 Reference Base  Exploraties in de Gajo-Landen Algemeene resulaten der Lo... |
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Steenis, C.G.G.J. van, 1938. Exploraties in de Gajo-Landen Algemeene resulaten der Losir-Expeditie 1937. Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap (2) 55 (5): 728-801
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| Location: |
Asia - South East Asia - Indonesia - Sumatra |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Poaching |
| Species: |
Asian Rhino Species |
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After some hours walk, the guide stopped and examined a spear which he had put out to hunt rhinoceros, exactly like the one figured in Sumatra's Westkust in het Verslag der Midden-Sumatra Expeditie, vol. III, I, 2, plate 123 fig. 2. It is a terrible instrument which is placed exactly in those places where the animal cannot leave the path. The trap had done its duty, but the trophy had gone. A taut rotan releases the falling tree when the animal touches it, and a spear of hardened bamboo of 1-2 m length attached to the lower end of this tree falls on the animal with enormous power. The spear enters the animal's body and usually stays there. The heavily wounded rhinoceros runs away with blind fear and fury, almost always to die a slow and horrible death. As the animal have a perfect sense of smell, the hunter should not check the traps too often. He should after some weeks, when the trap was set off, look for the dead animal, of which mainly the horn and hoofs are valuable. For that reason the hunter and some friends walk around in ever incrasing circles around the place to discover the path on which the animal disappeared. After some days this is sometimes found and followed, and often the body is already consumed by tigers, who prey on the dying animal, and parts of the rhino are flown around. According to the hunter, they only manage to find the horn and hoofs in 10 percent of the cases.
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