THE LIVING PARK
The Underground River's Wildlife and National Park
A rare mountain-to-sea wilderness of 165 birds, nine bats, macaques, monitor lizards and mangroves — the park around the famous cave.
See Underground River tours on GetYourGuide ↗More than a cave
It's easy to think of the Underground River as a single attraction — the cave and the boat ride — but it sits inside a genuinely important national park of 22,202 hectares, and the park is a large part of why UNESCO listed the site in the first place. What's protected here is a complete, unbroken 'mountain-to-sea' ecosystem: limestone karst peaks, tropical forest, the underground river, and a coastline, all in one continuous gradient. That kind of intact sweep from mountaintop to reef is increasingly rare in South-East Asia, and it's the ecological backbone the cave hangs on.
One of Palawan's richest forests
The numbers are striking for so compact a place: 165 recorded bird species — roughly two-thirds of all the birds found on Palawan — plus 30 mammal species, nine kinds of bat and two of swiftlet, and more than 800 plant species including nearly 300 kinds of tree. Palawan is already one of the most biodiverse provinces in the Philippines, and this park concentrates a remarkable share of it. Even if you only see a fraction on a day tour, it's worth knowing the forest around you is doing a lot more than framing the cave.
The animals you'll actually meet
The wildlife you're most likely to encounter isn't in the treetops but on the landing beach: long-tailed macaques and monitor lizards, both entirely used to people and often right beside the path to the cave. The macaques are notorious opportunists — quick to grab food, water bottles or an open bag — which is why the rangers are firm about not eating on the beach and keeping your things zipped. Reticulated pythons live in the park too, though you're far less likely to see one. It's a rare chance to watch genuinely wild animals at close range, provided you treat them as wild.
The bats and swiftlets of the cave
Inside the cave, the wildlife is overhead and constant: nine species of bat and two of swiftlet roost in the dark, and they're the source of the ceaseless chitter, the smell, and the guano you're warned about. Far from being a nuisance to be endured, they're the cave's living system — the swiftlets navigate by echolocation-like clicks, the bats pour out at dusk to feed — and a big part of what separates this from a dead show-cave. It's a working ecosystem you happen to be paddling through.
The mangroves at Sabang
Back at Sabang, a separate community-run mangrove paddle-boat tour is well worth adding on. A local guide poles you quietly through a tidal mangrove forest looking for lizards, snakes, crabs, kingfishers and the occasional snake draped in the branches, and the whole thing is cheap, low-key and locally run. After the drama of the dark cave, it's a gentle, green counterpoint — and, like the firefly cruise some tours add in the evening, a reminder that the park is a whole living landscape, not just one famous hole in the mountain.
More things to do nearby
Still working out your Palawan dates?
Leave your email and roughly when you're in Palawan — we'll send a short rundown of how the Underground River day works, how far ahead to lock in a permit, and which tour options include what.