THE INTERNATIONAL WILDLIFE MAGAZINE Vol. 17 No. 4 April 1975

The main feature this month describes a very FRONT COVER exciting place - one of the most exciting European otter (Lutra lutra). places in the world, in fact. The Gunung Photo by Hans Reinhard/Bruce Colernan Leuser must represent one of the front rank of vital areas that conservationists must save, for all sorts of reasons. It is also a place that appeals because it is 150 The Great Wildlife still unexplored and unknown. Markus Borner Photographic Adventure told me when I was there last summer that 153 Birdwatcher at Large there were - and are - no adequate maps of the Gunung Leuser region. The most recent 154 Longnecks and Humpbacks was one prepared from American satellite Harry Frauca photographs. But it turned out to be 157 Into the Unknown inaccurate. So little known was the area that he even discovered a great rift valley in the Markus Bomer centre of the reserve, whose existence had been 166 Search for India's Grey Wolf unsuspected. S. P. Shahi Markus was involved specifically in the fate of the Sumatran rhino, but he was also 170 The Rooftop Gun concerned - through his project investigations Patricia M ol1aghan - with the wildlife of Sumatra generally. Working side by side with him were two other 173 A Brighter Future for the Polar Bear? Swiss zoologists; their project was to Colin Wyatt rehabilitate confiscated orang-utans. This makes a warm and fascinating story in itself, and we 176 The Latin Skin Trade are planning to publish a feature on it in a Fe/ipe Benavides future issue. In the meantime, 1 think readers will agree that it is important work, especially 180 Cyprus Warbler in the light of the great cruelty involved in Michael Gore capturing young orangs. The interesting thing about the ownership 183 Zoo News of captive orangs, and also tigers kin rugs, 184 News Desk by Indonesians themselves, is that both are regarded as status symbols. We - or I - tend 186 WWF News to regard the lust for status symbols as being a Western fault, but it is certainly seen 188 Book Reviews amongst the wealthier Indonesians. Orangs are often kept in conditions of such unbelievable cruelty, that the only possible point in keeping them must be the owner's ability to say Editor & Publisher Nigel Sitwell '1 have an orang-utan'. Deputy Editors Gill Hiller, Tessa Board The Director of the Jakarta hOO told me Consultant Zoologist Michael Tweedie Accounts Eve O'Connor that he personally knew of about 150 Assistant to Publisher Lindsay Nunn tigerskins in the city and suburbs of Jakarta. Advertisement Director Leo Long Some of these could have been Javan tigers, no Wildlife (formerly Animals) is published on the doubt, but that race is now reduced to barely last Thursday of every month by Wildlife ten animals, and most were probably Sumatran Publications Ltd at 243 King's Road, London, SW3 5EA, England. Tel: 01-352 9294. tigers. I saw a display of half a dozen skins in Cable address: ANIMAG, LONDON SW3. Jakarta's leading department store. I pretended On sale at all newsagents, price 35p per copy. I wanted to buy one and ship it to Singapore: Subscriptions: UK & Ireland - £4.50 per year. I was quoted £750 for the skin plus £250 for US & Canada - $12.00 per year. Other shipping, most of which went on 'obtaining an overseas - £4.75 per year. All rates include PATRON surface postage. Lord Zuckerman export licence'. Of course, the latter would involve a heavy bribe to some official because Trade distribution by Argus CONTRIBUTORY EDITOR it is illegal to export such skins. Distribution Ltd, 12-18 Paul Street, David Attenborough Various people have complained to the London, EC2A 4JS, England. US national newsstand distribution by Eastern ADVISORY EDITORS Indonesian Government about this particular News Distributors Inc, 155 West 15th Street, The Duke of Bedford public display of illegal skins - but despite New York, NY 10011: Second class postage I. McTaggart Cowan expressions of concern, the Government has so paid at New York, NY. Nicholas Guppy Alan Moorehead far not seen fit to do anything about it. The publishers cannot promise to reply to any Guy Mountfort Indonesia has much to be proud of in its letter or return any unsolicited contribution unless accompanied by sufficient postage (UK Roger Tory Peterson conservation record, and I suggest it could well stamps, or international reply coupons). While Sir Peter Scott afford to put an end to this piece of blatant all reasonable care is taken, the publishers Edwin Way Teale accept no responsibility for unsolicited Niko Tinbergen law-breaking. NIGEL SIT'VELL manuscripts or photographs. 149

The author and his team were I1rnhfU>11 in the of the Gunung Leuser serve by an oil company helicopter. Once in, the out was on foot - which often meant makeshift bridges (below) to find the river that would lead us from wilderness to civilisation. The purpose of our expedition was to look for the rare Sumatran rhinoceros, and on the third day we found tracks of this shy and extremely threatened forest dwel­ ler. Following the rhino's tracks and signs like a latter-day Sherlock Holmes, I tried to learn something of the ecology and behaviour of this the smallest of the five rhino species, whose last stronghold is the remote wilderness of the mountain forests of Sumatra. But on the fifth day trouble started. ur helicopter hovered above 5 Due to heavy rain the river a swampy river bank while z began to rise, and what had been a we threw out our belongings g nice shallow river in the upper and then jumped out our- ~ part turned out to be a narrow selves into the mud. Its task co m- ::J gorge full of waterfalls and rapids plete, the helicopter pulled up and ~ in the lower part. The deep water away and the polyphonic sounds of ~ prevented us from walking in the virgin tropical rain forest replaced >­ river itself, so we were forced to the rackety noise of the engine. m cut our way through thick and We were left standing on the ~ thorny rattan palms on the steep bank of a river without a name, b slopes of the gorge. our connections with the outside [ Despite walking for ten hours a world severed, alone in the green -1 day, with two men always in front heart of one of the last of the ~ cutting a path with their big jungle world's unexplored places. We knives, we sometimes managed were in the 6,500-square-kilometre only one kilometre (just over half (2,500-square-mile) vastness of the a mile) a day. Since all the moun­ Gunung Leuser Reserve in tain ridges were at right angles to Sumatra. And suddenly it began to the river we could find no other pour with rain. route and were obliged to go My five Indonesian companions, through the gorge. The slopes were who had been shaking with fear sometimes so steep that they were for the last hour, all began laugh­ completely bare of vegetation and ing and talking at the same time, we had to use a rope to traverse happy to be alive and out of the the slippery rocks. roaring, hellish machine. When it became impossible to Despite the heavy rain we proceed along one river bank we 'started to follow our unknown had to build a bridge to cross to the mountain river. It proved to be other side. We usually did this by shallow and wide so the walking Tired from our first day in the cutting down a tree so that itl was easy and we were all in high forest we unrolled our sleeping spanned the strongest part of the spirits. But our euphoria lasted mats of pandanus leaves and tried current. But cutting down a tree only till evening, when the time to find a comfortable spot under with knives takes time - and two came to build our camp - a the plastic shelter. The roots and out of three of the trees we felled simple covering made of young stones beneath us were no worry, were immediately swept away by trees and plastic sheeting. Most of though the forest was alive with the raging flood! our equipment, including the un definable noises; far away an By the eleventh day our warm blankets, had been thor­ owl was calling. Soon all of us supplies of rice and dried fish had oughly soaked by the rain. And were fast asleep. run out, and we still had no idea since we couldn't find any dry In the moss forest at 2,000 how far we had to go to reach a wood it took a full two hours to metres (6,000 feet) above sea level populated area. Morale had sunk make a fire. But eventually we the nights can be quite chilly - very low indeed. In the evening we managed to cook our rice and even though you are on the found some banana stems and dried fish and with a meal inside Equator. By early morning the cooked the centre part so we us our morale began to rise. cold started to creep into my should have something with which With characteristic tropical bones. By four o'clock we were all to fill our empty stomachs. swiftness the daylight faded into awake, squatting round the small That night I slept badly. The dusk and the cicadas started their fire and awaiting the dawn. plastic roof was by now perforated piercing evening concert. As we sat In the few days that followed, by rattan thorns, and rain dripped around the dying fire, Pawang everything went smoothly. Life in steadily onto my sleeping bag. All Husin, the old rhino hunter and the forest became routine for all sense of adventure and excitement magician, started to tell stories of us, the weather was fine, and had vanished, leaving only my feel­ of the jungle's spirits and ghosts. with some luck we had managed ing of responsibility for the five 158 men, and concern about the hungry days and difficulties that 3till lay ahead. Waking in the middle of the night I observed Pawang Husin sitting in front of the fire burning incense and murmuring magical formulas. He too seemed to be worried. Finally, on the fourteenth day, we reached the first human settle­ ment. After some large meals and a week of writing reports back in the village of Kotacane, all un­ happy thoughts had vanished. More and more frequently I looked from my typewriter out of , the window to the untouched, forest-covered mountains of the Gunung Leuser Reserve - and started to plan my next ex­ pedition.

The going was so hard that the party he Gunung Leuser Reserve Banda Aceh 50 150 is the largest nature reserve :=::::;5'0===':::;==::::;::===:,----" miles often only managed half a mile a day. in Indonesia and one of the 200 km largest untouched rain forest areas distance much greater than the left in the Old World. It is located approximately 20 metres a human in the northern part of the island observer can see in the forest. of Sumatra in the provinces of So I had to study all kinds of Aceh and North Sumatra. The tracks and signs to learn some thing Bukit Barisan, a mountain ridge about the way of life of the stretching the length of Sumatra, Sumatran rhino. I did, of course, gives the central part of the re­ try very hard to get at least a serve its mostly mountainous glimpse of one. Once I sat on a character. small platform up a tree for more However, very many different than three weeks, eating only cold habitats and vegetation types can rice and dried fish. Continually, be found in the Gunung Leuser day and night, either Pawang group of reserves. In the Kluet Husin or I kept watch on a rhino part of the west coast primary trail and a saltlick. The nights fresh-water swamp forest harbours were cold and the daily rains a fantastic variety of species. The soaked our small shelter. But we climate is hot and humid and saw nothing besides birds, squir­ many animals - especially tree­ rels, and an occasional barking living species - are found there. deer. A second attempt at a dif­ The calls of the siamangs and ferent place produced the same white-handed gibbons can be heard discouraging results. in the morning and their artistic But I did see one rhino in my leaps from one tree to another fill two years or so - and that was one with admiration. purely by chance. We had built The lowland and hill forests of our field camp on a rhino trail. the eastern Langkat part, with its virtually nothing about its ecology. Pawang Husin (the magician) had huge trees, completely closed The aim of my project was to told me in the morning that I forest canopies, and networks of locate the remaining few popu­ would see a rhino the same day. lianas, are the home of the largest lations and work out plans for As he had never said this before I of the forest animals, the Suma­ their conservation. was quite surprised and rather tran elephant. This region is also I soon learned that the rhinos excited. During the day we came the main habitat of the orang­ had vanished from the forests across fresh rhino tracks but saw utan. close to populated areas, and I nothing of the animal itself. A The terrain in the central parts therefore had to search the hither­ trifle disappointed, we were eating of the reserve is steep and high to unexplored central mountainous our evening meal when suddenly and covered with sub-montane and regions of the Gunung Leuser there was a noise of breaking damp moss forest. The trees are Reserve. It was there, in an area wood. Instantly on the alert, we smaller, with beards of lichen on .that can only be reached by a dropped oUr rice and rushed out­ their branches, and the ground is week-long walk through dense side. There was the rhino! With its covered with moss. It is here that forest and difficult terrain - or by head close to the ground it dashed the Sumatran rhinoceros is found, helicopter - that I found the off through the undergrowth like a in what is possibly its last strong­ tracks, wallows, trails, and saltlicks small but compact tractor. As it hold. of this elusive animal. was getting dark fast by now it It was to study this extremely Direct observation is nearly was not possible to give chase. But rare rhino that I was sent to impossible. To start with, a popu­ when I smoked my pipe by the Sumatra some two and a half lation of maybe 30 animals is fire that night I was very happy years ago by the World Wildlife scattered over an area of more that I had seen, albeit fleetingly, Fund. Little was known about the than 3,000 square kilometres. And at least one of these strange species' status and distribution and secondly, the rhinos have a flight rhinos, whose tracks I had been 159 Rolling hills (above) clotbed in unspoiled tropical rain forest contrast strongly with the destruction wrought by man (below)

How do you find thirty rhinos in a thousand square miles of unmapped rain forest? 160 In his expeditions into the Gunung Leuser, Borner spends most nights under a simple covering of plastic sheeting. Below, he plans the next day's search for rare wildlife with Pawang Husin (left), the ex-rhino hunter who became his friend and guide

One of Borner's main objectives was to study the rare and elusive Sumatran rhino. The picture opposite indicates some of the difficulties he faced as he wades along a muddy rhino track through the forest. Below: Examining evidence beside a rhino wallow

161 -- z suddenly had a strange feeling canines, nor to tie its feet together ~ in my stomach and started to look before reieasing it, I watched r for a climbable tree. When I happily as it swam away through ~ looked at my companions the the sun-dappled waters. My men ~ strange feeling grew stronger: must have thought me crazy to let ~ hidden behind a rock, they were go such a delicious meal. r staring at the approaching elephant Two species of true deer are with faces grey with fear. Without found in Sumatra, the rusa and a word we all moved back round . the barking deer. The rusa is about the bend in the river and started the size of a European red deer to run like mad. and the male has very strong During the months that follow­ antlers with not more than three ed I was lucky enough to see tines. The barking deer is a much elephants several times, in central smaller animal, about the size of a Sumatra as well as in the Langkat roe deer, and the male has short, part of the Gunung Leuser Re­ two-tined antlers and tusk-like serve, where I saw a herd of more canines in the upper jaw similar to than eleven animals. Such events the mouse deer. were always very exciting and re­ The rarest of the artiodactyls, warding and made me forget the however, is the serow. This dark, leeches, the rattan thorns, the un­ small-horned mountain goat can be comfortable nights, and the other found on the steep slopes and difficulties of life in the rain rocky riverbeds of the Gunung forest. Leuser Reserve, and I once watch­ Unfortunately, elephants are a ed a pair at over 2,000 metres. problem. Mostly animals of the With a sharp warning whistle that forest fringe, their preferred could be heard over a long dis-· habitat is the lowlands near rivers, tance they climbed an incredibly which are also best for shifting ste~p, eroded slope with such Sad and blatant display of Surnatran cultivation, timber cutting, and agility that I just looked at them tiger skins in Sarinah, the famous Indo­ human settlement. Furthermore, without even thinking of getting nesian department store. It is illegal to elephants tend to keep to their out my camera. hunt tigers, or to trade in their skins, traditional migration routes, even As I have already suggested, but the editor of Wildlife was offered if new villages and freshly culti­ taking photographs of all these one for £1,000, including £250 to cover vated fields appear along the way. rare and shy forest creatures can the cost of 'arranging' its export Constant friction between the be most frustrating. Because of the elephants and the ever-growing almost daily rain and because we human population is inevitable. walk mostly in the rivers I always following for such a long time. But in the province of North carry my equipment in a For those who have never been Sumatra considerable efforts are waterproof aluminium suitcase. In in a tropical rain forest, I should made to save the last animals the early days I would invariably explain that it is extremely seldom which are found on the edge of start to struggle to get my camera that one sights a large mammal: I the Langkat portion. ready, as soon as I spotted an once walked for two weeks with­ By contrast, the tiny mouse animal. As a result, the animal was out seeing a single one. Neverthe­ deer is the smallest ruminant in gone by the time I had my camera less, some of my most thrilling the world with a body weight of out - and I had in the meantime moments were with elephants. about 2 kilos (41h pounds). But it missed a beautiful observation! I saw my first elephant in the is no less exciting than an ele­ Now I force myself to have a good southern part of the reserve at the phant. One day I was travelling loo k first, and only reach calmly Serakut River. We happened to slowly down the Alas River in a for my camera if the animal stays find fresh tracks in the bed of the dugout when the head of a mouse for a while. A further problem is river. The elephants had obviously deer suddenly emerged from the the extremely poor light in the fed extensively, as all the vegeta­ water. The helmsman grabbed it forest interior. tion fringing the river had been instinctively and the poor animal Most secretive of all the hidden broken down as if by a thunder­ cried in terror. forest animals are the carnivores. storm. Most of the undergrowth I had seen the mouse deer A palm civet may be observed, was trampled, but we could tell before, but only at night in my when it's on a hunting expedition that the elephants had carefully headlights, so I was happy to just at dawrl. The tracks or claw marks selected only the most tender sit admiring the elegant animal. Its of the sun bear can be seen quite leaves for their meal. All over the shape is much the same as the often, and indicate that it can place were huge dung heaps, which larger deer, but everything is on climb the tallest tree regardless of were still warm. such a tiny scale that I was fright­ slippery bark or scarcity of My two companions were ened I might break its fragile legs branches. Twice bears broke into alarmed and pleaded with me to as I handled it. There are two my food depots, causing a fright­ give up the search and return to mouse deer species and they are in ful mess, and once a sun bear camp. Even Pawang Husin started a family of their own, the nearly ran into my shelter at to tell a horrible story about how Tragulidae, rather than the true night; it fortunately decided to his grandfather was killed by an deer (the Cervidae). The males make a detour when my men elephant. But I was determined have no antlers but the enlarged, began to shout. . . . and then round a bend in the tusk-like canine teeth in their I have found evidence of at river, we came upon a male ele­ upper jaw give them a fierce least four different cats in the phant feeding some 20 metres in appearance .. They seem to live Gunung Leuser. The smallest, and front of us. We stood stock still. close to rivers and are excellent probably the most common, is At such close range the elephant swimmers and divers. the leopard cat. Unfortunately, seemed enormous. I started to Having convinced my men that villagers frequently collect the take photographs - but when the I would not allow them to eat the cubs as they cry for their mother, animal turned in our direction I animal, nor to break out its hidden in the bushes. Some are 162 sold to animal dealers, others are play alongside rivers; they swim only a few thousand animals, re­ kept in the village, but most of amazingly well, and in emergencies stricted to Borneo and North them die very soon as they are fed I have seen them diving and hiding Sumatra, this species is certainly on rice alone. Once a dealer underwater. The banded leaf threatened with extinction. offered me a leopard cat cub. He monkeys, with their funny tri­ Besides hunting, the de.struction placed the tiny creature on the angular faces, perform remarkable of habitat is the greatest threat to bonnet of my Toyota where it free-fall jumps of up to 20 metres the forest wildlife. Uncontrolled lived up to its ferocious reputation from one treetop to another. The shifting cultivation is destroying by showing its tiny teeth and slap­ pig-tailed macaque (which looks much of the remaining primary ping its paws against the wind­ somewhat like a baboon) will rush forest. Large areas are cleared and screen. Most puzzling and beauti­ to the ground when disturbed; the trees are burnt on the spot. ful were its light blue eyes. they are often caught, as they are When all the plant cover has gone, I was often offered wild in Malaysia, and trained to pick erosion starts quickly. After a few animals as pets, from small squir­ coconuts from the highest palm years the soil is washed away, the rels to tiger cubs. Much as I pitied trees. place is abandoned, and a new these poor ill-fed creatures, how­ The white-handed gibbons and piece of forest is cleared. ever, and much as I would have I the siamangs glide through the An ever-growing demand for liked to buy them, so that I ,could forest with smooth elegant move­ wood from the developed nations, ments, and their musical duets, especially Japan, Europe, and the Toyota Landcruiser supplied by the with which they mark their ter­ United States, triggered off an World Wildlife Fund to aid search for ritory acoustically, can be heard enormous timber boom in South­ tbe last rhino populations. Advertise­ all over the primary forest up to East Asia in the past few years. In ment for Japanese bulldozers reads in about 2,000 metres. 1973, some 15.5 million cubic 'Wherever roads must be built . . .- Rarest of all the primates is the metres (400 million cubic feet) of is there. Where you used to big red orang-utan, the 'man of timber were exported from an uninhabited jungle, you will find the woods', which leads a lazy life Indonesia, and mechanised timber Cl town when Komatsu gets through. ' in the primary lowland forests extraction operations are levelling the forests with alarming speed. For technical reasons the timber companies still concentrate on lowland areas, thus destroying the habitat of many lowland animals - such as the orang-utan. Most of the lowland forest in Sumatra is already gone or already scheduled for exploitation. If wood prices continue to rise, even the most inaccessible mountain forests might become profitable for logging. Oil companies, too, are building large networks of new roads in the forests, opening up the remotest wilderness to timber companies and shifting cultivators. This opening of the country is, from one point of view, making an important contribution to the economy. But from another point of view - the conservationist's - it will mean the disappearance of several animal species that are re­ release them in the forest to save where fruit trees are abundant. stricted to this habitat; it will also them from an otherwise certain There is a story in Sumatra that bring only short-term financial death, I never allowed sentiment orang-utans can talk as we do - gains. to get the better of me. Because but are too clever to do so, know­ Will it be possible to save this each time a dealer sells an animal ing that if they did they would be magnificent forest and its magnifi­ he is encouraged to go out and put to work in the rice fields. cent wildlife? catch another. The orang is under considerable With aid from the WorId Wildlife Of the other Felidae, such as hunting pressure, mainly because Fund the Indonesian authorities the rare golden cat, the beautifully there is still a good market for its have made a promising start to spotted clouded leopard, and the young. Once an orang-utan has secure the large Gunung Leuser Sumatran tiger, only an occasional been located it is not difficult to Reserve. However, although the track hints at their presence. capture its baby. Often the parent Indonesian Government is also Nevertheless, it is rather exciting orang does not take off in flight establishing new nature reserves all to find, as I have sometimes done, but tries to impress and frighten across the country, it has to con­ fresh tiger pug marks near my the hunters by shaking and throw­ sider the needs of the rapidly forest camp! I always made sure I ing down branches. It is thus very expanding human population. had my jungle knife beside my easy for the hunter to aim and It must therefore be the respon­ sleeping mat, though I never had shoot. The dying orang-utan sibility of the developed countries any problems with 'dangerous' mother then falls to the ground, to provide most of the financial animals during the long time I and the clinging youngster is taken support needed to protect these spent in the forest. from her. Some of these babies are reserves effectively for the next A further contrast is provided hurt when falling from the trees few decades - until Indonesia her­ by the primates, which (unlike the with their mothers, and most of self is able to take over.' • secretive cats) can be seen quite them die later because they fail to easily. Large groups of long-tailed get appropriate care. macaques can be watched as they With a world population of More photographs overleaf 163 Catching sight of the diminutive mouse deer (above left), the smallest ruminant in the world, is no less exciting - though possibly less frightening - than suddenly coming across a herd of elephants, the giants of the jungle. The primates are much Will it be possible to save this magnificent forest and its magnificent wildlife?

more in evidence than other mammals in the Gunung Leuser, and range f rom the macaques (above centre) to the endangered orang-utan (above). The rarest ungulate, apart from the Sumatran rhino, is the agile serow (below)

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