Qualla: Mosquito Island's Older Residents

Mosquito Island's Older Residents: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pangalau, CC BY-SA 4.0. The nickname is earned honestly. Selirong Island sits in Brunei Bay at the delta of the Temburong River, and the mosquitoes are relentless. But the locals who gave the island that name were talking about more than insects -- they were acknowledging a place so densely alive that even the air bites back. Beneath the canopy, proboscis monkeys crash through branches with their absurd pot-bellied grace. Mudskippers haul themselves across exposed roots at low tide. Monitor lizards hold still until you are close enough to flinch. The mangroves that cover nearly all of Selirong's 2,566 hectares have been doing this for centuries, long before anyone thought to call it ecotourism.

Image: Pangalau | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mosquito Island's Older Residents: A Sanctuary Before the Word Existed

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pangalau, CC BY-SA 4.0. Brunei established the Labu-Selirong Wildlife Sanctuary in 1948, when the country was still a British protectorate and conservation was rarely a colonial priority. The original sanctuary covered 2,499 hectares. By 1954, it had been expanded to 8,984 hectares, absorbing surroundin...

Image: Pangalau | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mosquito Island's Older Residents: Walking on Roots

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pangalau, CC BY-SA 4.0. The park's 2-kilometer elevated walkway threads through the mangrove canopy on wooden planks, raised high enough to stay dry at high tide and low enough to feel the humidity thicken around you. An observation tower at one end offers a vantage point over the treetops, where the fo...

Image: Pangalau | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mosquito Island's Older Residents: The Residents Who Were Here First

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pangalau, CC BY-SA 4.0. Selirong's most famous inhabitants are its proboscis monkeys -- Nasalis larvatus, a species found only on Borneo, recognizable by the males' enormous drooping noses and russet fur. They move through the canopy in troops, feeding on young mangrove leaves and unripe fruit, their st...

Image: Pangalau | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mosquito Island's Older Residents: Traces of Older Traffic

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pangalau, CC BY-SA 4.0. Archaeological surveys have turned up pottery shards, primitive tools, and trade artifacts on Selirong, evidence that the island was not always the uninhabited wilderness it appears today. During the 15th and 16th centuries, when the Sultanate of Brunei controlled much of coastal...

Image: Pangalau | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mosquito Island's Older Residents: Getting There Is Part of the Point

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pangalau, CC BY-SA 4.0. Selirong cannot be reached by road. From Bandar Seri Begawan, visitors board a speedboat that follows the Brunei River downstream and then crosses the open water of Brunei Bay -- a 45-minute journey from the port at Muara that functions as a decompression chamber between city and...

Image: Pangalau | CC BY-SA 4.0