Over the years, several international documentaries for film and TV have been made, filmed in Malaysian caves, featuring cave fauna etc. Some of the programmes have been well researched, but some haven't. It is surprising how many inaccurate facts are given in some of these films. And in recent years, the newer programmes are made in a rather over dramatic and sensationalised style, showing the presenter running around jungles and caves looking for dangerous creatures. Some of these shows seem to focus more on the entertainment value than the educational aspect.

Here are some of the documentaries filmed in Malaysia :

Planet Earth : Caves (TV series)

Planet Earth is a 2006 television series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit. It is an 11 part series featuring different environments, episode 4 is on caves.
The series took 4 years to make and was one of the most expensive nature documentary series ever commissioned by the BBC. The series was co-produced by the Discovery Channel and NHK in association with CBC. Planet Earth was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One in March 2006, and premiered one year later in the USA on the Discovery Channel. By June 2007, it had been shown in 130 countries worldwide. The original BBC version was narrated by David Attenborough and produced by Alastair Fothergill. For Discovery, the executive producer was Maureen Lemire, with Sigourney Weaver's voiceover replacing Attenborough. The series is often repeated on satelllite tv channels.

The Caves episode was filmed in America, Mexico and Malaysia. The Malaysian segments features Deer Cave and Gomantong Cave. However the programame doesn't actually differentiate between the 2 caves. The Deer Cave inhabitants include three million wrinkle-lipped bats, which have deposited mounds of guano over the years. The 100m high guano mountain (actually in Gomantong) is covered with hundreds of thousands of cockroaches and other invertebrates. Caves are not powered by the sun, all the animals are dependant on the guano. Cockroaches feed on the guano and anything that falls into it. Giant centipedes more than 20cm long eat cockroaches. Crabs sift through the droppings. Bats are shown leaving Deer Cave, 3 million bats take 2 hours to leave each evening, some are prey to specialised birds. The next sequence is on swiftlets (in Gomantong), they navigate by clicks, and the nests have been collected for over 500 years. Men take risks using no safety equipment, climbing up to 60m high on ladders made from forest vines. The pure white nests are for soup. At the end of each fifty-minute episode, a ten-minute featurette takes a behind-the-scenes look at the challenges of filming the series. This was particularly interesting as they showed how it took them around 5 days just to film a short segment of the camera travelling up the huge guano mountain. The video can be seen on various websites, including Yahoo video Planet Earth caves.

The Living Edens : Borneo : Islands in the Clouds (TV series)

Shown on National Geographic channels. 1999. 47 mins. Episode 9, Season 1
Living Edens: Borneo, An Island in the Clouds documents the wide variety of animal life unique to Borneo. Exploring its caves, forests, and reefs, the ambitious program details the life history of animals, and photographs and discusses the cave swiftlet and the wrinkled-lip bat amongst many others. Partly filmed in Deer Cave in Mulu, includes cave crabs and crickets.

Over hundreds of thousands of years, erosion and other geological forces have carved out one of the largest, most intricate cave systems on earth. Deep within Borneo's caves, water and dissolved limestone form otherworldly formations of rock. These formations take an eternity to form -- only a half inch of new rock is added with each passing century. Long abandoned by their human inhabitants, who lived here thousands of years ago, Borneo's caves support varied, unusual forms of life. Cave swiftlets, small, flitting birds, navigate through the darkness using sonar. They come to rest on the cave's walls, where they construct nests out of their own spittle. The birds saliva is perfect for sticking to the cave wall, and it dries rock hard on contact with the air. Even so, it may take two months of work before a pair of swiftlets complete their nest and are ready to breed. Unfortunately for the swiftlets, their nests are a Chinese delicacy, and reputedly, an aphrodisiac. Some 16 million of the birds' nests are harvested and exported for nearly a billion dollars each year, making this the most lucrative wildlife trade in the world. Swiftlets are not the only cave dwellers that use sonar. Bats, which comprise a huge percentage of all mammal species in Borneo, also find their way around through echolocation. A bat emits a high pitched sound through its mouth or nose, and based on the pattern of echos that return, its brain creates an image of the surrounding environment. This incredible adaptation allows the bats to catch their insect prey without ever seeing it. In some caves, bat populations number in the millions. When it's time to feed, a bat colony can take nearly an hour to empty out into the darkening forest. Cockroaches, crickets and other invertebrates populate caves by the millions. Inadvertently, these insects keep the floor of the caverns clean, feeding on every available organism, and leaving nothing to waste.

Deadly 60 (CBBC TV series)

Deadly 60 is a TV series produced by CBBC. Naturalist Steve Backshall is on the search for animals for his Deadly 60 list. The category is rated as 'Children's, Factual'. Each episode is 28 minutes.

The 10th episode features Malaysia, specifically the Gomantong centipede which is on the Deadly 60 list. It was first shown on 2 August 2009. The programme info says: "Naturalist Steve Backshall is on the search for animals for his Deadly 60 list. In this spine-chilling episode, he abseils into the darkness of the incredible Gomantong cave system. Here, he encounters thousands of cockroaches and one of the scariest creepy crawlies to go on the Deadly 60 list, the scutigera centipede. Thousands of wrinkle-lipped bats call this cave their home. In order to show how amazing they are, Steve hangs like a bat from the cave ceiling. It is a truly awesome sight as they leave the cave in their thousands to hunt for bugs in the night sky. Steve also scours the waterways of the Borneo jungle for a reticulated python, and the team get munched on by tiger leeches. Not an episode for the faint-hearted".

Unfortunately the programme seems to feature on sensationalism, and over- exaggerates the dangers of the centipede. It is described as an incredible hunter because of its long legs used to feel its environment, and can be as long as a man's forearm, with a venomous bite. A local man was bitten and spent a week in hospital. The segments ends saying "a truly terrifying cave predator".

Jeff Corwin Experience : Wild Man in Borneo (TV series).

The Jeff Corwin Experience is an American television show about animals airing on the Animal Planet cable channel since 2001. Each episode is 30 mins.
Season 1 , Episode 1 — Borneo: A Wild Man in Borneo
The main intention of this programme is to find the Asian elephant in the Kinabatangan area. Corwin goes into a shop in Kuching that sells birds nests, then goes to Gomantong Cave. He goes in the lower entrance and shows the deep guano underfoot with millions and millions of cockroaches and beetles. There is a shot of a baby swiflet being eaten. Next we see the nest collectors hoisiting their ladders, and Corwin climbs a ladder wearing a head mounted Infra Red camera to see in the dark. The first nests are collected before the birds lay their eggs. They then have to build another nest, lay their eggs which are allowed to hatch, and then the second nest is taken. In the next part, Corwin climbs the mountain, and talks to a talking cat. He handles an insectivorous bat. http://www.megavideo.com/?d=3C6WLYLK

Austin Stevens : Snakemaster, Animal Planet (TV series)

Austin Stevens: Snakemaster also known as Austin Stevens: Most Dangerous and Austin Stevens Adventures. Produced by Animal Planet, 2004. During each episode, he searches extensively for a certain snake, and also encounters other snakes along the way.

Episode 1: In Search of The Man-Eating Python
Austin Stevens goes to Borneo to find the Reticulated Python. On the way he encounters a cave racer in Gomantong Cave. On the way up he says how almost all snakes eat live food, with the exception of the rare and unusual snakes that live underground in Borneo and feed on dead bats. He abseils into Gomantong Cave. During the abseil he says caves have a special significance, that evil spirits live underground. The Kinabatangan people used to bury their dead in decorated coffins in caves. There are stories of a female vampire which lives deep underground in caves and lures men and sucks their blood. He says the noise and smell of the bats is overpowering. Then he finds a cave racer, and in typical form, falls as he catches it! He says they are found all over forests, but some have learnt to live in caves and rarely come out as the food is there. He says forest racers are green and the cave ones grey, and suggests it is because the snakes loose colour as they stay in the cave. He says most snakes eat live prey and are semi constrictors, but these racers have learnt to eat dead prey as there is so much around. They are semi carrion eaters as they eat bats and birds that died up to a few days ago. Describes how snakes have to eat the bat head and make sure the wings are worked into the mouth. He then says he has to look for a way out of the cave! The cave segments lasts 5 minutes. Video can be seen on www.quicksilverscreen.com.

Snake Crusader With Bruce George (TV series)

This series is by Discovery Networks, 2008, and shown on Animal Planet, first aired in Malaysia in August 2009.

Snake Crusader With Bruce George: Batman Bruce
Onboard his Harley Davidson, Aussie snake charmer, Bruce George goes on adventure across Australia and Asia on a quest to help the not so popular endangered native animals! This episode features both the cave racer and bats.
Even Bruce is not so sure about these creatures, so he has come to Peninsular Malaysia to learn a bit more. This area has one of the highest concentrations of bats, anywhere in the world but like so many creatures in the world, these amazing creatures are under threat. Bruce arrives at the base of Batu Caves, north of the Kuala Lumpur. Standing guard at the steps to the caves is a 42 metre high gold statue of Hindu war god, Lord Muraga. Bruce climbs the daunting 272 step staircase to meet caving enthusiast Yee Yoke Chuan. He shows Bruce the amazing cave system that is home to over half a million bats and hoards of cockroaches and other strange insects that never see the light of day. Yee tells him that bats drive this ecosystem as the guano they excrete feeds the insects that other animals in the cave feed on. It´s this amazing food chain and at the top of the food chain are cave racer snakes. Bruce is told he is unlikely to see a cave racer snake, but at the last moment Bruce hits the jackpot and sees two of these elusive creatures. As jungle habitats disappear, snakes are being pushed into urban areas. Bruce meets fellow snake rescuer Mo Kumar and they rescue a mangrove snake that has wandered into a warehouse. It is in poor condition and they take it back to Mo´s reptile sanctuary for observation. Just then another snake arrives from a rescue. It is a King Cobra and Bruce gets up close with the royalty of snakes. Back on the bat trail, Bruce heads to Krau Wildlife Reserve, a 30 million year old rainforest and a bat paradise. Krau is a magnet for bat researchers like Dr Tigga Kingston and her team. Bruce helps the team set up harp traps across a well-known bat flight paths in the forest to track the bat populations living in the jungle. That night they check the traps and it´s a bat bonanza. The bats are bagged and taken back to camp where they are weighed and measured. Wing samples are taken for genetic sampling. This data helps Tigga build a picture of the bat populations living in the forest. Although they have caught a lot of bats tonight, Bruce learns that habitat destruction will cause 20% of south east Asian bats to be extinct by the end of the century. If we lose bat species, it will be a huge economic and ecological disaster. Not only do fruit bats reseed forests and pollinate many plants and fruit trees, large colonies of insects eating bats devour over 2000 tonnes of insects per year. Without bats, many crops would be devastated. Gathering information to ensure the survival of bat species is crucial. In the early morning Bruce and Tigga release dozens of bats into the forest. They agree there´s nothing as wonderful as releasing wild animals back into their natural habitat! Working with bats has been a revelation for Bruce and he´s become a bit of a "bat evangelist" like Tigga.

Bugs (IMAX movie)

Bugs is a documentary film about the various insects in Borneo's rainforest, highlighting the extraordinary world of insects. It was made for the IMAX 3D screen. It was released in October 2003 in the UK, and shown in KL's IMAX cinema in Aug 2005. Bugs is a live-action nature drama filmed in awe inspiring, totally immersive 3D. Shot on location in Sarawak, Borneo and in a purpose-built studio in Oxford, England. Judi Dench is the narrator.
Although not specifically cave related, part of the filming was done in Gunung Mulu National Park. Bats were filmed in Deer Cave. The challenges of filming in Mulu were described...... "Although accessing the rainforest was a simple matter, transporting the cumbersome 3D equipment in 30 degrees Celsius (85 F) was no easy task. In Mulu, three hundred and fifty pounds of camera equipment and rigs were lashed to boats. Climbing slippery hills to get to the dripping bat caves into which the heavy cameras were lowered, was another challenge along with dodging poisonous animals such as Wagler's Pit Vipers, Scolapendra Centipedes, scorpions and tarantulas. Being situated almost on the Equator proved another problem. The sunrise and sunsets, the beloved 'magic hours' for filmmakers, are about thirty minutes long! The sun just pops over the horizon and then heads straight up the sky. It's directly above (unattractive light for filming) by breakfast time. The same is true each evening - a few minutes of beauty and then 'pop', the sun goes out. So, for any beautiful dawn shots, the crew had to be in position the night before, taking five hours to rig the cameras on the mountain top to capture a classic image in the film called 'Mulu Dawn'. A team of night watchmen kept things secure until the crew headed up the mountain at 3 am for the 5.30 am sunrise."

Life In The Undergrowth : The Silk Spinners (TV Series)

David Attenborough made a series called "Life in the Undergrowth", as part of the BBC's nature documentaries. It was first shown on TV in 2005. One episode is called "The Silk Spinners". This is about spiders. It begins in Waitomo Cave in New Zealand and shows the larvae of the fungus gnat, which produce hanging silken strands which trap insects. Further on in the episode is some excellent footage of the trapdoor spider. Although not filmed in a cave, various species of trapdoor spiders do live in Malaysian caves. This sequence was filmed in the forest at Frasers Hill and shows a spider jumping out of its trapdoor and catching a beetle.

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Local films shot in caves

Sifu Dan Tongga (2009)
This fiction action film was partly shot in Gua Kajang in Lenggong. In Malay language. When I visited the cave in Oct 2009 the remains of the bamboo platforms and bamboo torches made from a local palm, etc were still in the cave. A 10 minute clip from YouTube shows some scenes inside the cave. The opening shots show the limestone hills, then the cave parts start at 4 minutes.

© Liz Price 2009

Page last updated 12 Oct 2009