THE mournful howl of an orangutang echoes through the dense rainforest as Sarah Maunsell sets light traps for moths.

Every morning she is woken early by the "wak-wak" call of Bornean gibbons around the SAFE camp in Sabah, Malaysia.

For the tropical ecologist, this has been normality on and off for nearly two years.

It's a long way from the Clarence Valley National Parks she used to walk through, which is where her inspiration to pursue a career in environmental science probably stemmed from.

Growing up by the river in Seelands, Sarah said she was always interested in her surroundings.

Her mum, a nurse was in a local bushwalking club and she remembers exploring places like Washpool National Park from a young age.

"We also used to go camping a lot as kids so I've always been interested in the natural environment," she said.

After graduating from McAuley Catholic College she followed her calling to do a Bachelor of Science at Griffith University in Brisbane, followed by a PHD based in the Border Ranges National Park and Lamington National Park.

As a Griffith University Postdoctoral Research Fellow, she now spends her time between Brisbane and Borneo, where she works on the Sustainability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) project, which stands among the world's largest ecological experiments.

Its aim is to document ecological changes and address important scientific questions raised by the deforestation of Borneo's rainforests to make way for palm oil plantations.

Scientists come from around the world to conduct field studies at the project's sites, researching everything from elephants to microbes in the soil.

Sarah's research group is focused on the "little things that run the world"- more specifically moths and spiders, and how they are affected by logging and palm oil plantation.

A typical day during one of her trips to Sabah usually starts with a breakfast of rice or noodles at the SAFE camp

She leaves at 8am with a local research assistant and drives out into the steep, hilly terrain to one of a number of different field sites, where she will spend the morning setting traps and collecting insect samples.

Then it's back to the camp for a late lunch and shower before processing the samples at a lab. On her recent trips to Borneo she has collected around 1000 species of moth and around 200 species of spider.

"I'm interested in insect foodwebs; doing research what they're eating and what's eating them and then looking at how different environmental changes affect that web structure," she said.

"I literally collect (spiders) from the trees and they fall in my hair. They're mostly little jumping spiders and things like that. There are tarantulas but I'm not interested in those.

"I just saw a photo of a spider eating a fish from one of our local research assistants."

Malaysian Borneo is full of "amazing animals", but the one which has eluded Sarah so far is perhaps its most famous.

While she frequently hears orangutans when working in the field, she is yet to actually see one. Her most treasured sighting is of Borneo's top predator - the secretive and endangered clouded leopard

"We had to leave camp early one morning and were lucky enough to see one walk across the road right in front of us," she said.

"They have a beautiful long tail and are covered in square-shaped spots.

"The Bornean pygmy elephants often use the roads as a pathway too. It's really nice when you see them when you're driving, but you don't want to suddenly come face to face with one. They can actually be really aggressive."

The pygmy elephants, and local gibbons, are yet to make their way into the SAFE camp, but Sarah says it's entirely possible.

When she first visited the camp in March last year the primitive accommodation consisted of hammocks.

There are now mattresses, semi partitioned walls and cold showers, but they haven't stopped snakes and scorpions crawling into people's beds.

"The first time I went there it seemed very wild and remote, but now the logging trucks are coming closer it can get very noisy," Sarah said.

"The project we're doing is good because our research can contribute to setting standards for sustainable palm oil production, and they are leaving areas of forest, including riparian zones. They can be quite important to prevent run off but also provide a corridor for animals to move through the landscape.

"Palm oil crops are not easily stopped, it's a huge economy."