Interesting Facts and Trivia about Sabah

Sabah

Sabah's nickname is "Land beneath the Wind" due to its location, which is just below the typhoon and monsoon belt of South East Asia. This means that most of the time Sabah is spared from the damaged by typhoon.
 

Sabah is the second largest state in Malaysia after Sarawak with total land mass of 28,417 square miles (73,600 sq. km).
 

Sabah gets its name from a banana tree called 'Pisang Sabaa', which grows in abundance along its west coast area.
 

Sabah is Malaysia top producer of petroleum and gas, palm oil, rubber and cocoa.
 

The first series for the world famous Survivor TV series(U.S. version), "Survivor: Borneo" was shoot on location at Pulau Tiga, Sabah, Malaysia.
 

Alocasia Macrorrhiza also known as Upright Elephant Ears, which have one of the largest undivided leaves in the world is from Sabah. The largest measurement on record was at 9" 11' (3.0 meters) long, 6" 38' (1.92 meters) wide and with a surface area of 34.12 sq. ft. (3.17 sq. m.) was found in 1966.
 

Sabah is home to the second largest gecko in the world, called the Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko) which measures at 11-15 inches(30-40 cm) for males. It is said that Tokay gecko derives its name from the very loud vocalizations that it makes during mating which sound very much like "tooh-kay".
 

Kinabalu National Park (or Taman Negara Kinabalu in the Malay language) was the first national parks set-up in Malaysia in 1964.
 

Kinabalu National Park is also Malaysia's first World Heritage Site designated by UNESCO in December 2000.
 

Within Kinabalu National Park, there are estimated to have more than 4,500 species of flora and fauna, including 326 bird and around 100 mammal species.

Tarsier, the world smallest primates are native to the Borneo Island.
 

The Borneo tropical rainforest is about 130 million years old, making it one of the oldest tropical rainforest in the world.
 

The Proboscis Monkeys is native to the Borneo Island .
 

Sabah is home to the Borneo Pygmy Elephant, the world's smallest elephant. The Pygmy elephant of Borneo is a sub-species of the Asian elephant, which have a more rounded appearance and are smaller in size than their mainland cousins.
 

The largest Island in Malaysia at 1141 square miles (440.7 km sq) is Banggi Island, which is located at the northern part of Sabah, near the Marudu Bay.
 

The longest river in Sabah is the Kinabatangan River, which originated from the Crocker Range and flows down 350 mile (560km) to the mangrove swamp estuary and into the Sulu Sea.
 

Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre is the first official orangutan sanctuary and rehabilitation centre in the world which is setup in 1964.
 

The greatest diversity of specimen in a dipterocarp forest can be found in Sabah at Danum Valley with 155 distinct dipterocarp species on records. For the record, Danum Valley is also the largest remaining area of undisturbed lowland dipterocarb forest in the world and home to more than 340 species of birds, 124 species of mammals, 72 species of reptiles and 56 species of amphibians.
 

Tanjung Pelepas Port in Sabah breaks the world record for berth productivity in May 2004 when it recorded 340 gross berth moves per hour.
 

Tun Mustapha Tower (formerly Sabah Foundation Building) at Likas Bay is the tallest man-made structures in Sabah at 400 feet (122 m). It is also the second tallest building on the Island of Borneo.
 

Sabah has 15 out of the 31 species of Nepenthes found on the island of Borneo. Nepenthes is more commonly known as Tropical Pitcher Plant or Monkey Cup (or Periuk Kera in Malay) is a kind of carnivorous plants in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae.
 

The tallest tropical tree in the world is located in Sabah at Tawau Hills park. The tree from the species Shorea faguetiana( English Name : Dipterocarpus spec ; Local Name: Seraya Kuning Siput) was measured at 88.1 meters in height by an American scientist, Roman Dial in September 2005. This discovery has been recorded in the National Geographic magazine, July 2006 edition.

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