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Appelman, F.J., 1958. Ein Wort uber Ceratotherium simum cottoni. Zoologische Garten 24 (3/4): 284, fig. 1

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Location: Asia - South East Asia - Indonesia - Java
Subject: Distribution - Hunting
Species: Javan Rhino


Original text on this topic:
As readers may have read in the newspapers, on 31 January [1934} there was killed a good male badak (Rhinoceros sondaicus) on the southern coast of the regency of Tasikmalaja for the Zoological Museum. A few remarks will be beneficial.
In the first place I want to clarify why this animal was killed, as it belongs to a rare and threatened species. In the impenetrable forests on the southcoast of the district Karangnoenggal there were 2 badaks until 1918. In that year, one of them was poached illegally. Since my arrival in these parts in March 1929, I have carefully followed the life of the single remaining specimen and tried to establish why it appeared to me that it must be completely out of the question that this specimen would ever meet any of its kind again. For the continuation of the species the animal was completely worthless, while there was a good chance that it would be killed by poachers sooner or later or would die a natural death. In both cases it would be lost for science. When I informed the Director of the Zoological Museum about this last year, he was willing to take measures to secure the specimen for the museum. It was resolved to permit P.F. Franck, taxidermist of the museum, together with two other gentlemen to try to shoot the badak.
After good trackers had established the daily routine of the animal for some time, the first attempt was made in September 1933. We were convinced that it was useless to try to beat the animal out of the forest, and that result could only be had by following the fresh tracks. This proved difficult, because the area where the rhinoceros prefers to live is densely grown with either shrubs with many kinds of areuj-species (creepers) or with salaria, the bamboo doeri (Lantana camara). We had to bend over for hours on end following the tunnels made by the rhino and had to wage a continuous war against creepers and thorn-bushes, without any view. The only indication that we were gaining on the animal were the strong smell of urine in the tunnels and the dung-heaps of the animal in the form of a pyramid. The dung balls were the size of tennis balls. The large track (28 x 29 cm) was very imposing and I will not deny that sometimes we looked at each other when the tunnel became narrow and dark.
However we were lucky on the first day and at 5.30 pm we were able to approach the rhino up to 15 meters while it wa sfeeding. With much noise it uprooted small trees, to eat the poetjoek from it. However, in the dense bush, only the first man, Mr Franck, could see anything, that was a large dark object without head or tail. According to good hunting practice, a shot was unwarranted under those circumstances. On the other side, we had commission to secure the specimen and such a chance was unlikely to occur again within the next weeks. It was needed and soon a large bang was heard in the jungle. What happened next is hard to describe. It was as if a cyclone started. Like a locomotive, the badak forced his way through the bamboe doeri, he fell, stood up, stamped its feet and continued fleeing through the 'balla' (bushes of alang alang, glagah, tjent?, etc.), seemingly in semi-circles. We could not see anything and that scared us. After a while silence reigned again and we tried to find the place where the animal was hit. We found lots of blood at shoulder height and it looked like blood from the lungs. In good hope we returned to camp, intending to follow the tracks the next morning. Unfortunately, there was no need. Before daybreak a tracker came to inform us that a fresh track of a rhinoceros had been seen near a village without any trace of blood. Still, we had to follow this track, which we did through dense bush from 7 am to 4 pm and we could only establish that the tracks were completely normal, that the rhino had eaten as usual and had taken a mud bath. Apparently he had received only a wound in the flesh. We therefore decided to leave the animal alone and try again after a few months.
During the next months we received regular reports of the animal's whereabouts. He was often seen on a certain tegellang where he calmly walked through the paggers. In the middle of the night he even visited the baleh desa and the courtyard of the loerah of S. In the end the reports became frightening. Children no longer dared to go to school and the women were afraid to go far from the desa.
At the end of January it was decided to try again. The reports made us think that the task would be almost too easy. However, we were wrong. On the first afternoon, we almost lost the track in a hard grassy plane, the second day trackers could not find a fresh track at all. On the third day we were less hopeful and apprehensive, because two of us had to return to town later that day. It seemed as if something was wrong, as if something mysterious had happened. The morning went, bags and field beds were packed, we were ready to go. At last the information came back that a fresh track was found just 4 km from camp. It was 3.30 pm already, chances were slim. However, we had to try. At first the forest was not so bad, but at 4 pm we had to enter the tunnels again. Again we smelled the urine and found the dung, were we going to make it while it was light enough? It was 5 pm. Karta, the guide, stopped and pointed forwards with his black finger. There is a noise to the right. Mr. Van H. and myself look right, but we cannot even see 5 meters ahead. But Karta continues to point in front and we see Mr Franck ready to shoot. He shoots and again it is as if a train rushes through the forest. We hear the animal run away, seemingly in a straight line. At the end of the tunnel we find a mudpool, but no blood. The shot could hardly have missed. Two of us had to leave, and Franck decided to follow the tracks the next morning.
It was 36 hours later that the telephone rang. The animal was found, near the wallow. A shot in the lungs had finished the life of the lonely creature. After some time this old male will be exhibited in the Museum in Buitenzorg.

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