Baluran National Park is located in Situbondo Regency,

East Java East Java (, , ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the easternmost third of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean border its northern ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It has a relatively dry climate and mainly consists of savanna (40%), as well as lowland forests, mangrove forests and hills, with Mount Baluran (1,247m) as its highest peak.Indra Harsaputra,
Baluran: the little Africa of Java'
''The Jakarta Post'', 20 July 2013. Baluran National Park is located at the north-eastern extremity of

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

, close to the islands of

Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...

and

Madura is an list of islands of Indonesia, Indonesian island off the northeastern coast of Java. The island comprises an area of approximately (administratively including various smaller islands to the east, southeast and north that are administratively ...

. The park is bordered by the Madura Strait to the north, the Bali Strait to the east, the river Bajulmati (Wonorejo village) to the west and the river Klokoran (Sumberanyar village) to the south. The park is a rough circle, with the extinct

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

, Baluran, at its centre. Its total area is 25,000 ha.Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia
Baluran National Park
retrieved 20 December 2013 It consists of five zones: the Main Zone (12,000 ha), the Wilderness Zone (5,537 ha, comprising 1,063 ha water and 4,574 ha land), the Intensive Utilization Zone (800 ha), the Specific Utilization Zone (5,780 ha) and the Rehabilitation Zone (783 ha).

Flora and fauna

There have been 444 plant species recorded in the park, including some endangered plant species such as: '' Ziziphus rotundifolia'', '' Tamarindus indica'', '' Dioscorea hispida'', '' Aleurites moluccanus'' and '' Corypha utan''. Baluran National Park hosts 26

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

species, including the endangered

Banteng The banteng (''Bos javanicus''; ), also known as tembadau, is a species of wild Bovinae, bovine found in Southeast Asia. The head-and-body length is between . Wild banteng are typically larger and heavier than their Bali cattle, domesticated ...

, Sumatran dhole, Indian muntjac, Java mouse-deer, Sunda leopard cat, Javan leopard and Javan lutung. The banteng population decreased from 338 in 1996 to just 26 in 2012. This is caused by invasive species such as '' Acacia nilotica'' and the

water buffalo The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called domestic water buffalo, Asian water buffalo and Asiatic water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also kept in Italy, the Balkans ...

. However, intensive breeding efforts have increased the population to around 200 individuals by 2020.

Avifauna Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight ...

in the park include the green peafowl,

red junglefowl The red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), also known as the Indian red junglefowl (and formerly the bankiva or bankiva-fowl), is a species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the a ...

, Malabar pied hornbill, rhinoceros hornbill and lesser adjutant. Until 2010, there had been 155 species of bird recorded in the park, but following a bird photography competition in 2012, the number of species was revised to 196.

Extinct

Javan tiger The Javan tiger was a ''Panthera tigris sondaica'' population native to the Indonesian island of Java. It was one of the three tiger populations that colonized the Sunda Islands during the last glacial period 110,000–12,000 years ago. It used t ...

s survived in the protected area until the mid-1960s.

Conservation and threats

The area has been protected since 1928, first initiated by the Dutch hunter A.H. Loedeboer. In 1937 it was declared a wildlife refuge by the Dutch colonial government.Indra Harsaputra
"Baluran Banteng herd dying out"
''The Jakarta Post'', 10 January 2013. In 1980 the area was declared a national park. Poaching poses a major threat to the wildlife in the park, especially to the decreasing banteng population. According to ProFauna Indonesia, not only locals but also members of the military have been involved in poaching. The thorny acacia, which occupied at least 6,000 hectares of savannah at the Baluran National Park, has made it increasingly difficult for bantengs to find food. In 2013, there were only 35 bantengs, while in 1996 there were still 320 bantengs.

Gallery

File:Amazing Baluran National Park night view.jpg, Mount Baluran File:"Baluran" Africa van Java.jpg File:Rusa dan Kijang - TN Baluran.jpg

References

External links