Skin, feet. Locality: Tandjung Laut, Sumatra. Collected by: Prof. Moesch, 1889. In coll. . Eidg. Polytechnikum, Zurich, Switzerland.
Skin, feet. Locality: Tandjung Laut, Sumatra. Collected by: Prof. Moesch, 1889. In coll. . Eidg. Polytechnikum, Zurich, Switzerland.
Cup from horn. Industrielle Gesellschaft, Muelhausen, Germany.
Skin, feet. Locality: Tandjung Laut, Sumatra. Collected by: Prof. Moesch, 1889. In coll. . Eidg. Polytechnikum, Zurich, Switzerland.
The Sumatran Rhinoceros was encountered by chance in several instances, including the forest near Pohorok.
The Sumatran Rhinoceros was encountered by chance in several instances, including Upper Langkat.
Bahdak
The price of rhino horn is quite high. The local therefore try to get the animal as much as possible. They catch it in pitfalls. Malay hunters, like Mustapha who is known in the town of Deli, often kill several each year.
The Sumatran Rhinoceros was encountered by chance in several instances, including Indragiri, in the Orang Mamma area near Pomatang Ruba and Pomatang Djenako.
Sumatra. A female Sumatran Rhino killed in Tandjung Laut. After we had skinned the animal on the spot, the Chinese people who had helped me asked me for the stomach of the rhinoceros. I granted their request, upoin which they cut the stomach open and took out the contents, a large mass looking like spinach, and they cooked it directly next to the animal. They then ate it all in its entirety, saying that it tasted very well.
The Sumatran Rhinoceros was encountered by chance in several instances, including Tandjung Laut. In the forest of Tandjung Laut I once saw around 1 pm in a wallow a rhinoceros, and I was able to fire a shot at the eye region of the head, but it did not die (probably because my 16 calibre gun was too small for this kind of game). In the same area I saw around 11 pm at night, when travelling downstream in a sampan, close to the river banks a rhinoceros. As it was a night of full moon, I could see it well, but I did not get a shot at it as it quickly turned around and disappeared into the jungle.
The Sumatran Rhinoceros was encountered by chance in several instances, including Batu Bahra.
hoofs - Sumatra. A planter living in Tandjung Laut, Sumatra saw a pair of Sumatran Rhino in a wallow around noon. The hoofs were stolen by a Chinese supervisor.
That the Sumatran Rhino will attack a human without being prompted, I have experienced myself. Around 5 pm, I was in company of 3 locals, when we came to a small open place in the forest which we had to cross. One of the men whispered: 'Sir, there is a rhino over there.' And indeed I saw, at about 20-30 m from us, at the opposite side of the glade, a rhinoceros eating small twigs. I made up my mind first to observe it for a while and then to shoot it. I went closer to the animal at about half the distance, with my gun ready. Quite unexpectedly, the Bahdak raised its head, tried to get the smell, and then came directly running towards me, making grunting noises. Only with great pains I was able to hide behind the roots of a Ficus-tree, as it was difficult to run quickly in the tall grass. The attack of the animal without provocation was so unexpected, that I surely could not get a shot at it, and had to let it run past me. I clearly saw how it moved its head up and down and how the horns touched the ground, making obvious furrows. The rhino did not walk straight, but it made movements left and right, so that the tracks looked as if in a zig-zag. When my men had climbed down the trees where they had escaped to, we looked at the furrows, which ran a bit to the left, then a bit to the right. Unfortunately I did not measure the depth of these furrows, but I remember well that they were not very deep, more like scratches in the soil, but deeper where the soil was wetter. When we continued our march, we found a path which the animal had taken often, with a large dung heap of the rhino. We did not see the animal again.
When we continued our march, we found a path which the animal had taken often, with a large dung heap of the rhino.
Quite unexpectedly, the Bahdak raised its head, tried to get the smell, and then came directly running towards me, making grunting noises. Only with great pains I was able to hide behind the roots of a Ficus-tree, as it was difficult to run quickly in the tall grass. The attack of the animal without provocation was so unexpected, that I surely could not get a shot at it, and had to let it run past me. I clearly saw how it moved its head up and down and how the horns touched the ground, making obvious furrows. The rhino did not walk straight, but it made movements left and right, so that the tracks looked as if in a zig-zag. When my men had climbed down the trees where they had escaped to, we looked at the furrows, which ran a bit to the left, then a bit to the right. Unfortunately I did not measure the depth of these furrows, but I remember well that they were not very deep, more like scratches in the soil, but deeper where the soil was wetter.
When we continued our march, we found a path which the animal had taken often, with a large dung heap of the rhino.
In the forest of Tandjung Laut I once saw around 1 pm in a wallow a rhinoceros
Sumatra - anti-poison. The shavings of rhino horn, as well as the cups made from the whole horn, are said to possess the mysterious property that it foams up as soon as a poisonous substance touches it. As many Malay and other local royalty live in constant fear of being poisoned, and not just without reason, the price of rhino horn is quite high.
Family: Rhinocerotidae, Subfam. Rhinocerotinae, Genus: Dicerorhinus.
