526 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 







"The bantin found in the Malay Peninsula appears to be very 

 rare and local, and the possibility of its being nothing more than 

 a feral race of the domesticated Bali bantin, which is largely 

 imported into Singapore, should be borne in mind. The colour is 

 stated to be blackish in the bulls and reddish chestnut in the cows, 

 with little or no white on the rump, at least in the latter; the 

 lower portion of the legs varying in colour from dirty white to 

 reddish or blackish. Horns of cows very short, as in typical race, 

 to which this bantin appears closely related." (Lydekker, 1913, 

 vol. 1, p. 29.) 



"The Banting is probably very rare in the Malay Peninsula: 

 Mr. H. N. Ridley told me one was killed by Mr. Oxley at Muar 

 [ Johore] about fifty years ago" (Flower, 1900, p. 370) . 



"Notwithstanding Butler's and Lydekker's identification of the 

 female skull of some kind of ox from Perak as a banteng, there 

 is no real proof of the existence of the species in the Malay States: 

 a great number of horns and frontlets obtained by Europeans and 

 Malays have been seen, but all are unquestionably those of gaur 

 or seladang: undoubtedly if the banteng occurred, trophies of it 

 would have been noticed among them. The distribution is there- 

 fore parallel with that of several other animals and some birds, 

 i. e., the species occurs in Indo-China and one or other of the Malay 

 Islands but skips the Peninsula." (Kloss, 1917, p. 317.) 



More recent news is furnished by Hubback (1932, pp. 24-27, 213) : 



I believe that there are still . . . possibly what are known as Bos banteng 

 (sapi utan) in the Mukim of Sok [Kedah]. . . . 



If sapi utan . . . are to be found there, then that would be the most 

 southern point in the Malay Peninsula, in which they were to be found .... 



When in Perlis I saw two frontal skull bones, with horns attached, of 

 sapi utan which had been shot by the ex-Penghulu of Chuping in 1930 within 

 a few miles of his house, and he informed me that only the week previously a 

 herd of sapi utan had been in the same place. The trophies I saw were 

 typical Bos banteng and there is no doubt that this species, which is very 

 rare in the Malay Peninsula although common in Burma and Borneo, is 

 still to be found in Perlis and it would be of great interest if it was recorded 

 in Kedah as well, and of still greater interest if its habitat could be set aside 

 as a sanctuary. 



This species of wild cattle has never been authentically recorded from the 

 Federated Malay States, Kelantan, Trengganu or Johore. . . . 



The ex-Penghulu of Chuping . . . knew that the herd from which he had 

 shot his two head the previous year frequently crossed and recrossed the 

 Perlis-Siam border, stating that there were salt licks both in Perlis and Siam 

 which these animals periodically visited. He volunteered the information that 

 it was his opinion that this herd went as far as the Ulu Telian salt licks in 

 Kedah, and if this surmise is correct it would be reasonable to expect to 

 find Bos banteng distributed between the points mentioned. . . . 



The ex-Penghulu of Chuping informed me [that these banteng] were 

 sometimes to be found in a herd of as many as fifteen animals. 



