SPECIES OF MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC AREA 137 to northern Australia and north to the island of Amami Oshima, Luchu Islands.
Sea Cows. Family Hydrodamalid^ The family Hydrodamalidag contains but one animal, the extinct Northern or Steller's Sea Cow {Hydrodamalis stelleri). It was the largest of any of the Sirenia, reaching a length of twenty-five to thirty feet. The sea cow was found only on Copper and Bering Islands, off Kamchatka in the Bering Sea. It was discovered by the explorer Behring in 1741 when he was shipwrecked on the island which now bears his name. At that time, the animal was abundant in the bays, but being large and stupid, was so easily killed that in about twenty-five years after its discovery the species had been exterminated. Occasional bones are still found on these islands.
Elephants. Order Proboscidea.
Family Elephantid^ The elephants of the present day are found only in Asia and Africa. The African elephant is now put in a separate genus. The Asiatic Elephant (Elephas maximus) inhabits the forested areas of India, Ceylon, Burma, Indo-China, Thailand, Malaya, Sumatra, and a small section of northern Borneo. It is believed that the elephant was brought to Borneo by man and has again reverted to the wild state. The Indian elephant has been domesticated for centuries. The bulls carry tusks of appreciable size ; the females have very short ones that do not protrude beyond the lips. The molar teeth of most mammals, erupted successively, stand one behind the other in the jaw. The enormous molars of elephants behave instead much as though they were attached to the rim of a wheel. Each tooth, as it moves fully into place, is subjected to great wear by the tooth opposing it. It continues to move forward in the jaw. When its successor is fully in place, the former one, worn down to the roots, is shed. It is common to see in an elephant's jaw
138 MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC WORLD one complete functioning molar, with a worn-out portion of its predecessor in front of it and a portion of the crown of the molar behind it just beginning to show wear. The male Indian elephant seldom exceeds the height of nine feet; the female is about a foot less. The age to which an elephant may live is often greatly exaggerated. The oldest authen- Fig. 56 — Asiatic Elephant tic record is about eighty years ; an elephant of fifty may be regarded as old. It is now reasonably well proved that the greatest span of an elephant's life is less than that of a man. The female elephants carry their young from eighteen to twenty-two months before birth. The newborn calf is about three feet high and weighs about two hundred pounds. At this time the trunk is short, not very flexible, and is not used in suckling.
Elephants feed entirely on vegetable matter and consume
SPECIES OF MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC AREA 139 great quantities of it — above a quarter-ton of hay in captivity daily. They live in herds composed of thirty or forty or more individuals of various sizes and of both sexes. Adult individuals occasionally become dangerous. Such elephants, generally males living alone, are known as "rogues."
The elephant of Sumatra has been considered a subspecies of the Indian elephant on account of its slimmer build and the smaller size or even absence of tusks in the male. Eyen-toed Ungulates. Order Artiodactyla This order contains the cattle, sheep, goats, goat-antelopes, deer, and pigs.
Hollow-horned Ungulates. Family Bovid^ The Bovidse (cattle, sheep, goats, and relatives) are characterized by true horns growing upon bony cores arising from the frontal bones of the skulls. These horns are never shed during life, and in the majority of species both sexes carry them. After death the horn is easily removed from the core. The oldfashioned powder horn is a good example of this horn sheath. The Banting or Wild Ox (Bibos sondaicus) is found in Burma, the Malay Peninsula, Siam, Borneo, Java, and Bali. The form found in Java and Borneo differs from the Burmese banting in that the bulls, as they grow older, become blackish brown or almost black. Young bulls, depending on their age, vary from bright red-brown like the cows to dark chocolate. The bull banting of Burma, on the contrary, seldom gets darker than chestnut color. All specimens have a large white rumppatch and white legs. Bantings generally go about in small parties, although solitary bulls — old animals driven from the herds — are also frequently met. Even when wounded, bantings are seldom dangerous. The record spread of the horns of the Burmese banting is thirty-four and one-half inches ; that of the Javan form is twenty-six and one-half. Only domesticated bantings are known in Bali.
140 MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC WORLD The Asiatic Water Buffalo or Indian Buffalo (Bubalus buhalus) is easily recognized by its great size — five feet or more at the shoulder — and by its large horns, which rise from the side of the head and sweep backward in a circular manner. In some specimens these horns are long and massive, the record length being seventy-seven and three-eighths inches. The wUd Asiatic water buffalo is now restricted to northeastern India, Ceylon, Fig. 57 — Asiatic Water Buffalo southern Indo-China, and the Malay Peninsula. This buffalo has been domesticated for centuries and has been introduced into southern Europe, northern Africa, China, and the Philippines (where it is known as the carabao), and many of the islands of the far east, including Australia. In many parts of this territory herds have reverted to a semiwild condition, so that in sections where the wild animal is still found, it is difficult to tell which are the typical wild animals and which are feral. In northwestern Borneo, buffaloes (Bubalus b, hosei) inhabiting certain river valleys are small and have shorter horns ; they are believed to be indigenous. In the wild state, the Asiatic buffaloes inhabit dense reed beds and high grass and are never found far
SPECIES OF MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC AREA 141 from water. They generally go about in herds of considerable size. Buffalo are considered dangerous game to hunt, not only on account of the thick cover which they inhabit but because they are more inclined to charge than any of the other wild cattle. Some have been known to watch their back trail when they sense that they are being followed, and from a concealed place to charge the tracker without warning.
Fig. 58 — Tamarau The Tamarau (Buhalus mindorensis) , a distinct small buffalo, is found on the island of Mindoro, in the southern Philippines. This buffalo is less than four feet at the shoulder and has short stout horns. A horn twenty inches long is a good size. Tamarau are dark brown or grayish black, and have more hair on their bodies than water buffaloes. They frequent thick marshes along the rivers and it is said that they also inhabit the mountain forests to an altitude of over six thousand feet where they live in thick bamboo jungle.
The Anoa or Pygmy BuflEalo (Anoa depressicornis) is a native of Celebes. It is the smallest of the wild cattle, being
142 MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC WORLD Fig. 59 — Anoa about three feet four inches high. It has shorter, straighter horns than its relatives, the record length of one horn being fifteen and three-eighths inches. Young animals have a coat of light brown hair which darkens as they reach maturity. In the adult the hair may be very dark brown or black. Very little appears to be known about the habits of this animal. It is said to live in pairs rather than in herds, as is the case with other buffalo, and to frequent wooded districts on mountainsides. Like other buffalo, it is partial to water. The Serow (Capricornis sumatraensis) is a member of the group of animals known as the goat-antelopes. It shows a marked resemblance to its ally the Rocky Mountain goat of North America, except that its color, instead of being white like the mountain goat, is black or blackish gray, with a grizzled appearance. The long coarse hair is lengthened along the back. The legs are brown. The black horns, generally sharppointed, grow nine or ten inches long. The two sexes are very
SPECIES OF MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC AREA 143 similar. The serow stands about three feet high. It prefers to live on the steep forested areas along the mountain-sides and is found in the mountainous sections of southeastern Asia from China south to Sumatra. A much smaller, grayer species, with Fig. 60 — Serow longer hair (Capricornis crispus) is found in Japan, and Swinhoe's serow (Capricornis swinhoei), a close relative of the Japanese serow, occurs in Formosa.
The Chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) has been introduced from Austria on Mount Wakefield in New Zealand. It is another member of the goat-antelope group but it differs by the fact that its horn tips curve backward and down.
144 MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC WOELD The Himalayan Tahr (Hemitragus jemlaicus) is a native of North India and has been introduced into the Mount Cook district of New Zealand. The tahr is a short-horned goat noted for its luxuriant coat of long brown hair.
The Bharal or Blue Sheep (Pseudois nahura), a native of Tibet and west China, has also been introduced into the Mount Cook district of New Zealand. The horns of the bharal ram are distinctive; they first curve outward and then down and backward from the sides of the head. The color is bluish gray, the underparts and legs handsomely marked with black and white. Deer. Family Cervid^ The deer are characterized by solid bony antlers, sometimes miscalled horns, which are generally worn by the male. A few kinds of deer lack antlers ; in one group, the caribou and reindeer (Rangifer), the female also grows antlers. The antlers are shed and regrown periodically.
Many authors restrict use of the name Cervus to the red deer of Europe and Asia and to the wapiti of Asia and North America. Others include in Cervus all the deer of this general type. The latter system is followed here for the sake of simplicity. Deer of the Sambar group (subgenus Rusa) are found from China and Formosa, India and Ceylon, throughout the Malayan region to the Moluccas and Timor. Sambar have been introduced on New Caledonia, New Guinea, and other islands. These deer are medium to large and their antlers have two tines growing from the main beam, making three points on each antler. Sambar (Cervus unicolor) has been divided into numerous subspecies. On Sumatra and the islands along the east coast the Malayan sambar (equinus) occurs. This is a large dark deer about four and one-half feet high and is the form found on the nearby mainland. In Borneo, Billiton, Banka, and some of the islands of the Bornean coast sambars (hrookei) are smaller and darker. The sambar from Java, east throughout the Lesser Sundas to Timor, Celebes, and the Moluccas (C