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Pelagus, located along the middle reaches of the Rajang River, in central Sarawak, was gazetted as a National Park in the year 2009. It covers an area of circa 2,041 hectares of pristine and old secondary forests, the latter being reminders of logging activities from the early 1960s. Here, at the heart of Sarawak’s Iban country, visitors can spend a leisurely day or two, walking on some of the nature trails, while on the lookout for birds, frogs and mammals, and enjoying calls of gibbons and hornbills.
Remains of a former luxury resort lend a curious twist to the place, the abandoned structure overlooking the mighty rapids and witness to numerous tragedies involving boats crashing on the rapids. Legends from nearby longhouses say these rocks were formed by a mythological being killed by an Iban warrior, and local communities continue to make offerings to the Rapids to this day.
The current work presents results from a joint Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and Sarawak Energy Berhad project, bringing to the general public information on key groups of plants and animals of the Pelagus region. The goal is to provide information of our natural heritage to stakeholders, management authorities, naturalists, researchers and the general public.
