Indonesian faunal emblems are Indonesian endemic fauna that gain the status as national animal symbol that represent

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

and describe Indonesian

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

. Today there are three animals that gained the status as Indonesian faunal emblems:

Komodo dragon The Komodo dragon (''Varanus komodoensis''), also known as the Komodo monitor, is a member of the monitor lizard family Varanidae that is endemic to the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang. It is the largest extant ...

Javan hawk-eagle The Javan hawk-eagle (''Nisaetus bartelsi'') is a medium-sized, dark brown raptor in the family Accipitridae. It is the national bird of Indonesia, where it is commonly referred to as Garuda, from the bird-like creatures in Hindu and Buddhist myt ...

and

Asian arowana The Asian arowana (''Scleropages formosus'') comprises several phenotypic varieties of freshwater fish distributed geographically across Southeast Asia. While most consider the different varieties to belong to a single species, work by Pouyaud ...

. Next to national animal symbols, there are also more specific provincial faunal emblems that represent each respective provinces of Indonesia.

Indonesian national faunal emblems

''Komodo'' is an Indonesian

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

animal found only in

Komodo Komodo may refer to: Computers * Komodo Edit, a free text editor for dynamic programming languages * Komodo IDE an integrated development environment (IDE) for dynamic programming languages * Komodo (chess), a chess engine People * Komodo ...

, Padar and

Rinca Rinca, also known as Rincah, Rindja, Rintja and Pintja, is a small island near Komodo and Flores island, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, within the West Manggarai Regency. It is one of the three largest islands included in Komodo National Park. Th ...

island within

Komodo National Park Komodo National Park ( Indonesian: ''Taman Nasional Komodo'') is a national park in Indonesia located within the Lesser Sunda Islands in the border region between the provinces of East Nusa Tenggara and West Nusa Tenggara. The park includes the ...

. The surviving largest lizard on earth is easily recognised as Indonesian national animal. Komodo also becomes the emblem of

East Nusa Tenggara East Nusa Tenggara ( id, Nusa Tenggara Timur – NTT; pt, Sonda Oriental) is the southernmost province of Indonesia. It comprises the eastern portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands, facing the Indian Ocean in the south and the Flores Sea in the nor ...

province. ''Elang Jawa'' or

(''Nisaetus bartelsi'') an endangered

raptor Raptor or RAPTOR may refer to: Animals The word "raptor" refers to several groups of bird-like dinosaurs which primarily capture and subdue/kill prey with their talons. * Raptor (bird) or bird of prey, a bird that primarily hunts and feeds on ...

endemic to the mountainous forest regions of

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

. The Javan hawk-eagle was chosen because its resemblance to the Garuda Pancasila, the most obvious physical traits is the prominent

crest Crest or CREST may refer to: Buildings *The Crest (Huntington, New York), a historic house in Suffolk County, New York *"The Crest", an alternate name for 63 Wall Street, in Manhattan, New York *Crest Castle (Château Du Crest), Jussy, Switzerla ...

crowning its head and the plumage coloured dark-brownish to chestnut-gold. By Presidential decree, the Javan hawk-eagle was legally registered as considered as the national bird of Indonesia, and thus attributing the endangered species very high protection. ''Arwana merah'' (red

) is designated as the Indonesian national animal of charm and also national fish. Native to rivers of Sumatra and

Indonesian Borneo Kalimantan () is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area. The non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are Brunei and East Malaysia. In Indonesia, "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo. In 2019, ...

, Asian arowana is highly adapted to freshwater and usually inhabits

blackwater river A blackwater river is a type of river with a slow-moving channel flowing through forested swamps or wetlands. As vegetation decays, tannins leach into the water, making a transparent, acidic water that is darkly stained, resembling black tea ...

s, forested swamps and wetlands. Besides red, Asian arowana has other colour varieties (for example; green, silver and golden) which only can be found in specific geographic regions in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

Indonesian provincial faunal emblems

Each of 34 Provinces of Indonesia have their own faunal emblems that represents their provinces. The faunal emblems are: Meanwhile, Helmeted friarbird ('' Philemon buceroides'') was designated as faunal emblem of ex-province

Timor Timur Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western part. The Indonesian part, also ...

(1976-1999).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Indonesian Faunal Emblems Lists of animals

Emblems An emblem is an abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a king or saint. Emblems vs. symbols Although the words ''emblem'' and ''symbol'' are often used in ...

Faunal Emblems National symbols of Indonesia National emblems

Indonesian national faunal emblems

Indonesian provincial faunal emblems

See also

References