Vertebrate fauna of Wallacea and surrounds
14 Wallace’s examples of characteristic vertebrate animals from the Oriental and Australasian regions
Wallace describes some characteristic mammals of the Oriental region in the following excerpt from: Wallace (1876) The Geographical Distribution of Animals. Chapter XII. The Oriental Region, p. 336:
“We have here a group of mammalia, such as might be seen together in the vast forests of Borneo. In the foreground we have the beautiful deer-like Chevrotain (Tragulus javanicus). These are delicate little animals whose body is not larger than a rabbit’s, thence often called “mouse-deer.” … On the branch above is the curious feather-tailed Tree-Shrew (Ptilocerus lowii), a small insectivorous animal altogether peculiar to Borneo. Above this is the strange little Tarsier (Tarsiers spectrum), one of the lemurs confined to the Malay islands, but so distinct from all others as to constitute a separate family. The other small animals are the Flying Lemurs (Galœopithecus volans) formerly classed with the lemurs, but now considered to belong to the Insectivora. They have a very large expansion of the skin connecting the fore and hind limbs and tail, and are able to take long flights from one tree to another, and even to rise over obstacles in their course by the elevatory power of the tail-membrane. In the distance is the Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus), a representative of a group of animals now confined to the larger Malay islands and tropical America, but which once ranged over the greater part of temperate Europe.”
Complete the following activity to check your knowledge.
Media Attributions
- Plate VIII A Forest in Borneo © A.R. Wallace is licensed under a Public Domain license