 Reference Base  On the occurrence of Rhinoceros sondaicus Desm. in Sumatra |
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Beaufort, L.F. de, 1928. On the occurrence of Rhinoceros sondaicus Desm. in Sumatra. Tijdschrift der Nederlandsche Dierkundige Vereeniging (3) 1 (2): 43-44
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| Location: |
Asia - South East Asia - Indonesia - Sumatra |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Records |
| Species: |
Asian Rhino Species |
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Rhinoceros sondaicus occurs in Sumatra with review. Up to the present date the distribution of Rhinoceros sondaicus Desm. has puzzled the zoologists. It was known to occur on Java and again in Malacca and farther west, but had never been found either in Sumatra or Borneo. As other animals, especially birds and reptiles, had the same discontinuous distribution, several hypotheses have been suggested to explain this anomaly. In the course of time however most of these species have been discovered in Sumatra and in later years it has been supposed that the javanese Rhino had formely lived in Sumatra, but was now extinct by some reason unknown.
It is true that Rhinoceros sondaicus his been mentioned as living in Sumatra, but none of these records were absolutely certain. Gray e.g. (Cat. Carnivorous, Pachydermatous etc. Mammalia, 1869) mentions a skeleton in the British Museum of this species ?received from the Leyden Museum through M. Frank as R. sumatranus, from Sumatra', but the author was so convinced that it did not occur there, that he supposed ?that some mistake in the name and habitat' must have been made. In the same catalogue he describes Rhinoceros floweri (a synonym of Rhinoceros sondaicus), which was presented by Sir Stamford Raffles and therefore was supposed to come from Sumatra. To strengthen this opinion he cites Raffles as follows: ?There is another animal in the forests of Sumatra never yet noticed, which in size and character nearly resembles the Rhinoceros , and which is said to bear a single horn. The animal is distinguished by having a narrow whitish belt encircling the body'. It is apparent that not a Rhino, but Tapirus indicus has been described to Raffles, but the ?single horn' suggests, that stories about the javanese Rhino also reached Raffles and that he thought it was one and the same animal.
Jentink (Notes Leyden Museum, XVI, 1894, p. 231) has given a critical recapitulation of what had been said about the distribution of the Rhino's in the Greater Sunda islands. He came to the conclusion, that R. sondaicus only occurs in Java, but is absent from Sumatra and Borneo, where sumatranus is found.
Lately Dammerman said that he had reason to believe that Rhinoceros sondaicus occurred in Sumatra. Robinson and Kloss added this species to their ?List of the mammals of Sumatra' (Journ. Fed. Malay States Museum, VIII, 1923, p. 317), without saying why and Kloss, when recording two specimens of this species from Perak, says: ?it exists, though apparently only in small numbers, in Sumatra' (Journ. Fed. Malay States Mus., XIII, 1927, p. 207).
Lastly Dr. P. Vageler wrote in Die Umschau, XXXI, 1927, p. 289, that the big game hunter G. C. Hazewinkel had shot 8 specimens in Sumatra of a new variety of R. sondaicus, differing from the javanese specimens by the deciduous scales of the skin and the enormous development of the incisivi of the lower jaw. The accompanying reproductions of photographs show an animal, which does not seem to differ from Rhinoceros sondaicus and a skull, of which the same can be said.
Now Mr. Ruhe presented to the zoological museum of Amsterdam the complete skeleton of a female Rhinoceros sondaicus, shot by Mr. Kreth 250 km southwest of Palembang, Sumatra. I cannot see any differences with Javanese specimens. The incisors of the lower jaw are not larger.
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