The People

Most of Ujung Kulon National Park has always been a wilderness and only last century was described as 'a place desolate and frightening, never trodden by Javanese' however, isolated comunities were once established along the shorelines and its waters have provided shelter and food for early mariners for many centuries.

According the local legends and records, possibly the earliest settlement was made on Panaitan Island in the 1500's by a community of Hindus or Buddhists fleeing conversion to the Islamic faith. All that now remain are a bathing site and two statue on the very summit of Gunung Raksa, one of which is an unusual carving of Ganesha, the elephant-like son of Shiva.

Two centuries later on the 6th of January 1771, the famous English explorer James Cook anchored off Panaitan Island in search of food and water for the sick crew. His botanist Joseph Banks visited a town on the island called Samadang. It contained three hundred houses built on high pillars and many were in ruins. These Islamic inhabitants spoke Sundanese and said that they had originally come from the mountains of West Java.

In 1808 attention was first focused on Ujung Kulon when the Dutch Govenor-General proposed a naval port in the waters between Peucang Island and the Ujung Kulon Peninsula. The sultan of Banten was ordered to provide the workers but because of diseases and political unrest the naval port was abandoned. Instead it became a prison site for captured local pirates supporting the Sultan against the Dutch.

By the 1850's expeditions were exploring Ujung Kulon. They praised its resorces and wrote: 'Java's western corner does in truth seem destined to become an important place...' However, they believed its value would be as center of trade and commerce. But nature intervened and at 10.00 am on August 21, 1883, after a day of violent thunder stroms and ashest of rain, the erupting volcanoe Krakatau sent a largest of a series of tidal waves to decimate the shores of Ujung Kulon. This wave reached height of up to 30 meters, travelled as far as 10 km. inland and devastated the coasts of Sunda Straits killing 36.000 people. Only the areas of the Ujung Kulon coastline sheltered by Panaitan and Peucang Island were saved from the full impact of the Tsunami.

At that time were three small villages containing 120 people in the Peucang region and most of the people survived by fleeing to the Tanjung Layar lighthouse. During the height of the eruption the lighthouse keeper wrote in his morning log: ' at 9 o'clock weather becoming worse, completely dark banged open and lightening hit the building... wounding for of ten convicts....heavy thunder and earthquakes..'

Just a decade later there were again forty houses at what was then called Djungkulan with a small settlement across the channel of Peucang Island and other at Cibunar and Kalejetan on the south coast. These villages were evacuated at the beginning of the 1900's It was said to be because of illness and 'plagues of tigers' but the true reason was probably to set aside the area as a nature reserve.

The Sundanese

Around the Gunung Honje Range live the people of the region, the Sundanese of south-west Banten. These 42.000 inhabitants who speak a dialect of the Sundanese language, live in numerous villages kampung outside the eastern boundary of the park.

With live based on their traditional culture,90% of the local people still live off the land and the sea using age old methods. Their staple rice diet is supplement by corn, sweet potatoes, cassava, beans and cucumber crops and tropical fruits like bananas, rambutan, mangosteen, jambu and the highly appreciated durian. Cloves and coconut are sold elsewhere to bring money into the comunities. The villagers also raise oxen, goats, sheep, ducks, geese and chicken and collect wild honey and palm sap. Sundanese society is based upon large extended families who provide support and assistance within the family. The saying ' whether we eat or not, as long as we are together' prevails as family relationships are very strong. Mutual co operation gotong-royong extends beyon the family throughout the whole comunity and may aspect of their live depends upon comunity assistance in agriculture, building, community projects, boat repairs, guarding of the village and numerous ceremonies and celebrations.

These good natured, friendly people are very devout followers of the Islamic religion yet retain many of the customs, traditions and culture of their ancestors, An example of this is found in the Debus performance when dancers prove their mental strenght and invulnverability with mystical feats. The Sundanese of Banten are regarded with some awe in Indonesian society because of these supernatural abilities.

There are places in the park that are of special religious or spiritual significance and the most notable are the caves of Sanghiang Sirah on the far south-west tip of Ujung Kulon Peninsula. To these caves come pilgrims, particularly from the Cirebon area of central Java, who travel and walk many days through the park to gain the blesing and good fortune of the early spiritual leaders Prabu Siliwangi, Prabu Tajimalela and Nyi Mas Mayangsari.

The local people still practice a code of conduct when in the forests. These include not eating while walking, always being seated on leaves, no whistling or idle conversations, never mentioning the actual name for a tiger, only using knives to cut vegetation, only urinating while sitting, not travelling after twilight and when sleeping in the forest everyone being regarded as of equal status. It is believed the if these customs are not followed then people are indistingushable from animals and their spirit world and that there maybe unfortunate consequences.

Challenges

Until this century, when Ujung Kulon became a reserve and the a national park, it was the hunting, fishing and gathering grounds for these comunities and although they are still able to collect forest produce in the park's buffer zone area, agriculture, hunting and fishing are ilegal inside the park. One of the greatest challanges in the conservation of Ujung Kulon National park is to educate the park's neighbours about the need for protecting the forest nd wildlife and to gain the support of local comunities. In the villages around Ujung Kulon education programmes are run by the park staff and several organizations are involved in finding alternative resources and incomes. These projects include tourist accomodation, bee keeping, re-afforestation, water supplies and local craft production.

The present and future challanges to the park involve not only the local people. There is garbage and refuse from the citis that float south on the currents smothering the marine life and wash up on Ujung Kulon's shores. There is also the poaching of marine life by fishermen, often from far distant regions, as well as the preserving a national park almost entirely involve educating and managing people, for if the park was left in solitude its wildlife. forests and the marine life would survive in nature's harmony.

Ujung Kulon National Park

Introduction | The Land | Plant Life | Wild Life | Marine Life | The People | Attractions | Map Ujung Kulon

UJUNG KULON WILDLIFE

Ujung Kulon has a vast array of wildlfie, quite a number of which are endangered or rare, Some of the animals are so unaffraid that they freely wander in and arround the tourist lodges, others are sighted almost every days, many are heard rather than seen, and some are rarely seen.

Animal

Rhinoceros

The most precious of all the animals in the park is the Javan one horned rhinoceros, the rarest large animal on earth. Once found across much of south east Asia, the first accounts of the Javan rhino date back to China's Tang dynasty (AD 618-906) when Java was noted as a source for rhino horns. In Java during the 1700's rhinos were so numerous and damaging to the agricultural plantations that the government paid a bounty for every rhino killed, bagging five hundred within two years.

Ujung Kulon's rhino population is now estimated at around fifty individuals and they were believed to be the last remaining Javan rhino in the world until a small population was recently discovered in Vietnam. However, these are so few in numbers that their viability is unlikely and so Ujung Kulon remains the last home of this magnificent pachyderm.

In apperance the Javan rhino is closest to the Indian rhino, both having a single horn and skin folds or plates but there are distinct difference between their neck plates and skin textures. The Javan rhino also has a long prehensile upper lip which extends below the lower allowing it to grasp foliage. The body shape of the Javan rhino is designed to push aside the undergrowth and only the male Javan rhino has a prominent horn while the female has a lump similiar to a halved coconut.

Earlier this century Javan rhinos were measured as being over 170 cm at the shoulders, more than 3 metres in lenght and 2,200 kg. in body weight but a recent photographic survey indicates the largest rhino in Ujung Kulon may be around 150 cm in height.

Rhino range over a maximum distance of 15 to 20 kilometers a day in the densely forested lowlands of the Ujung Kulon Peninsula and to the east of its isthmus. They are most mobile at nights, like wallowing in mud pools and sometimes venture onto beaches and grazing grounds.

Although actual sightings of rhinos are rare, their prints dan droppings are often found on the trails, sometime unnervingly fresh. Javan rhinos are believed to be capable of running as fast as a person and so advice to visitors, should they happen to come across one, is to climb the nearest tree and take a photo - in that order.

Deer

Far more obvious animals in the park are the Javan rusa deer that freely graze around the tourist lodges. These are the largest of the three deer species in Ujung Kulon. The rusa stags are at their most magnificent in the mating season aroung August to September when the antlers have shed their velvet and territorial battles between the stags begin.

The smaller Barking deer has along, sleek head and measures aroung 60-70 cm. at the shoulders. The stags have short, two pointed antlers and tusk-like canine teeth. Their favourite habitat is the outer edges of the forest where vegetation is low to the ground and when fleeing their white under tail catches the eye.

The smallest is the Mouse deer which measures only 20-25 cm. in height and has a reddish brown coat with white underparts. The stag does not have antlers but instead has long curving canine teeth that extend outside the mouth. In the early years visitors to Ujung Kulon witnessed a Mouse deer ripping open the stomach of a rival during a matting fight. Their habitat is within the forest and they rarely venture onto beaches and clearings.

Banteng

Since pre historic time these wild cattle have lived throughout Java and in the 17th century were usedto carry loads but now the herd roam wild and are found in just a few locations throughout the island. The males have black coats while the female are usually a golden brown and both have white buttocks and stockings. A mature bull can measure over 170 cm. at the shoulders and although both sexes have horns, only the males are large and curved. Banteng favour open grassy clearings for grazing particularly early and late in the day but also feed on the forest's young secondary growth and are found throughout the Peninsula and southern Gunung Honje regions.

Primate

Ujung Kulon has five species of primates with the brown, long-tailed, Crab eating macaques being the most commonly seen especially on beaches and reefs at low tide. Peucang Island supports four separate group numbering over two hundred individuals.

Wild Pigs

Ujung Kulon has two types of wild pig, the Eurasian wild pig and the Javan warty pig. Similiar in size and weight. the Eurasian wild pig sometimes has a light greyish white stripe from the head to the chest while the male Javan warty prig hast three pairs of lumps or warts on the face which can give an old male a montrous appearance. The coat of the young Eurasian piglet has long yellowish-brown stripes and when disturbed they often make short loud grunts while warty pigs have a high pitched cry. Wild pig are surprisingly good swimmers and have been known to cross the 700 meters channel between the Peninsula and Peucang Island

Cats

The cat family was represented by five species although the last positive sighting of a Javan tiger in Ujung Kulon was in the 1950's and it is believed that they are now part of the long list of the world's extinct animals. However, leopards measuring over half a metre at the shoulder and over 1,5 meters in lenght, number as many as sixty in Ujung Kulon and their tracks are sometimes seen on beaches and stream beds. The black rosettes on their coat have background colors that can vary from a light strawyellow to orange-yellow and it is not uncommon for the leopards to have completely black coats.

Fishing cats, named for their ability to scoop fish out of water, are considerably smaller than leopards but larger than domestic and the jungle or leopard cats, which tend to frequent the boundary regions of the park near settlements.

Civest

Between a fox and ferret in size with short legs, long muzzle and a tail the same lenght as its body, the most often seen of these predators is the common palm civet which is found throughout the park including Panaitan island.

Wild Dogs

These are quite different from their domesticcated village dogs seen throughout Indonesia as they are smaller, squatter, have a red-brown coat a fox like appearance. They live and hunt in packs and in 1846 there was an account of hundreds of large turtles, some of which were well over a meter in lenght, being over turned and killed by a dog pack on Ujung Kulon's south coast. Then unaccountably their numbers decreased to the point where they were never seen in Ujung Kulon until earlier this century when they again re-appeared possibly partly due to the dwindling tiger population.

Squirrels

Of the thirteen species species of squirrels in Java the two most often seen in the park are the Malay giant squirrel and the Common Malay or Coconut squirrles. The giant squirrels has a shiny black, reddish, cream and fawn coat and its favourites habitat is amongst the tall trees. At the sightest suspicion of danger they make a loudrattling call accompanied by jerking movements with their long lush tails. The small and very mobile coconut squirrel is medium brown in color, make a loud cackling noise and although it can sometimes be found on the forest floor it usually is seen scampering up trunks or exploring branches.

Lemur

The remarkable Malay flying lemur does not actually fly but glides through the forest canopy with the aid of a membrane that stretches from the neck to the tips of its body. When air borne this membrane becomes kite-like and allows the lemur to travel for distance of 70 meters.

Bats

Of the seventy or more types of bats found in Java, the two most often seen in Ujung Kulon are the large flying fox and the Horsfield's roundleaf bat. Flying foxes hang in groups high up in large trees during the day and leisurely wing their way across the early morning and late afternoon skies, often being mistaken for large birds. The small Horsefield bats however, spend their days in caves often shared with nesting swftlets. Asmall colony of these bats are found at Karang Copong on Peucang Island.

Birds

Although over 250 species have been recorded in Ujung Kulon the birds are not always easily seen as many live high in the forest canopy or are vigilant inhabitants of the dense undergrowth. However it is the constant bird calls of Ujung Kulon that contribute to the atmosphere of the forest, for seldom is the park silent.

The most conspicuous of the birds are the hornbills as the park resounds with their wing beats and raucous calls, Of the three species in the park, the biggest is the black and white Rhinoceros hornbill with a broad black band across its white tail, a large upward curving orange-red casque above the bill and makes a loud, harsh ' kronnk'. The Asian pied hornbill, of the same coloring, has white tipped wings and a yellow and white casque. It is the smallest and the noisiest making incessant 'yak yak' calls. Normally found in pairs, the hornbills nesting habits are especially interesting. At the begining of the nesting period, the male hornbill cements the female and continues until the young are half grown. The female then breaks out and the nest entrance is re sealed until the young decide to leave.

The largest eagle in the park, the white bellied sea eagle has a wedge shaped tail and is often seen soaring along the shores preying on fish and sea snakes. The smaller crested serpent-eagle withish tail bars and wing bands is frequently seen in pairs wheeling in circles over the forest in search of snakes.

The green peafowl often referred to as a peacock regardless of sex, frequents the grazing ground and clearings, Java has the world;s largest wild population of these magnificent birds and a great proportion are found in Ujung Kulon.

Ujung Kulon National Park

Introduction | The Land | Plant Life | Wild Life | Marine Life | The People | Attractions | Map Ujung Kulon

Ujung Kulon Land

The park's 120,551 hectares are divided into 76214 ha of land and 44,337 ha of surrounding reefs and sea. It can roughly be separated into three areas: - the triangular shaped Ujung Kulon Peninsula, The Gunung Honje Range to the east of the peninsula;s itsthmus and the island of Panaitan to the north west.

The highest points in the park are the 620 metre Gunung Honje, the Gunung Payung Range peaks of up to 500 meters and Panaitan Island's Gunung Raksa at 320 meters. In the central section of the Peninsula is a large region of wilderness known as the Telanca Plateau which reaches 140 metres above sea level, however most consist of low rolling terrain seldom more that 50 metres above sea level.

Surrounding by unusually warm waters, seldom varying from between 29 - 30 degree celcius. The coastline of the park are moulded by the sea around them, battered by the Indian Ocean, the long, sandy beaches of the south coast are backed by dunes, lagoons and forest broken by rocky outcrops - a wild and windswept shoreline.

The west coast's reef-lined shore has cliffs, promontories and towering sea stacks along sand and boulder beaches overhung by forest, creating the most spectacular coastline in the park.

On the north coast, the sheltered tropical straits lap upon beaches of white snds and coral banks with islands, estuaries, swamps and forest lined shores.

Along each coastline is a variety of seascapes which in all their diversity, offer a wide range of absorbing shoreline experiences.

GEOLOGY OF UJUNG KULON

The events that led to the formation of the land we know as Ujung Kulon began about 200 million years ago when what is now the Indian continent broke awy from the super-continent of Gondwanaland. It collided with the Asian continent creating huge ripples across the earth's crust forming the snow-clad Himalayas along with Sumatra's mountain range, Bukit Barisan.

It is believed the the Ujung Kulon Peninsula and the Gunung Honje Range were at that time the southern end of the Bukit Barisan Range as Java and Sumatra were connected by a land-bridge. Then 20.000 to 15.000 years ago, the land bridge collapsed to eventually form the Sunda Straits about 9.500 years ago.

However the period when the Straits was formed is somewhat contradicted by an intriguing account in an early Javanese chronicle The Book of Kings. It states the in the year 416 AD the mountain Kapi (Krakatau) 'burst into pieces and sunk into the deepest of the earth' and the seas flooded the land from Gunung Gede near Bogor to the mountain Raja Basa in southern Sumatra. The chronicle concludes: - 'After the waters subsided the mountain Kapi and the surrounding land became sea and the island of Java was divided into two parts'

It is a currious fact that no sea straits between Sumatra and Java was known before the 1100's by the far-ranging Chinese and Arabian traders and later European explorers.

Beneath the mountains and forest of Ujung Kulon carved by the thousands of centuries of rain, wind and sea, are the foundations of the land - a young mountain system formed over the older strata of the Sunda Shelf. Geologically, the Ujung Kulon Peninsula, Gunung Honje Range and Panaitan Island are all part of this young Tertiary mountain system while the central part of Ujung Kulon is of older limestone formations which have been covered by alluvial deposits in the north and sandstone in the south.

Much of the underlying rocks and early soils of the park are covered by volcanic ash, in places up to 1 metre deep, a legacy from the Krakatau eruptions. The mountain ranges were all formed by the same folding event in the Miocene period creating beneath the forest of the Gunung Honje Range and eastward tilting mountain block.

A reminder of this activity is a geological fault line situated off the Tamanjaya coastline. It bisects the park beneath the isthmus as it passes through the Sunda Straits connecting the volcanic islands of Krakatau to a major tectonic fault line in the south of Indonesia.

Ujung Kulon Climate

Ujung Kulon's tropical maritime climate, somewhat cooler than inland areas of Java, produces an annual rain fall of approximately 3250 mm. Temperatures range between 25-30 C with humidity level generally between 80% and 90%.

April to October are the drier months, particularly between July to October. During these months therw are long periods of fine, calm weather with occasional spells of overcast skies, rain and rougher seas.The wetter season usually begins in November and finishes in March bringing an average of 400 mm of rain permonth. The heaviest rains of December and January are often accompanied by squalls and strong winds, clearing the atmosphere and producing brilliant sunsets and spectcular panoramas.

Ujung Kulon National Park

Introduction | The Land | Plant Life | Wild Life | Marine Life | The People | Attractions