Animal life ( from Indonesia )
Tagged: animal, animals, bird, cat, insect, mammalIndonesia is located in the transitional zone between two of the world’s major faunal regions: the Oriental of Asia in the west and the Australasian of Australia and New Guinea in the east. The boundary of these realms, called Wallace’s Line, runs between Borneo and Celebes in the north and Bali and Lombok in the south. To the west the Asian animal community includes such mammals as the rhinoceros, the orangutan, the tapir, the tiger, and the elephant. Animals related to Australian fauna include birds such as cockatoos, bowerbirds, and birds of paradise, as well as marsupials such as bandicoots (small insectivorous, herbivorous, marsupial mammals) and cuscuses (brightly coloured, woolly-haired arboreal marsupials). Many of the islands contain endemic species. Among these are such birds as the Javanese peacock and the Sumatran drongo. A certain mountain goat lives only on the rugged slopes of the Barisan Mountains of Sumatra. A unique species of proboscis monkey is unique to Kalimantan, and the babirusa (a large wild pig) and the anoa (a small wild ox with nearly straight horns) can be found only in Celebes. A giant lizard-the prehistoric Komodo dragon, which attains a length of 12 feet (3.7 metres)-occurs on two small islands, Rinca and Komodo, between Sumbawa and Flores. Some of these endemic species have become exceedingly rare. Most of the remaining single-horned Java rhinoceroses, for example, are now restricted to the Ujon Kulon National Park on the western tip of Java. This nearly extinct species is one of the world’s most highly protected forms of wildlife. Another such endangered species is the orangutan, which is native to Borneo and Sumatra. Orangutan rehabilitation centres have been established on the edge of the Mount Leuser National Park in northern Sumatra and in a game preserve on Cape Puting in southern Kalimantan in an effort to prevent the capture and slaughter of the animals and to train those that have been held captive to return to the wild. Indonesia has an enormous and varied insect life that includes many unusual species. Examples include giant walkingsticks that can attain 8 inches (20 cm) in length, walking leaves, huge atlas beetles, elegant luna moths, and beautiful bird-wing swallowtails.
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