Night Walk on the Kinabatangan River: Spiders, Night Terrors, and a Lesson in Fear

A man gently floats down the Kinabatangan River

We saw quite a few animals on the Kinabatangan River in Borneo. We saw: short and long tail macaques, proboscis monkey, some kind of langur, gibbon, crocodile, civet cat, leopard cat, mangrove snake, an owl of some kind, (killer!) bees, cotton bug, walking stick, millipede, kingfisher, hornbill, bee eater, mosquito, flying fox, and an eagle (just a small one).

The super cute leopard cat

But only one animal deserves the name Night Terror of the Kinabatangan River. The spider.

Here is a way to ensure you never sleep soundly again . . . At least not in the jungle. First, have a guide show you how he spots wildlife at nighttime. While we were on the river in the pitch black of night, the guide would often just up and yell "look there!" He would then sprint three kilometers through thick jungle, turn over a rock, dig 8 centimeters into the soil, and say "see!" as he pointed to what may or may not be a single-celled organism that had been hiding for 37 years under that rock.

The point is, the guides can spot all kinds of things. Even in the dark. Especially in the dark! The trick is to use the animals’ reflective eyes. The animals that run around at night have a special coating right behind their retinas called the tapetum lucidum. This coating helps the animals see better in the dark, and it is what gives your neighborhood pussycat those eyes that glow like a demon in the dark.

We spotted many crocodiles our first night out on the river using their eyes. The guide would shine a powerful light and we would see two glowing red dots in the darkness. That was a crocodile. They would spot tiny, baby crocs in the dark all the way across the river. At first it is amazingly impressive, but once you learn the trick it is easy.

Most nocturnal animals have this coating.

Including spiders.

Want to spot spiders in the dark? Here is the trick. Spiders have reflective eyes just like cats and crocodiles. Spider eyes glow back a green color. But here is the thing: you have to be holding the light up next to your eyes to see the reflection coming back from spider eyes.

As we headed out on our night walk, sweating and swatting away the clouds of bugs that gathered around our lights, the guide told us the trick: just hold your light near your eyes (which of course meant that the cloud of insects swirling around your light was now also swirling around your eyes, mouth, and nose) and scan the ground.

I did so.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny green dots pricked the darkness on the forest floor, looking back at me with what I can only imagine was ill intent.

They. Were. Everywhere.

So many spiders! I always assumed the only spiders I had to contend with were the ones at eye level, in webs. But no. There are far, far more of these eight-legged creepy crawlies on the forest

floor.

I always say I like spiders. They eat other bugs I find more offensive. But that was before I understood just how outnumbered I am when I go on a walk in the woods.

Now, the thought of spiders give me night terrors.Because travel.

Grooming Macaques

An owl on the river