Sources & photo credits

About this guide

A growing, species-first field guide to the wildlife of Peninsular Malaysia: mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. Sabah and Sarawak are covered by our sister site, Wildlife of Borneo. This edition lists about 1,000 species, about 750 of them with photographs.

How the species list was built

Each group comes from an open reference list, checked against GBIF records for Peninsular Malaysia (Malaysia minus Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan; retrieved September 2026):

• Mammals: species the Mammal Diversity Database lists for Malaysia, kept only where GBIF has records from the peninsula.
• Birds: IOC World Bird List species with records in Peninsular Malaysia.
• Reptiles: species whose Reptile Database range includes Malaysia, kept only where GBIF has records from the peninsula.
• Amphibians: species with GBIF records in Peninsular Malaysia.

Species known only from a handful of GBIF records are held back until they have been checked by hand. Bornean species that turn up in the peninsular records (usually because a record has no coordinates) were left out. Domestic animals, fossils and zoo records were left out. Common names follow the same lists, then the other Wildlife of Everywhere guides, then Wikipedia article titles (CC BY-SA); where a species has no English name, its scientific name is shown.

"Found only in Malaysia" is based on the range given in those lists and has not yet been assessed for amphibians or reptiles.

Why there is no conservation status

We could not find a current, usable national Red List for Malaysia's vertebrates, and this guide does not substitute global IUCN categories for a national assessment. So no status label is shown. Many species here are protected under Peninsular Malaysia's Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 regardless.

Reference sources

• Mammal Diversity Database: mammal taxonomy and country ranges (CC BY 4.0)
• IOC World Bird List: bird names and taxonomy
• The Reptile Database: reptile taxonomy and distribution (via Catalogue of Life, CC BY 4.0)
• GBIF · Malaysia: occurrence records used to check the lists
• PERHILITAN (Department of Wildlife and National Parks): protected areas and wildlife law

Planning a visit

Park entry rules, safari bookings, fees and seasonal closures (some parks and trails close during the north-east monsoon, roughly November to February) change often and differ from state to state. Check with the park's own booking site or your operator before you travel rather than relying on the details here.

Wildlife sightings are never guaranteed. The species listed for each place are what is realistically possible there, not what you should expect on a given day.

Your plans and sightings

Your trip plan and sightings are saved in this browser, on this device only. We never see them. Clearing your browser data will clear them too, so download the PDF if you want a copy to keep. Email buttons open a draft in your mail app; nothing is sent until you send it.

Photo credits

Photographs come from iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA licences, or were taken by the Wildlife of Everywhere team. Each one keeps its photographer's name, licence and a link to the original.

Photographs are chosen to show the species clearly, so many were taken elsewhere in its range rather than in Malaysia. Tap the i on any photograph to see who took it. The full list is below.

View all photo credits