Banteng

(Jrt)

Banteng
The banteng (Bos javanicus) is a relatively small wild ox who lives in Southeast Asia. In the form of beef Bali, it was domesticated by man and was introduced in Australia, where he formed a population marronne important. The wild bull is the symbol of the Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan or Indonesian Democratic Party of struggle.

Features
The bantengs similar to domestic cattle. The male has a dress that goes from black and brown to dark red and brown, while the female has a red and brown. Both have the belly white, with patches on the train back and legs. The animals weighing 400 to 900 kilos, have a length of about two meters and a height at 160 cm. The bulls are hard and curved horns that can reach 70 inches long; horns of the cows are much shorter.

Diffusion
The region primitive dissemination included the South-East Asian continental as well as the islands of Java and Borneo. The bantengs were introduced domesticated by man on many other islands of Indonesia and, in much smaller number in other regions of the world (see Domestication). The habitat of wild bantengs is mainly formed by tropical forests. They also come graze time to time in open grasslands.

Lifestyle
The bantengs live in groups of 2 to 40 cows with their calves and one bull. There are also herds of males and solitary bulls, too old or too weak to lead a flock. The cows have a small they suckle for nine months and reach sexual maturity after two years. The life of the bantengs is twenty to a maximum of just over 25 years.

Men and bantengs

Danger for the species
The banteng wild is listed by the IUCN to the number of threatened species. Among the reasons for the decline in the number citing the destruction of tropical forests, crossing with domestic cattle and oxen Bali and contamination by diseases prevalent among domestic cattle. In South-East Asian continent figures have dropped dramatically in recent decades. In Thailand it is estimated to decline almost 85% between 1980 and 2000. In the Malay peninsula, bantengs have already disappeared in 50 years. On the contrary figures on Java are stable when there is no figure for safe Borneo. The total population of bantengs wild is estimated at 5000.

Domestication
The bantengs are part of five species of cattle domesticated by man. The date of domestication is unknown, it must have taken place, however, several centuries before Jesus Christ. We think that is likely to Java that thing happened, on the continent were available already water buffalo and on n'éprouvait no need of a new species of domesticated cattle. Java they passed on many islands, where the original there were no wild bantengs, for example in Bali, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Timor, Lombok and Sumbawa. As Bali was for centuries the centre rearing bantengs, bantengs domestics are known as "horse Bali." Today there are about 1.5 million.

As a result of the introduction of other domestic cattle in Indonesia, there are fewer cattle Bali pure race. Early on there was interbreeding between zebu cattle and Bali with consequent emergence of new breeds of cattle

Cattle Bali were introduced in 1849 in Australia, where they became wild and now constitute a population of 1000 animals that live in the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park in the Northern Territory.

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