 Reference Base  The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma: M... |
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Blanford, W.T., 1891. The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma: Mammalia. London, Taylor and Francis, pp. i-v, i-xx, i-xiii, 1-617
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Asia |
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Distribution |
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Javan Rhino |
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335. Rhinoceros sondaicus.
The smaller one-horned Rhinoceros.
Rhinoceros sondaicus, Cuv., Desm. Mam. p. 399 (1822); Blyth, J. A. S. B. xxxi, p. 151; id. Cat. p. 137; id. Mam. Birds Burma, p. 50; Jerdon, Mam. p. 234 ; Sclater, P.Z.S.1874, p. 182. pl. xxviii; id. Tr.Z.S ix, p. 649, pl. xevi; Fraser, J. A. S. B. xliv, pt. 2, p. 10, pl. v; Flower, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 454; Ball, P. A. S. B. 1877, p. 170; Cockburn, P. A. S. B.1884, p. 140; W. Sclater, Cat. p. 202.
Rhinoceros javanicus, Cuv. Hist. Nat. Mam. livr. 45, pl. 309 (1824); Rainey, P. A. S. B. 1878, p. 139.
Rhinoceros inermis, Lesson, Complements du Buffon, ed. 2, i. p 514 (1848); Peters, MB. Akad. Berl. 1877, p. 68, pls. i-iii.
Rhinoceros nasalis and R. floweri, Gray, P. Z. S. 1867. DD. 1012, 1015.
Gainda, H.; Gondu, Beng.; Kunda, Kedi, Kweda, Naga; Kyeng, Kyan-tsheny, Burmese; Badak, Malay.
Animal altogether smaller, though scarcely, if at all, lower at the shoulder than B. unicornis; head much smaller. Skin naked or nearly so, not tubercular, the epidermis divided by cracks into small, polygonal, subequal scale-like disks throughout the body and limbs. Surface of body divided into shields by folds, as in B. unicornis, but the fold in front of the shoulders is continuous across the back like that behind the shoulders and that in front of the thighs. Neck-folds comparatively little developed. Incisors generally 2/4; upper molars smaller and with a simpler pattern than those of R. unicornis; skull and mandible of less height, mesopterygoid fossa broad. Hinder margin of bony palate produced in the. middle; a partially ossified septum narium. The horn is frequently, perhaps always, wanting in the female.
Colour dusky grey throughout.
Dimensions. Rather less than those of B. unicornis, but most of the measurements published appear to be those either of young animals or of individuals in confinement, which very often do not attain their full growth. A large female, according to Mr. Eraser and Mr. Cockburn, was 5 feet 6 inches high. A skull measures 23 inches in basal length, 13-8 in zygomatic breadth.
Distribution. The Sundarbans and parts of Eastern Bengal; Kinloch shot an undoubted specimen in the Sikhim Terai. From Assam this rhinoceros is found throughout Burma and the Malay Peninsula, and in Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. Blyth states that this species was formerly found near Rajmehal, but does not give any reason for the identification. The statement, mentioned by Jerdon, that a few individuals existed in the forests of Orissa, has been ascertained by Mr. Ball and myself to be a mistake. So far as I am aware, there is no evidence at present that this rhinoceros ever inhabited the Peninsula of India. Its remains have, however, been found fossil in Borneo (P. Z. S. 1869, p. 409).
Habits. B. sondaicus is more an inhabitant of tree-forest than of grass, and although it is found in the alluvial swamps of the Sund-arbans, its usual habitat appears to be in hilly countries. It has been observed at considerable elevations both in Burma and in Java; and the tracks seen by Major Macgregor south-east of Sadiya, at 7000 feet above the sea (Proc. R. Geog. Soc. 1887, p. 27), were probably made by this species. It is said to be more gentle and inoffensive than R. unicornis.
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