Archive 'Flora and Fauna'
by Putra - 14 Oct 2006 @ 6:38 am · Category Flora and Fauna
Twelve varieties of the coconut palm (nyuh) exist on Bali. The palm provides tools, food, drink, and habitation; every part of the tree is used by the Balinese. So essential is the coconut tree in everyday life that the Balinese make special offerings to it once a year. The farmer knocks the tree three times to waken it, prayers for a plentiful harvest are said, then the tree and offerings are sprinkled with holy water. Coconut palms are individually owned, often by a different person than the owner of the land. The coconuts on the tree are the property of the tree’s owner, but a coconut that falls belongs to the person who picks it up. A good tree produces about 50-100 mature nuts per year for 50 years.
One of the world’s biggest seeds, the coconut provides copra, and its milk and grated meat are important ingredients in many Balinese dishes. Young coconuts, always available on request, make a sweet and refreshing drink, and their soft jelly-like meat is a real treat. White coconut oil is the only oil used for cooking on Bali. Frothy palm beer, ‘tuak’, is also derived from this tree.
The strong, hard, pest-resistant wood of the tree makes outstanding building timber. The woody husk is excellent fuel for cooking fires, the black husk fiber (duk) is utilized as an abrasive dish cleaner, and for brushes, rope, brooms, and as a roofing material. The Balinese use the small leaves of the central branch to fashion containers.
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by Putra - 11 Oct 2006 @ 6:37 am · Category Flora and Fauna
Offerings are frequently made to trees, especially in southern Bali. Selected, representative trees are adorned with ceremonial parasols and dressed in traditional black-and-white checkered cloth (kain poleng), scarf (saput), and headband (udeng) - the same dress Balinese men wear to temple.
The Balinese believe that in large trees dwell a host of spirits and demons; one often sees offerings placed on the ground before them, shrines constructed in their branches high above the ground. Legend has it that temples have even been founded next to important, spiritually charged trees. There are small, sacred reserves of trees all over the island, such as the Monkey Forest of Ubud and the majestic grove of dipterocarps at Sangeh.
Myriad uses are found for trees. Tree-trunk hollows are used as signal logs to call people to prayer, much like church bells in the West. The sacred milkwood (pule), sought after by woodworkers, is used to make the fearsome Rangda masks. In October, acacia trees, with huge clusters of bright yellow flowers, beautify the main road between Sanur and Tanjung Bungkak. Venerable tamarind trees line kilometer after kilometer of roads in northern Bali east of Singaraja; you can also see these huge shade trees on Jl. Suropati alongside Puputan Square in Denpasar.
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by Putra - 21 Sep 2006 @ 6:33 am · Category Flora and Fauna
Many plants we assiduously and lovingly cultivate as pot plants in the West-poinsettia, dracaena, coleus, begonias-grow in riotous profusion along the roadsides of Bali and have to be hacked back with machetes. Due to difference in altitude, rainfall, temperatures, and humidity, there’s a wide variation in the types of plants in bloom from month to month on Bali.
Along Bali’s roads and crowding its markets are stands selling all manner of fruits of strange colors, shapes, and sizes. All the usual varieties known in tropical Asia are grown on Bali, plus about 20 or so grown nowhere else, such as the enormous grapefruit-like ‘pomelo’ (jeruk Bali). For a description of Bali’s fruits, instructions on how to eat them, their Balinese names, and when they come into season, see “Fruits” under “Food and Entertainment” in the On the Road chapter.
Flower fragrances are especially adored by the Balinese and their gods. Fresh flowers are required offerings in almost all temple rituals and ceremonies, a way of providing a pleasing environment for spirits and ancestors during their frequent visits to Earth. The Balinese also use flowers to decorate themselves; statues of gods and goddesses are adorned with flowers; legong dancers wear crowns of blossoms; each time a Balinese prays s/he holds a flower between the fingers. Before a ‘bemo’ driver sets out for the day his wife or daughter prepares for him a floral offering, or ‘canang’. Indeed, flowers are so much in demand here that it’s rare to see flowering trees in full bloom.
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by Putra - 16 Aug 2006 @ 6:32 am · Category Flora and Fauna
Hire boats at Labuhan Lalang for snorkeling and diving in the marine reserve of Bali Barat National Park in the northwest. The wonderful sealife of the coral reefs off Menjangan Island is one of Bali’s premier dive sites. A unique species of lobster is caught in these waters, as well as a wide range of colorful coral fish, including parrot fish, damsels, angels, wrasses, butterfly fish, puffer fish, groupers, and moray eels.
To the east, about 10 kilometers before Singaraja, is the coastal resort of Lovina Beach, where dozens of motorized ‘perahu’ go out to view schools of dolphins in their feeding grounds. These shallow, calm waters teem with a wide variety of small reef fish, crustaceans, sponges, and hard coral. In deeper waters are plankton-eating whale sharks. Two other popular, dolphin-viewing and dive locales are Candidasa and Padangbai in Karangasem. An indispensable reference for marine study is Kal Muller’s Underwater Indonesia: A Guide to the World’s Greatest Diving.
Endangered Species
It’s a common sight to see men and boys walking the back roads of Bali carrying small caliber rifles and air guns for the purpose of shooting birds for food or sport. Because it’s illegal to shoot birds without a license, if you see this say “Jangan membawa senapan tanpa ijin!” (”Don’t carry a gun without a license!”)
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by Putra - 12 Aug 2006 @ 6:30 am · Category Flora and Fauna
There’s been a dramatic drop in the local bird population over the last 20 years. Although many of the more obvious and colorful species, particularly birds of prey, have been all but eliminated, species still number about three hundred. These include beautiful wild fowl; an iridescent blue kingfisher; the dollar-bird of western Bali’s open woodlands; the acrobatic ash-colored ‘drongo’; the olive-beaked sunbird, which feeds on flowers; the black-napped oriole, with its completely black abdomen; the white-breasted wood swallow with triangular wings; and the streaked weaver, which builds delicate nests in colonies in the long grass of open country.
Specialized seabirds inhabit Bali’s south coast. The white-bellied sea eagle and white-tailed tropic bird nest and breed in the stunning vertical limestone cliffs and offshore islets of the Bukit Peninsula and Nusa Penida. At low tide, a prime viewing area for waterbirds is the long, sheltered coast of mudflats and mangrove swamp from Sanur to Benoa Bay. Here you’ll find large flocks of plovers, sandpipers, and other wading birds feeding on the mudflats at low tide. Along the shores of the Bay of Gilimanuk on Bali’s western tip are the large brown and white brown booby, the great crested tern, and the common tern.
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by Putra - 02 Aug 2006 @ 6:31 am · Category Flora and Fauna
The island is home to the rarely spotted lethal, luminous green viper (lelipis gedong) identified by the red in its tail. Bali’s other snake, the ‘ular sawah’, is brown and nonpoisonous.
There are also crooning frogs, lucinea spiders which build their webs along paths (if they bite you, your head aches for three days), fireflies, butterflies, crickets, poisonous scorpions (rare), and huge black, harmless beetles that thud off your hotel walls trying to find a way out. Children catch dragonflies on long, glue-tipped bamboo poles, then thread them like sate on strings to take home and deep-fry in oil for a crispy, protein-rich delicacy. Cicadas are the multitudinous unseen chorus to all Balinese nights. Bats can be seen at Goa Lawah cave east of Klungkung; they also emerge all over Bali at dusk to feed.
What do you call an Indonesian lizard with a loud voice? A gecko blaster. The lovable gecko-’cicak’ in Indonesian-is about 15 cm long, has a scaleless alabaster body and beady eyes, screeches “tsk-tsk,” and scampers upside down on any surface with the use of vibrations from its pudgy toes. The bottoms of their feet resemble the gills of fish. It’s believed that if a gecko chirps while someone is talking it means that person is telling the truth. Geckos make cheap pets because you don’t have to feed them-they eat each other.
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by Putra - 28 Jul 2006 @ 6:28 am · Category Flora and Fauna
A cousin to the wild boar, Bali’s famous pigs are weighted to collapse with their loads of pork, their backbones sagging as if broken and their enormously heavy pink bellies dragging through the dust. Pigs are the property of the woman of the house and any money she earns from them belongs to her. A great Balinese delicacy not to be missed is suckling pig (’be guling’ in Balinese, ‘babi guling’ in Indonesian) roasted on a spit.
The ducks of Bali, kept as family pets, rank among the island’s most prominent citizens. Squads of them are taken from the family ‘kampung’ by the herders each day to feed in the rice fields, marching in formation under flags on long poles from which they never stray. In the irrigation channels between the rows of plants these comics act like up-tailed, web-footed vacuum cleaners, loosening old roots, nosing through the mud grubbing for worms, snails, frogs, insect pests, and leftover grains of rice.
At day’s end, the chattering flock gathers around the duck herder’s pole to be taken home again. Ducks are much better behaved and more complacent than bothersome chickens, well-suited for the communal living of the Balinese domestic compounds. Duck meat, as in the strongly spiced dish ‘bebek betutu’, makes for some of the finest eating on the island.
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by Putra - 27 Jul 2006 @ 6:27 am · Category Flora and Fauna
Monkeys, considered descendents of General Hanuman in Hindu mythology, occupy a semi-divine status on Bali and are allowed to proliferate around some of Bali’s most sacred temples. The best places to watch monkeys (and people) are the monkey forests of Ubud and Sangeh. Feeding time brings the monkeys down out of the trees around 1000 and 1600 when they are fed potatoes. Talk to one of the feeders-some have been caring for monkeys for the past 15 years. They have given the monkeys names and know the quirks of most individuals in the troop.
Even though signs often say, “Don’t Feed The Monkeys”, vendors sell peanuts and bananas at the gates. Gate price for peanuts is Rpl000, ‘warung’ price is Rpl00. It’s the same story for bananas. The secret for enjoying the monkeys without getting hurt or robbed is to sit very quietly and let them come to you. Before you arrive, put away all extra food, zip purses shut, and lock down cameras.
The monkeys will search you. Take off any jewelry and paraphernalia that you don’t need-they’ll gladly take possession of earrings, necklaces, watches, and even hearing aids. Then either hand the food to them or simply lay it in the palm of your hand. Always look out for the dominant male; he should be given food first to avoid fighting. Don’t feed the sub-adults or you may get bitten by their mother. Never show your teeth when smiling at the animals as it’s regarded as an aggressive gesture.
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by Putra - 26 Jul 2006 @ 5:44 am · Category Flora and Fauna
Bali is home to 32 species of mammals, including a wildcat, two species each of civet (the ‘musang’ or palm civet, which resembles a mongoose), two species of monkey, ’sambar’, barking deer, mouse deer, wild ox (banteng), and a miniature squirrel.
In the early 1900s, a writer reported that his camp in west Bali was trampled by a herd of feral elephants, but by the 1920s it was difficult to meet anyone who’d ever seen an elephant on the island. By that time the Balinese tiger, the smallest of eight subspecies of tiger, was very rarely sighted, and the last known animal was shot in 1937. Today only five sad stuffed specimens are left behind.
A visit to the 76,000-hectare Bali Barat National Park (BBNP), covering most of the heavily forested interior of western Bali, is obligatory for animal and bird lovers. The park is effectively protected against exploitation and development and is well-patrolled by rangers based at the park headquarters of Cekik and Labuhan Lalang. Here you can see ‘rusa’ deer, wild boar, and fairly tame long-tailed macaques and leaf monkeys sitting high in the trees chewing on leaves. The 165-hectare offshore island of Menjangan has a population of around 50 barking deer.
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