Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society/Volume 85/The Malayan Badger
Notes.
The Malayan Badger.
Dr. W. Docters van Leeuwen, Director of the Botanical Gardens, Buitenzorg contributes the following interesting notes on the Malayan Badger in Java:—
Since describing in this Journal the two Bornean skins as a new subspecies, Mydaus javanensis montanus, I have examined a third imperfect skin from the Sarawak Museum. It was obtained from the Kalabits of the ulu Baram and almost certainly comes from the same locality as the other two. Unfortunately the Kalabits have made it up as a seat-mat for their own use and consequently cut it down considerably; only the back remains, the head, legs and tail having been cut off. It measures 19 inches by 10 at the widest part. A comparison of the whitish dorsal marking shows that it must have been similar in size to the other two. The white streak is 3 inches across at the widest, then narrows abruptly and breaks off completely for 3 inches before continuing as a very thin line for another 4 inches, after which it widens to the extent of 2 inches across the lumbar region.Buitenzorg, 20th May, 1921."With much interest I have read your article on the occurrence of the Malayan Badger in Borneo (Journ. Str. Br. Roy. Asiat. Soc. No. 83, 1921, pp. 112-116). This animal is very common in Java and I have seen it or smelt it on every mountain which I have visited. The lowest elevation at which I have seen this animal was 1000 feet on Mount Moeria in Java-central. The last time I saw it on Mount Pangerango, near Buitenzorg, was from an elevation of 4000 feet up to the summit, about 11,000 feet. There it is also common and very tame; in the vicinity of my mountain cabin it seeks the earthworms and insects under the thick moss-cover of the old crater valley. In the neighbourhood of our mountain laboratory at Tjibodas it is also very frequent and more than once we were awakened by the stink of this animal walking under our sleeping room.
"It will interest you perhaps that in this forest there is a kind of fern, which has the same smell as the badger though not so strong, and which is named by the natives the "pakoe sigoeng"; its scientific name is Didymochleena lunulata Desv.
"I have had some accidents meeting this animal but never have I felt any ill effect from the anal fluid though it is far from agreeable to be in contact with it. In some parts of Java, especially in the old sultanates it is said that a very weakened solution of the fluid is used as a perfume."
Buitenzorg, 2nd June, 1921."In the neighbourhood of Mount Goentoer near Garoet I had once built a small bamboo cabin, with walls of dried grass and about every evening a badger came and looked in one of my open rooms and every night as he walked near the cabin we were awakened by the smell. This stench he bears too, when not irritated, in his hairs, and also the path followed by this animal in the forest is recognisible by the stink. In the forest of Mount Pangerango I have seen the badger often in the first hours of the afternoon, but it is really a night-animal."
The length of the skin from the widest part of the dorsal streak between the shoulders to the root of the tail is 16 to 17 inches in all three skins.
The skin representing the Type of this new subspecies has been deposited in the British Museum. The second and third skins remain in the Raffles Museum, Singapore, and the Sarawak Museum respectively. No others are as yet known.