Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary - Entrance — Local services in Borneo

Needs improvement Owned by palm oil companies

The proboscis monkey sanctuary at RM60 is double the price of the Orangutan and sun bear sanctuaries, does this mean you get double the experience..... Sadly not!

This attraction is very overpriced for what you get, realistically entry should be RM20 (This is the value of the sanctuary)

There are no information boards, telling you about the species, you get to see the proboscis monkeys but you won't learn anything about them here. I was very disappointed with this as the Orangutan and sun bear sanctuaries in sepilok were fantastic and informative.

There is absolutely no information about the sanctuary, there work, what they do at the sanctuary how they help protect the proboscis monkey species. In fact there is little evidence of this being any kind of sanctuary it feels more like the last little bit of forest nestled between palm oil plantations where monkeys are forced to live as the rest of there native forest has been destroyed.

The set up is very basic and it doesn't feel like any of the high price tag of this attraction is going back to help protect and care for this species.

You have a long wait between feeding times with nothing to do, there is a very short board walk which is uneventful and poorly maintained

I wouldn't recommend this place, the other sanctuaries I felt were doing good and helping protect animals, this places does not feel like that. It feels like they just feed wild monkeys to gain money from tourists. Feeding wild monkeys is training them to be reliant on humans instead of finding there own food.... Sadly I feel this place is doing more...

Labuk Bay Proboscis monkey sanctuary is situated in a palm oil plantation. While the name goes by sanctuary, we can't be sure by the looks of it. What we know is that there are two platforms - A and B with different feeding hours; twice a day at each.

There were no proboscis monkey related information of any sort available on the platforms, or any effort for monkey rehabilitation seemingly. Making the entrance fee of rm15 quite a stretch really compared to Borneo Sun bear Conservation centre and Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation centre as both of these centres actually run rehab programs for the respective animals along with many other works.

We attended a feeding session (japanese cucumbers!) and was able to see quite a big rowdy bunch of them in close distance - alpha males, males, females w babies. They make a distinctive 'oh uh' sound and were not aggressive to us.

Labuk Bay Proboscis monkey sanctuary is quite a distance from Sandakan town, it takes almost 50mins to an hour by car. Hence we would advise those who are self-driving to pay a short visit on the way towards Sandakan town from KK / Sandakan / Check Point; OR on the way out from Sandakan. Else it's not worth the time to drive all the way from town just to spend a mere 10mins+ w...

Struggling how to rate this place if I’m honest.

The sanctuary is actually an undeveloped area of a palm oil plantation that has seemingly destroyed the majority of the animals natural habitat and is now profiting from the few remaining monkeys by charging entry.

You can access the site by car only. You arrive to the plantation and pay 60RM each for entry which is considerably more than the far more worthy Orangutan and Sunbear rehabilitation centres. Card payments are accepted.

Aside from the viewing platform there is very little else to do. From the map it looks like a large walkable resort but it is actually a working plantation and you wouldn’t want to spend the day exploring.

From the platform we did see a large hornbill and a number of eagles. At feeding time the workers dump a large bucket of bread on the platforms to attract the proboscis monkeys. We saw many and they are absolutely amazing creatures. It was incredible to see them up close.

I loved the animals but the attraction itself was sad and I wouldn’t recommend it to others. It would be much better to visit these animals in their natural environment or to visit the other sanctuaries in Sepilok that are working hard to protect Borneo and the animals...