GEODIVERSITY ..........................................................................................................................................................
Mulu’s Geo-diversity

Vertical cliffs and incredibly steep slopes reach summit ridges
before dropping abruptly down to deep gorges and hidden valleys.

Jagged limestone pinnacles, bleached white, spear out of the lush green canopy.

Cave passages twist and wind their way through the mountains, opening into chambers
so large they defy description and dwarf you into insignificance.

In landscapes like these, to understand what we see today, we must look to the past.

Many, many millions of years ago, new mountains pushed high above the earth’s surface were rapidly eroded by the heavy tropical rains. Eroding rock produced grains of quartzite sand, which were carried by rivers from the mountains into the sea. Here it settled over time to form layers of sandstone. Again, the earth moved and its surface buckled and lifted, and so, the island of Borneo was created.

In an ancient sea teeming with sea life, coral reefs developed to form lagoons between the reefs and this new island. Some 40 million years ago, these lagoons began to fill with layer upon layer of minute sea shells which compressed over the next 20 million years to become a layer of 1,500 metre thick limestone. 

When the movement of the Australian and Asian landmasses caused the earth’s surface to buckle and fold about 5 million years ago, the land lifted once more. Tilting and cracking, the layers of limestone and sandstone were pushed up to create the mountains of Mulu.

The relentless process of weathering by the elements of rain and time now began to shape the landscape we see today.

Although limestone forms in sea-water, it has two very special features - it is porous, and it dissolves in fresh-water.  As the rain falls on these limestone mountains, it passes through the soil and into the limestone itself through very small pores and cracks. Seeping and trickling through the limestone, the water gradually dissolves the rock, making these pores and cracks larger and larger to create a remarkable series of cave chambers and passages.

And here at Mulu you’ll find, the biggest caves in the world

BIODIVERSITY .............................................................................................................................................................

In Mulu, the heart of wondrous Borneo, you will be amazed by the rainforest around you.  In the humid heat, plant life flourishes everywhere.  Many thousands of species of ferns, mosses and flowering plants along with thousands of species of fungi thrive in this complex habitat.

52,000 Hectares of spectacular equatorial rainforest presents visitors to Gunung Mulu World Heritage Area with an outstanding diversity of flora and fauna.  This is home to many fauna species from the world’s smallest mammal the Savi Pigmy Shrew to some of the largest insects on Earth.  In the dense foliage secretive macaques, bearded pig, moon rats hide, blending in so well that we rarely see them.

Forest types

Look up at the tall towering trees blocking out the sky with their dense canopy.  Richly coloured butterflies glide among trees entwined with lianas, ferns and orchids.  The ground is a thick mat of leaves and fresh new seedlings struggling to find their own space.  The heartbeat of life is all around you, plants and animals, living, eating and dying.

Strangler figs, spread by fruit-eating birds, begin life germinating high in the canopy.  Growing quickly in the sunlight this parasitic plant creeps down and around the host tree.  Becoming larger and stronger and clinging to every surface available, strangling the tree in its death grip.  Finally, the tree will die and rot away, leaving the fig standing as a shell of the tree’s former shape.

Watch out for the rattan, a thorny vine reaching for the sun, it entwines its way for up to 100 metres through the trees.  An important plant for local people used in weaving but for the unwary, it’s a painful meeting.

 

MEET THE PEOPLE OF MULU ..........................................................................................................................................

Lun Bawang, Murut and Iban to the north, Kelabit in the south east, Berawan and Penan to the south and some nomadic Penan within the boundaries of the park; all have lived in this rainforest since time began.

Here in the mountains the local people are known as Orang Ulu, ‘up river’ people.  They are a diverse group of many cultures – Kayan, Kenyah, Berawan, Penan, with a remarkable understanding of the rainforest, they have used for generations for their food, medicines, tool making and building shelters.  Today this deep connection to the land still exists in the heart of the people of Mulu. 

Three longhouses are found close to Park Head quarters – the Penan communities at Batu Bungan and Long Iman and Berawan at Long Terawan.