An Enormous Bird Has a Real-Estate Problem
The mist hung heavy on the Kinabatangan River on the July morning I looked for helmeted hornbills, one of the most elusive and endangered birds in the world. Everything was wet from days of afternoon thunderstorms and late-night drizzles. The air smelled green and fresh, but with an underlying note of decay. The river, swollen by the unseasonably heavy rains, flowed swiftly and quietly.
In any other year, the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in Sabah, the Malaysian state on the northern tip of Borneo, would be abuzz with birdwatchers and backpackers. But Malaysia had closed its borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I was one of four guests at the only lodge near the sanctuary still open for business.
The sanctuary’s animals seemed to be enjoying the lull. During the past two days, I’d seen 15 elephants feeding and bathing by the river; three orangutans—one pregnant and one with a baby—sitting in a fig tree; scores of proboscis monkeys, showing their bulbous noses and red erect penises; and flocks of black hornbills, wrinkled hornbills, and bushy-crested hornbills. I’d been lucky, but so far not lucky enough to see a helmeted hornbill glide through the forest with its massive wings extended like a living dinosaur’s.
My guides led me along a narrow trail uphill through the forest. We stepped into muddy puddles—made by wild boars the night before—and squeezed between rocks, taking care to avoid the gaping holes that plunged into dark underground limestone caves. When we paused in a small clearing on a rocky hill, we were swarmed by mosquitoes.
Helson Hassan, one of my guides and a hornbill conservationist, pointed to a huge meranti tree. High on the thick trunk, more than a hundred feet from the ground, was a hole about the size of a basketball—a prized secret, and a source of hope, for Helson and his colleagues.
Helson’s team, led by the researcher Ravinder Kaur, studies hornbills and their nesting activities in the Kinabatangan sanctuary. During his daily rounds, Helson might scan the skies from a boat on the river; follow hornbill males as
