Native animals in Indonesia

If you were thinking about the Komodo dragon, you were right! The Komodo is not only a symbol of Indonesia but also their most popular animal by far.

Most of the tourists who travel to Indonesia every year, make a stop to visit the famous Komodo dragon island, which is part of the Sunda islands, the only place on earth where you can see these amazing creatures. 

The Komodo dragon is an ancient animal from Indonesia, that can have a length up to 3 meters and i the biggest living lizards in the world.

The tiger of Sumatra is one of the few exceptions of animals that are living in Sumatra but not in Borneo, for that reason it´s considered an endemic animal from Indonesia.

This type of tiger is one of the most endangered indonesian animals, there are only around 400/500 Sumatran tigers left in the wild.

The Sumatran tiger can be distinguished from other tiger species thanks to its darker colour and smaller size. Seeing one in the wild is very complicated, so if you are lucky enough to see them, we are going to beg you to be respectful with one of the most important native animals of Indonesia

Another native animal in Indonesia is the black ape, or also known as the crested macaque. Of this primate we can highlight its colours as they are fully black but with incredible ambar eyes.

The main reason why this animal become so popular is because of a selfie one of the primates took with a camera of a wildlife photographer some years ago.

Nowadays, you can find them in the island of Sulawesi, but unfortunately, they are another of the indonesian endangered animals. There is a campaign to save this monkey, so hopefully there still time to save them and not list them in the extinct indonesian animals…

The brown/orange primate is known for being one of the principal reasons why tourists visit Indonesia. Borneo and Sumatra are the only place on earth where you will be able to see orangutans in the wild.

Unfortunately, there are very bad news about the red ape… The orangutans of Indonesia and Malaysia are suffering and incredible loss of habitat because of deforestation. Many animals, not just the orangutans are in danger of being extinct because of a massive expansion of palm oil plantations.

What we all can do to stop this is, first, stop consuming all types of products with palm oil, and second, you can sign the petition of Greenpeace to end the dirty palm oil. This will for sure put more pressure on governments and brands to do as much as possible the save one of the most iconic native animals to indonesia.

Other animals you can find in the Indonesian rainforests are the Indonesian rhinos. While the Sumatran rhinos are located in Borneo and Sumatra, the Javan rhinos are in the island of Java, being more concrete in the Ujung Kulon National Park, as it´s one of the few places where they are still alive.

The Sumatran rhinoceros are different from any other type of rhino on earth as they are the smallest of their own and the only Asian rhino with two horns.

Both types of Rhinos are in a huge danger of being extinct, there are only between 58 and 68 Javan rhinos and less than 80 Sumatran rhinos. These animals not only suffer the deforestation of the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia, but also the poaching, which is the biggest reason why they may become extinct one day.

The Borneo elephant is another of the animals that live in Indonesia. It´s also known as the Borneo pygmy elephant and it´s one of the subspecies of the Asian elephants. These are located in the northeast of Borneo.

These elephants are different from any other type of elephant, they have a baby elephant face but with huge size ears, plus their tail is so long that sometimes touches the ground. The pygmy elephants are the smallest in all Asia.

Nowadays, there is a total of around 1500 Borneo elephants in the wild, they are another of the endangered species of the rainforests of Indonesia, and of course, the main reason is once again the loss of habitat.

We are sure you have heard before about the Proboscis monkey, famous mainly for its huge nose. Although this animal is more famous for being a Malaysian animal than Indonesian, the truth is that its location is Borneo so you can actually find it in both countries.

One of the most interesting fact about the Proboscis monkey is that they use their nose to attract the females and intimidate their rivals. Another curiosity about this monkey is that they are very good swimmers.

The Proboscis monkey is another of the endangered animals of Indonesia, their major threat is the deforestation and the humans who hunt them.

We have selected the cassowary because is one of our favourite animals, but also because it is one of the most famous native Indonesian animals. It is a pretty unique specia and it´s known as the “Dinosaur bird”, this is due to the many characteristics typical from the dinosaurs.

The Cassowary is more typical from New Guinea and Australia, but you can also see it in Indonesia in the area of West Papua.

The Cassowary is famous for many things, their blue and red colours, their green eggs, their dinosaur style legs and unfortunately they are also known for being one of the most dangerous animals in Indonesia, but you just have to let them be free in the wild and they won´t hurt nobody.

Another of the animals from Indonesia is the Wrinkle hornbill or also known by its scientific name, the Aceros corrugatus. It´s a bird located in 4 different countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Thailand, but it´s main locations are Borneo and Sumatra.

This bird is striking because of its red and yellow colours, plus the male has a major difference from the female as it has a blue colour skin around its eyes.

Luckily, the bird is not yet on high risk of extinction because is very important for their native forest as they are seed dispersers for other plants. It is for sure one of the rarest and coolest animals found in Indonesia. 

We are finishing our indonesian animals list with the Giant Manta, which is one of the most impressive animals on earth and another of the animals native to indonesia. It´s not only the biggest type of manta, but also one of the biggest fishes in the world. It can grow up to 7 m (23 ft) and a weight of 3000 kg (6500 lb). It´s huge!

Actually, the giant manta is not an animal typical only from Indonesia, it travels trough almost all the places on earth, from California to Egypt, Japan or New Zealand.

We choose it to finish our top 10 list of Indonesian animals, because there is a season of the year, where you can appreciate many giant manta rays swimming all together in Indonesia, and that is something impressive to see.