At Labuk Bay, huge pendulous noses and enormous pot bellies are not the result of a lifetime of overindulgence, rather they are the distinguishing features of one of the world’s rarest primates, the proboscis monkey.  The sanctuary is located at the centre of a 500 acre mangrove forest along coastal land near Kampung Samawang in Labuk Bay;  a one hour drive from Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia.

In 1994, the area was initially purchased for commercial development of a palm oil plantation; this plan was dropped when the owner of the land found there were proboscis monkeys living there. He started to give the monkeys supplemental food when he realised that the Labuk Bay area was entirely hemmed by palm plantations, drastically reducing the amount of natural vegetation needed for the monkeys’ survival. Today more than 60 monkeys have been recorded in the area, many of which show up daily for their supplementary food. As the population of the proboscis monkey is growing, the sanctuary is currently underway planting more mangroves trees in the surrounding area to ensure more room for the monkeys to move around.

The proboscis monkey is one of the largest monkeys in the world, with the big-nosed male weighing up to 23 kg. The females have smaller pointed noses and can weigh in at 7-11 kg. This unique monkey is one of nine totally protected species in Borneo and are found exclusively here; Labuk Bay in Sabah is one of the most accessible places to view this fascinating creature. During the colonial period the locals gave the monkey the Malay name ‘Monyet Belanda’ which means Dutch monkey. The locals felt that this odd looking monkey, with its pendulous nose, red face and large pot-belly resembled the European traders and colonialists. The proboscis monkey spends most of its time in the trees in loosely unified groups of 12 to 24 feeding on young leaves, shoots, sour fruits and seeds that they digest in a multi chambered stomach which accounts for their extended bellies. The nose of male can be four inches long and hangs down past the monkey's mouth. Loud nasal honks are emitted by the males and are given a particular resonance by the long proboscis, which straightens out during each honk. The nose is a secondary sex characteristic; the bigger the nose, the sexier the monkey.

Though protected by law and listed as endangered by the USDI and Appendix 1 of CITES, this unusual monkey is threatened with extinction due to loss of habitat through land clearing for plantations, logging and hunting. Today, there are only 1,000 proboscis monkeys in Sarawak. There are 2,000 in Sabah and 4,000 or so in Kalimantan. Currently the proboscis monkey is more endangered than the Orang Utan and it is said if something is not drastically done to save the habitats of these animals they may be extinct in about ten years.