182 MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC WORLD 



in Java during the Pleistocene, is not found there today. Hunt- 

 ers with modern rifles and shotguns can all too easily extermi- 

 nate most of the game animals in a short time on the smaller 

 islands and can seriously reduce those on the larger islands. 



Many mammals found on islands are different from those that 

 occur elsewhere; sometimes this difference is only slight, but in 

 other cases it is obvious and important. To a biologist or one 

 interested in nature it is one of the greatest crimes against 

 science to destroy any form of wild life completely. A species 

 is a unique thing — the product of natural forces and circum- 

 stances through the ages — and if once exterminated it cannot 

 be replaced. Some of the island mammals are remnants of 

 ancient groups that have survived until the present, thanks to 

 their isolation and protection from competition with more mod- 

 ern mammals by the barriers of sea straits. These living fossils 

 are often less adaptable to changing conditions than more up- 

 to-date mammals ; often clearing the jungle for plantations is 

 enough to destroy them. The Luchu and Sumatran rabbits, the 

 long-tailed fruit bats of the Melanesian Islands, the New Zea- 

 land bat, the babirusa, anoa, macaque, and black ape of Celebes, 

 a small deer on the Bawean Islands near Java, the tapir of 

 Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, the two Malaysian rhinoc- 

 eroses, many of the marsupials, and a number of inconspicuous 

 mammals of other groups are in need of sanctuary. Every effort 

 should be made to protect these rare and scientifically invalu- 

 able animals. 



COLLECTING AND STUDY OF SPECIMENS 



Those persons who have free time on their hands and find 

 themselves in areas poorly known zoologically, and those who 

 find mammals they cannot identify from the descriptions in this 

 handbook or mammals out of their known range, can do a great 

 deal for natural science by preserving specimens. Skins with 

 skulls, and complete specimens properly preserved and accom- 



