Gomantong Caves, Sabah Borneo.

The edible birds nests of Swiftlets living in the limestone cave systems of Gomantong on the North East side of Borneo have made this area incredibly valuable and world famous.

The area is now a forest reserve encompassing nine caves. Many other endangered species live in this protected area including the Orangutan and Probosis Monkey, whilst walking to the cave we saw many rare birds, including the Asian Paradise Flycatcher, please visit our Borneo Birds section in Photo Collections.

The Cave Swiflets that live here in the thousands make two types of nest, commonly referred to as white nests and black nests, both are edible and they are used to make the Chinese delicacy Birds Nest Soup. White nests are less labour extensive to prepare for the dish as they are composed almost entirely of the birds saliva. The black nests also contain feathers and twigs so more preparation is required before they are ready for human consumption.

It is said that the Chinese have been eating Birds nest Soup for some 400 years, infact some reports even date back 1000 years, how reliable these are we are not sure. Needless to say the tradition of nest collecting dates back a long time.

The spit nests are thought to contain remarkable nutritional ingredients, however recent chemical analysis of the properties reveal virtually no nutritional value at all. This said, gram for gram they are still the most expensive food item in the world.

Only one cave Simud Hitam is open to the public. During harvest time, men risk their lives climbing on rattan ladders to heights of 90m collecting the nests.

It is said that harvesting is strictly controlled by the Wildlife Department to ensure sustainability.

Harvesting takes place twice per year and workers live in the wooden huts close to and inside the cave itself. When they are not harvesting groups take it in turns by staying for 10 days at a time to guard the caves.



Inside the cave the floor is alive with cockroaches, centipedes and scorpions feeding on the bird bat guano. Fortuantely a wooden walkway runs along the sides of the cave, so the little critters are kept safe.




For more images of Gomantong Caves and the surrounding area of Kinabatangan please visit our Photo Collections section.