Article

Badgers

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Badgers

The Bornean and Malayan Badger (Mydaus)

The badgers of the Malay Peninsula and Borneo, classified under the genus Mydaus, are small, rare carnivores whose documented presence in the region is confined to a handful of museum specimens and scattered field observations. By 1921, only two Bornean specimens had reached European museums, both held in the British Museum, while the Zoological Museum at Buitenzorg, Java, confirmed it held none [1, p. 144]. The animal’s significance to natural history in the region lies less in its abundance than in the taxonomic puzzles it presented and the indigenous knowledge that supplemented the sparse European record. In Java, by contrast, the badger was reported to be very common, observed across a wide altitudinal range [2, p. 212].

Taxonomic History and Nomenclatural Debate

The taxonomic status of Bornean badgers was a matter of active dispute in the early 1920s. J.C. Moulton, examining two skins collected from Mt. Murud in British North Borneo, argued that they represented a previously undescribed mountain form substantially larger than the lowland species M. lucifer described by Oldfield Thomas in 1902 [1, p. 143]. The two Raffles Museum skins were approximately twice the size of Thomas’s type specimens in the British Museum, prompting Moulton to propose the name Mydaus javanensis montanus for this larger form [1, p. 143]. He simultaneously advocated that all previously described Mydaus “species” be relegated to subspecific rank under the oldest available name, M. javanensis Desmarest (1820), while acknowledging the provisional nature of this proposal and noting that a complete skin with skull would be needed before the new form could be confidently elevated to specific rank [1, p. 143].

The nomenclatural question was further complicated by the work of Lönnerberg and Mjöberg, who had dismissed montanus as a nomen nudum and erected M. luciferoides on material from the same Kalabit locality [3, p. 348]. C.B. Kloss, writing in 1927, addressed this directly, demonstrating that the nuchal whorl character on which Lönnerberg and Mjöberg had relied was variable and of no diagnostic value [3, p. 349]. After examining photographs of additional specimens from the Sarawak Museum and the Leyden Museum, Kloss concluded that only one form occurs on Borneo, best known as M. javanensis lucifer Thomas, and that the nape whorl is not a reliable distinguishing feature [3, p. 349]. A footnote records that Kloss had not yet seen Oldfield Thomas’s subsequent contribution to the subject in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History (1927) [3, p. 349].

In 1922, Moulton reported a third imperfect skin from the Sarawak Museum, obtained from the Kalabits of the ulu (upper reaches of) the Baram, which had been cut down and used as a seat-mat, leaving only the back measuring 19 inches by 10½ inches [2, p. 213]. Comparison of the whitish dorsal marking confirmed it matched the other two specimens in size and pattern [2, p. 213]. The type specimen was deposited in the British Museum; the second and third skins remained in the Raffles Museum, Singapore, and the Sarawak Museum respectively [2, p. 213].

Field Observations, Indigenous Knowledge, and Behaviour

The evidential base for understanding the Bornean badger was a patchwork of museum specimens, correspondence, and indigenous testimony rather than systematic field survey [1]. Moulton drew on letters from R.J. Cockrill at Lahad Datu and E. Stuart Young near Tenom, both of whom described encounters with the animal in the field, including the powerful odour it emits when threatened [1, pp. 143–144]. Field accounts from Cockrill (Lahad Datu, 1921) and Stuart Young (Pegallen River, 1915) confirmed the animal’s presence in British North Borneo and its capacity to render humans unconscious via its anal secretion [1, pp. 143–144].

The Kalabit people of the Baram region reported that the badger is found only in caves on Mt. Murud and that dogs entering its cave have been killed by the odour [1, p. 144]. Moulton cross-referenced these claims with an 1879 letter from H.O. Forbes in Java, which recorded similar effects on native hunters, lending credibility to the Kalabit testimony [1, pp. 143–144]. In Java, Dr. W. Docters van Leeuwen, Director of the Botanical Gardens at Buitenzorg, reported in letters dated May and June 1921 that the badger’s characteristic stink was detectable even when it walked beneath sleeping quarters, and that its forest paths were recognisable by odour [2, p. 212]. He also recorded that in old Javanese sultanates a weakened solution of the anal fluid was reportedly used as a perfume [2, p. 212].

Altitudinal Range and Ecological Niche

A secondary thread in Moulton’s 1921 article concerned the animal’s altitudinal range. He challenged Lydekker’s 1894 assertion that the Bornean form occurs at elevations of only 80–100 feet, pointing out that the Pemabo Range rises from a base of approximately 3,000 feet to over 6,000 feet, with Mt. Murud itself estimated at around 8,000 feet [1, p. 144]. This correction had implications for understanding the ecological niche of the Bornean population [1, p. 144]. In Java, Docters van Leeuwen reported the badger observed from 1,000 feet on Mount Moeria up to the summit of Mount Pangerango at approximately 11,000 feet, where it was tame and foraged for earthworms and insects under moss in old crater valleys [2, p. 212]. He noted that a fern, Didymochleena lunulata Desv., called “pakoe sigoeng” by natives, carried a similar but weaker smell [2, p. 212].

Moulton concluded that both the lowland and mountain forms in Borneo were rare, geographically restricted, and “probably dying out” [1, p. 143].

Research and Documentation

The Society’s literature on the Bornean and Malayan badger spans a narrow window of roughly six years, from Moulton’s 1921 article in the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society through Kloss’s 1927 note in the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. The record is characterised by a small number of specimens—three Bornean skins in total—and a reliance on correspondence and indigenous testimony to supplement the museum-based taxonomic work. Moulton’s 1921 piece represents early twentieth-century colonial-era zoological documentation, in which museum-based taxonomy was informed by indigenous knowledge and settler correspondence rather than systematic field survey [1]. It contributes to the sparse literature on Bornean carnivore biogeography at a time when the island’s interior remained largely unexplored by European naturalists [1].

The central debate in this literature is taxonomic: whether the Bornean population constitutes one form or two, and how it relates to the Javan and other regional populations. Moulton’s proposal of montanus as a distinct mountain subspecies was effectively overturned by Kloss’s 1927 demonstration that the diagnostic character relied upon was variable and non-diagnostic [3, p. 349]. The shift from Moulton’s provisional, specimen-driven taxonomy to Kloss’s more cautious, photograph-based assessment reflects a broader methodological evolution in the Society’s zoological contributions during this period. The Javan material, reported by Docters van Leeuwen, provides a useful contrast: where the Bornean badger was rare and poorly known, the Javan population was common and behaviourally well observed, suggesting that the Bornean form’s apparent scarcity may reflect both genuine rarity and the limited reach of European collectors into the island’s interior [2, p. 212].

MBRAS Sources

References

  1. J.C. Moulton (1921). Occurrence of the Malayan badger or teledu in Borneo JSBRAS 83: 142–146.
  2. J.C. Moulton (1922). The Malayan badger JSBRAS 85: 212–213. Read on JSTOR
  3. C.B. Kloss (1927). A note on Bornean badgers (Mydaus). Records of the Raffles Museum, No. 26 JMBRAS 5(2): 348–349.