The terrestrial species of the Balinese fauna
Ducks are everywhere in the landscape. They walk upright, in a line, following a man or a child with a bamboo topped with a flag. They are used for offerings and for festive or ceremonial meals. Some recipes are quite tasty, such as bebek tutu, are among the most delicate dishes.
The Balinese almost all own a large number of dogs which, contrary to the impression they give, are never strays. Proof of this is the large number of petshops that you can find everywhere, in the city as well as in the countryside. Peeled, mangy and posted every two meters, the dogs seem at least as numerous as the men. Sometimes lying in the middle of the road or crossing it nonchalantly enough to risk being run over at any moment, they remain, despite their somewhat frightening appearance, very calm and almost never aggressive. It is however good practice to avoid dog gatherings as this is where aggressiveness can degenerate into general fighting.
Pigs (babi), often black in color, have a hollow back and a hanging belly. They are also raised for their meat and for the preparation of offerings in various ceremonies. Chickens are raised for their meat or for offerings, but the rooster is a separate domain. The Balinese raise them for fighting and they are a very talented animal. Sometimes the owner will even adorn his champion with the most unlikely colors by dyeing it "for fun".
Monkeys, macaques, are omnipresent on both islands where monkey forests abound, but also in many temples. They are known to excel at stealing, so be careful with your belongings and check your bag regularly.
Balinese cows are graceful and have doe eyes. The Balinese raise meat cows for sacrifice or for sale, but they never eat them outside of sacrifices, as this animal is sacred among Hindus. In the Bali Barat National Park, black monkeys, deer, and monitor lizards can be seen reproducing in peace.Buffalo races
The Balinese buffalo is present exclusively for the work of the fields, and we will therefore see little. Famous for its buffalo races ormekepung, Negara is the scene of races on some Sundays between July and October. During the Independence Day - August 17 - one of the most important mekepung is organized. The teams are made up of two to four buffaloes, with their headdresses (as only the Balinese can do) and their horns swaddled. These beasts look great and the race, two kilometers long, provokes the delirious enthusiasm of the spectators. The teams are chosen according to their location in relation to the Ijo Gading River. Before the race itself, the kerbau (buffalo) parade in front of the crowd like majorettes. The carriage is made of wood and is driven by a driver. The winners score points for their team, but the style of the driver and the team is also noted. Speculation is rife, even though betting was banned in Bali in 1981. These free races are located all over the area and around Delod Berawan.
Marine species
Turtles were, until a few years ago, a dish of choice for tourists. Although they still appear in Balinese ceremonies in the form of satay (especially during the filing of teeth), they have disappeared from the menu of restaurants. However, there are still some places where you can buy boxes, combs and hair clips made of tortoiseshell... Avoid! Fortunately, the turtles now classified as a protected species, have taken refuge around the island of Menjangan, off the coast of Bali Barat Park. During diving or snorkeling sessions in Balinese waters, you can admire manta rays, sharks (harmless: white tip, nurse sharks etc.), mola-mola (or sunfish), crocodile fish, pygmy seahorses, moray eels, emperor fish, barracudas, starfish and many other species. The corals of the mushroom coral family are a natural refuge for many fish.
The seabed of Pemuteran
The Pemuteran coral reef, in the northwest of the island, has been significantly damaged over the past decades, due to violent fishing practices and the warm El Niño current that killed much of the underwater life in the late 1990s. Since then, global warming is not helping. To observe the remaining coral reef, you have to take a boat and go a few kilometers offshore. You can then observe the most varied marine life of Bali. And soon, it will be possible to do so on the beaches of Pemuteran: indeed, a large program to replant the coral along the coast is conducted. The very clever technique consists in passing a weak current on a metal frame in the form of a grid. The principle of electrolysis is then activated and minerals are deposited on the grids. These minerals attract the corals which feed on them. And the fishes soon come in. The advantage of this artificial but non-polluting technique is its speed: because of the abundance of minerals, the coral grows faster. The results are very encouraging and we can already observe with masks and snorkels the new corals, compared to the old gray skeletons that are lying around in the water. The Yos Dive Club, the Taman Sari Hotel and the Archipelago Dive Club are behind this large campaign called Pemuteran Karang Lestari Coral Conservation Project. The Biorock®Process technique has been patented and is being used in other parts of the world such as the Maldives and the Seychelles. This artificial coral culture can be observed in front of the Taman Sari and Pondok Sari hotels freely.
A varied vegetation
The oldest plant varieties are found mainly in the west, in the Bali Barat National Park. This park currently covers more than 90,000 ha of protected areas, if we count the park itself (19,000 ha), the 50,000 ha of protected area inland and the 10,000 ha of coral reefs located off the northwest side of the island. One can only welcome this environmental policy after the natural damage caused by uncontrolled tourism in southern Bali. We can distinguish four types of forest. The rainforest called plain, especially in the west, home to rare species, huge trees and wildlife preserved that still escape tourism and its nuisances. The deciduous forest in the northwest in rugged and difficult to reach areas includes mainly sapodilla trees. The savannah is home to lontar palms : their trunks are long and slender like those of a coconut tree and the leaves are concentrated at the top in clusters. You can also observe the crocodile trees(panggal buaya), so called because of the scales on their trunks and their white satin wood, and the rosewoods(sonokeleing), with their gnarled trunks that can exceed 25 meters, used in cabinet making for their purplish sheen. The so-called mountain forest, rarely below 1,500 m, is home to casuarinas and filaos.
The trees
The banyans (a kind of giant ficus) are sacred and we can see the Balinese dress them with black and white checkerboard fabric. Their aerial roots allow them to grow endlessly and to feed an important fauna (hornbills, bats, monkeys and squirrels). Some of them, several times centenarians, are the object of a deep veneration in all the island. In the temples, you will be able to appreciate the gnarled trunks of the frangipani trees which bring the flowers necessary for the offerings. Bamboos, of all sizes (some can reach thirty to forty centimeters in diameter), grow all over the island and are used for house construction and furniture making as well as for cutting satay sticks, for the resonators of the gamelan blades as well as for the blades of some gamelans.
The palms are of several kinds: lontar, sugar which is used to compose offerings or to make fire in the kitchens, the coconut trees whose nuts are obviously used to extract the pulp, the bark in the production of mats among others, and finally the leaves for the manufacture of hats, baskets and shoes.
You will also see other trees, such as the pangge baya or ebony, which is rarer, but present in some regions. Pule wood (pronounced "poulé") is a type of balsa wood, extremely light and is used for carving dance masks.The flowers
There is a multitude of flowers more exotic than the others. The Balinese are fond of plants, the streets of each village are multicolored and scented abundantly. One will easily recognize the red, pink and white hibiscus, the jasmine, the bougainvillea, the pink and white laurel, the water lilies which protect the buffalo toads, the lotus, the poinsettias and others. But one will discover with delight the angsoka with red and orange bunches, the yellow cempaka (magnolias) with their intoxicating perfume, the pink or yellow frangipani trees with their acidulous perfume, the manori and the hundreds of orchids, from the heady white to the worrying black. In short, everywhere, in the temples and gardens, on the roadside and in the nurseries, flowers abound. Often, while walking, one sees climbing lilies, sungsang, not far from flowers with an unpleasant perfume but with a fresh beauty, lantana or kerasi.
Crops
Bali and Lombok cultivate mainly coffee, tobacco, rice and fruit trees. The latter offer a variety and quantity sufficient to feed the entire population of the island: jackfruit, watermelon, banana, pineapple, melon, apple, mango, papaya, guava, salak (or snake fruit because of its skin resembling this reptile, the size of a hazelnut, with white flesh and a sweet taste close to pineapple and strawberry, a treat!), lime, etc., one is spoilt for choice. Coconut trees, widely used for construction, clothing and cooking, form large groups of plantations all over the territory, pretext for nice pictures. To discover the different species, a visit to the botanical garden of Bedugul is one of the excursions of choice.
