White Rhinoceros

This white single-horn rhinoceros sculpture is placed at the fountain pond located at the southern part of the Bandung City Hall Park.

Badak (the Sundanese word for rhinoceros) is an important animal in the Sundanese culture. A native animal of the land where the Sundanese people live, badak has long held a strong cultural significance in their lives. The word badak and its synomyms are used to name a lot of things, literally and figuratively. Here are some examples:

ngabadak (v) - to open a field
heuay badak (n) - a kitchen chimney
badak heuay (n) - (literally: yawning rhino) a traditional Sundanese house architectural style in which the roof is open like that of a yawning rhino
babadak (n) - a bamboo structure that is used to dam a river or put at a river bank to prevent landslide.
ngaladog (v) - (ladog = badak = rhino) to roam far
Etc.

Many places in West Java (the Sundanese land) are also named after this animal, for example cibadak (rhino water), rancabadak or rawabadak (rhino swamp), paguyangan badak (rhino bathing place), etc.

The single-horn Sundanese or Javan rhino (rhinoceros sondaicus) has mostly vanished in most part of the Sundanese land. Currently only about 50 are left in the wild. They are protected at the Ujung Kulon National Park at the western tip of Java Island. Not long ago, however, this animal used to roam free in many parts of the island. According to the surviving notes of Europeans visiting the area, for example, this animal could still be found in what now becomes the city of Bandung up until the end of the 18th century CE.

Banteng Jawa

This is the head shot of a young female Banteng Jawa (bos javanicus) that I took at Bandung Zoo sometime ago.

Banteng Jawa belongs to the family of bovidae (bull, cow). Although scientifically named "javanicus", this species can actually be found not only on Java Island, but also on the islands of Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), Bali, and several other places in southeast Asia such as Cambodia, Thailand, the northern part of the peninsular Malaysia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

Banteng is a sexually dimorphic/dimorpheous animal, that is the appearance of its male and female can be readily distinguished. The coat colors of a mature male banteng usually range from blue-black to dark chestnut, while its female's coat is usually of rofous-chestnut color. In addition to this, male and female can also be distinguished by the size and shape of their horns. An adult male banteng's horn is normally longer than that of the female's and is pointing upward in its shape. The famale's, on the other hand, has shorter horn that is shightly curving inward. Both male and female banteng have white stocking-like coat on their lower legs.

An adult banteng is about 190-225 cm/6.3-7.5 ft long and can weigh from 600-800 kg/1320-1760 lb.

Lotus, Nelumbo, or Water Lily?

Most of you would know what this flower is. Many would call it water lily or lotus. Some would probably call it nelumbo. So, which one is it?

Water lily is the generic name of this kind of aquatic flowering plant that has its roots in the soil submerged in a body of fresh water and whose leaves and flowers float on or above the water surface. It belongs to the family of nymphaeaceae. Lotus or nelumbo used to be traditionally classified into this family for their apparent similar characteristics. However, lotus or nelumbo is now considered to be a separate family of nelumbonaceae. Unlike the water lily which belongs to the order of nymphaeales, lotus or nelumbo belongs to the order of proteales.

Now that you know that water lily is not the same as lotus (nelumbo) in their botanical classifications, you may want to know what characterizes their differences.

The lotus or nelumbo has peltate leaves, that is its leaves are fully round with an underneath stem. Water lily's leaves, on the other hand, are notched (v-shaped) from the edge into the center of the lily pad. In addition to this, the lotus or nelumbo has a very distinctive seed pod that water lily doesn't.

Now that you know this, can you tell which flower is on the photo? Water lilly or lotus (nelumbo)?

This flowering plant is one of the hundreds of decorative plants cultivated at the village of Cihideung, Bandung.

Indonesian Endangered Animal: The Sumatran Tiger

This is a picture of harimau Sumatra or the Sumatran tiger (panthera tigris sumatrae) that I took at Bandung Zoo sometime ago. The Sumatran tiger is one of only six surviving subspecies of tiger. The other subspecies are - in discending order of their number in the wild: The Bengal tiger (panthera tigris tigris), the Indochinese tiger (panthera tigris corbetti), the Malayan tiger (panthera tigris jacksoni), the Siberian tiger (panthera tigris altaica), and the south China tiger (panthera tigris amoyensis).

As the name indicates, the Sumatran tiger is native to, and is only found on, the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It is considered as a critically endangered subspecies of tiger with an estimation of only about 250 individuals currently still surviving in the wild, according to an Indonesian NGO The Coalition for the Monitoring of Protected Wild Animals. This remaining population is scattered in 18 separate enclaves, most of which are found at Leuser and Kerinci Seblat National Parks.

The Sumatran tiger is the only surviving subspecies of tigers out of three that Indonesia has or used to have. The other two that are now extinct are the Balinese tiger (panthera tigris balica) and the Javan tiger (panthera tigris sondaica). The Balinese tiger went extinct in 1937. The last of it - a female - was reported to have been killed at Sumbar Kima in the West of Bali on September 27, 1937. The Javan tiger was thought to have become extinct not too long ago in 1980, although there were reports of its sightings as recently as last year. The sightings, however, could not be verified.

Habitat destruction caused by logging and the conversion of pristine forests into palm oil plantations, industrial forests, and farms is the main threat to the existing population of the Sumatran tiger. But hunting and illegal trade of its skin and other organs are of no less serious threat to its extinction. In the two year period between 1998 and 2000, for example, 66 tigers (or about 20 percent of its population) were recorded to have been killed (the number could have been higher as it is quite probable that there were undiscovered killings). This should come as no surprise as a piece of Sumatran tiger skin can fetch about US$ 3,300 at the international market. Some black market rare animal skin brokers are even reportedly willing to give a handsome amount of downpayment as an incentive for people to hunt the tigers.

The Sumatran tiger is the smallest surviving subspecies of tigers. The adult males weigh about 100 - 140 kilograms (220 - 308 lbs), whereas the female weight about 75 - 110 kilograms (154 - 242 lbs).

Indonesian Endangered Animal: "Kalong" - The Flying Fox Bat

These are "kalong" (Javanese brown giant fruit bat), another collection of animals at Bandung Zoo.

"Kalong" (Pteropus Vamvyrus) is classified into the suborder of megabats (megachiroptera) or the giant bats. Because of what they eat and their behavior, megachiroptera is also called fruit bats or flying foxes. An adult "kalong" can reach about 60 centimeters in length (about 23.5 inches) and weigh about 1.5 kilograms (about 3.3 lbs) with wing span of about 1.5 meters (5 feet).

"Kalong" are fruit eaters (frugivores) and like most fruit bats they have big eyes and excellent sense of smell, which help them navigate in the dark - the time when they go out to eat - and find their food. For your information, most fruit-eating bats don't generally use echolocation.

"Kalong" is one of Indonesia's endangered animals and is protected by the law.