At one time, some 470,000 bats and four million swiftlets called Niah home. There are no current figures, but the walls of the caves are no longer thick with bats and there are fewer bird’s nests to harvest.
Several species of swiftlet nest on the cave walls. The most common by far is the glossy swiftlet, whose nest is made of vegetation and is therefore of no use in making soup. For obvious reasons, the species whose nests are edible (ie made of delicious salivary excretions) are far less abundant and can only be seen in the remotest corners of the cavern. Several types of bat also roost in the cave, but not in dense colonies, as at Gunung Mulu National Park.
The best time to see the cave’s winged wildlife is at dusk (5.30pm to 6.45pm) during the ‘changeover’, when the swiftlets stream back to their nests and the bats come swirling out for the night’s feeding. If you decide to stick around, let staff at the park HQ’s Registration Counter know and make sure you either get back to the ferry by 7.30pm or coordinate a later pick-up time with the boatman.
