Sambar Deer photographed at night grazing on the grassy padang next to the Maliau Basin Field Studies Center in Sabah. Sambar Deer are grazers rather than browsers i.e. they prefer grass to leaves but will eat almost anything that grows in the Borneo forests including bark, leaves and fruit. Sambar deer have been recorded frequently breaking into the plant nursery at Maliau to eat young Belian seedlings. See the article below.
Belian seedlings are common drift seeds and often wash up on beaches near river mouths in Borneo. These seeds were photographed on Pulau Maratua which is opposite the Berau river mouth in East Kalimantan.This massive ancient Belian tree (Borneo Ironwood) Eusiderxylon zwageri can be seen at the Imbak Canyon in Sabah. Anthea Phillipps shows the scale.Belian seedlings in the plant nursery at Maliau. Photo by Wilfred Madius TangauThe Maliau Basin Field Studies Centre in Central Sabah is surrounded bu lightly logged forest adjacent to the virgin forest within the Maliau Basin itself.
