The Malayan badger
This short note, published in JSBRAS Vol. 85 (1922), consists of two letters from Dr. W. Docters van Leeuwen, Director of the Botanical Gardens at Buitenzorg, describing the Malayan badger in Java, followed by a brief addendum from J. C. Moulton on a third specimen of the subspecies Mydaus javanensis montanus.
Summary
Docters van Leeuwen’s letters (dated May and June 1921) report that the badger is very common in Java, observed from 1,000 feet on Mount Moeria up to the summit of Mount Pangerango at approximately 11,000 feet, where it is tame and forages for earthworms and insects under moss in old crater valleys (p. 212). He notes that the animal’s characteristic stink is detectable even when it walks beneath sleeping quarters, that its forest paths are recognisable by odour, and that a fern (Didymochleena lunulata Desv.), called “pakoe sigoeng” by natives, carries a similar but weaker smell. He also records that in old Javanese sultanates a weakened solution of the anal fluid was reportedly used as a perfume (p. 212).
Moulton’s addendum describes a third imperfect skin from the Sarawak Museum, obtained from the Kalabits of the ulu Baram, which had been cut down and used as a seat-mat, leaving only the back (19 inches by 10½ inches). Comparison of the whitish dorsal marking confirms it matches the other two specimens in size and pattern. The type specimen is deposited in the British Museum; the second and third skins remain in the Raffles Museum, Singapore, and the Sarawak Museum respectively (p. 213).