Bali Live Cam

• Seminyak Nusa Dua

A Floral Heritage

There are over 30.000 flowering plant species in Indonesia's abundant flora, from the well-known begonias and Busy Lizzies to tropical exotica such as jacaranda, hibiscus and ginger. Some of the most striking are rhododendrons. Thousands of orchid species have been discovered throughout the islands and many have still to be identified. They are usually epiphytic - that is, they grow on a host plan - though terrestrial species are also widespread. In bright or pastel hues, striped and spotted, intricately formed, they are one of the country's glories.

During his travels in Indonesia in the middle of the 1 9th century, British zoologist Alfred Russel Wallace made the observation that the fauna to the east of Bali and Borneo were those associated with Australia, while those to the west of Lombok and Sulawesi were associated with the Indo-Malayan region of South-east Asia. It is now accepted that these divisions on either side of the so-called Wallace's Line are not as precise as was once thought. In fact, the groupings of certain animals are determined more by the biological influences of the Philippines, Maluku and Nusa Tenggara, and also in this area is found wildlife that is typical neither of the Australian nor the Malaysian sides.

They remain only where lowland forest is still intact and the greatest threat to their existence, apart from poaching, is the clearing of forest for agriculture and intensive logging. The largest, the Asian Elephant, is found in Sumatra, and in Kalimantan, where it may have been introduced relatively recently. The biggest populations are concentrated in the Way Kambas National Park and the Air Sugihan Reserve in southern Sumatra where the lush vegetation can support fairly dense herds. Elephants love the succulent leaves of young bamboo, ginger and wild bananas; they also love oil palm, coconut and other cultivated crops. Being extremely destructive eaters, a herd can wipe out young plantations in very short order. Thus, although a protected species, they are a considerable nuisance which it is expensive to control by electric fences and other barriers. It seems likely that the fate of the elephant in Sumatra will be practical natural extinction in the not-too-distant future although it may perhaps survive in carefully controlled reserves.

The forests of Sumatra also support the increasingly rare two-horned Sumatran Rhinoceros which, like the elephant, is vulnerable through loss of its natural habitat and, even in the national parks, has been a target for hunters. Its larger cousin, the one-horned Javan Rhinoceros, found only in the Ujung Kulon National Park in West Java, is rarer still.

Of all the animals that visitors to Indonesia's parks most hope to see, the Sumatran Tiger probably heads the list. However, this beautiful elusive beast does not readily show itself. Its wide-ranging predatory habits mean that each animal needs a very large area, perhaps as much as 50 square kilometres (20 square miles), to maintain a reasonable level of survival.

The Orang utan, found only in the jungles of Sumatra and Borneo, is one of the most impressive and famous apes in the world. A fully grown male is as large as a man and weighs as much. It moves around the forest at canopy height, swinging from tree to tree and using its own weight to bend branches where the gap is too great. It is a solitary beast, ranging over considerable areas and eating fruit and almost any thing else it can get its hands on. It makes a platform of woven branches high in a tree to sleep on every night and never uses the same one twice.

Orang utans have been victims of an unfortunately profitable trade in the sale of their young as exotic pets. Such captives are now confiscated by the government to be reintroduced into the wild at rehabilitation centres such as the one in the Tanjung Puting National Park on the south coast of Kalimantan and the Bohorok Rehabilitation Station in the Gunung Leuser National Park, only a couple of hours' drive from the city of Medan in North Sumatra.

Among Indonesia's smaller primates are various species of gibbon, which are the most closely related primates to man, the Proboscis Monkey with its extraordinary long nose, the leaf monkeys which can often be seen swinging in large groups from tree to tree, and the numerous species of macaques, some of which are trained to harvest coconuts. The smallest are the nocturnal tarsiers: the Spectral Tarsier is a tiny creature with a body only 10 centimetres (4 inches) long and weighing less than 100 grams (3.5 ounces) but with a tail twice as long as its body.

The world's smallest bear, the Sun Bear, is a native of the forests of Borneo and Sumatra where it is feared in spite of its small size. Being very short-sighted, it is easily surprised and will turn on an intruder with vicious claws. Wild pig are found all over Indonesia; the Warty Pig is hunted for sport in Java where it is common in teak plantations and secondary vegetation. The Babirusa of Sulawesi looks like a wild boar but is no relation and has tusks growing through its cheeks: a peculiarity unknown in any other animal.

Most of Indonesia's many species of snake are harmless and all are shy with the exception of the Death Adder of Irian Jaya and Maluku, which is both aggressive and very poisonous. The sea snakes are all poisonous and the cobras and tiny kraits deadly. Crocodiles are now found mostly in Irian Jaya and, more rarely, in Kalimantan. The demand for their skins for handbags and shoes has led to extensive hunting and to the setting up of crocodile farms.

Indonesia is home to no less than 17 per cent of the world's known bird species. Sumatra and Kalimantan have some 450 species of which most are common to both islands and inhabit the lowland forests. The hornbills have been woven into the culture and decorative arts of the Dayak tribes of interior Kalimantan and the Rhinoceros Hornbill in particular is the dominant image of the area. The horny casque of the Helmeted Hornbill is hard and dense and is used for a wide range of carved decorative objects.

In Java and Bali there are over 300 species of birds but the high degree of both agricultural and urban development has caused some to be more common in captivity than in the wild. The Javanese particularly are great caged bird fanciers and rare examples command high prices. In any town or village in Java in the morning long bamboo poles can be seen outside the houses, each with a bird in a cage hoisted on its top to encourage it to sing.

Irian Jaya, as always, is a law unto itself with the hornbills and shrikes of Asia at their most easterly limit and a host of birds of Australian origin. There are over 40 species of parrot and over 20 species of birds of paradise. Only a few of the latter have the gorgeous plumage which has made them so hunted for decoration both by the natives of Irian Jaya and for export over the centuries to other parts of South-east Asia and as far as Europe. Relatives of the birds of paradise are the bowerbirds which build intricate woven edifices with which to attract a mate. The male Bird's Head Bowerbird constructs a cone-shaped bower over a metre (3 feet) in height and diameter complete with a door and a front terrace which it decorates with flowers and fruit.