In my addled mind the very mention of the place conjures up images of steamy jungles, head-hunting tribes and bizarre beasts, so in June of this year I was quivering with excitement at the thought of visiting this mysterious island. We only visited Sabah, but I am glad to report that it was everything I expected and more, well, with the exception of the head-hunters.

Head-hunting is frowned upon today and the tribes who were once renowned for it limit themselves to dressing up for tourists and brandishing a blow-pipe. The rest of the time they get on with their normal lives often bedecked in Man-United shirts. At the merest whiff of a bus-load of fat tourists turning up they scamper for their homes to get into their tribal attire.

Anyway, tourist sights aside, there is a link below to some of the beasts that were espied in Sabah. There were a lot of vertebrates too, but let’s focus on inverts for the time being. Not all of the images have captions as I’m still trying to work out what some of them are.

Needless to say if animals are your thing then Sabah really is top drawer; a veritable hot-bed of animal diversity where natural selection has gone haywire.

Sabah invertebrates