The terrestrial species of the Balinese fauna
Ducks are everywhere in the landscape. They walk upright in a line, following a man or a child carrying a bamboo topped with a flag. They are used for offerings and for festive and ceremonial meals. Some very tasty recipes, such as bebek tutu, are among the most delicate dishes.
Almost all Balinese own a large number of dogs, which, contrary to popular belief, are never strays. Proof of this is the large number of petshops that can be found everywhere, in town and country. Pelted, mangy and posted every two meters, the dogs seem at least as numerous as the humans. Sometimes lying in the middle of the road or crossing it so nonchalantly that there's always a risk of running them over, they remain, despite their slightly frightening appearance, very calm and almost never aggressive. However, it's a good idea to avoid dog gatherings, as this is where aggression can degenerate into general fighting.
Pigs(babi), often black in color, have deep backs and hanging bellies. They are also bred for their meat, and to prepare offerings for various ceremonies. Chickens are bred for their meat or for offerings, but roosters are in a class of their own. The Balinese breed them for fights, and they represent for them an animal gifted with a thousand talents. Sometimes, even, the owner will adorn his champion with the most unlikely colors, dyeing him "for fun".
Monkeys, or macaques, are omnipresent on both islands, where monkey forests abound, as well as in many temples. They are reputed to excel at stealing, so be careful with your belongings and check your bag regularly.
Balinese cows are graceful and doe-eyed. The Balinese breed meat cows for sacrifice or for sale, but they never eat them outside of sacrifices, as the animal is sacred to Hinduism. In Bali Barat National Park, black monkeys, deer and monitor lizards continue to breed in peace.
Buffalo races
The Balinese buffalo is used exclusively for work in the fields, so you won't see many of them. Famous for its buffalo races, ormekepung, Negara is the scene of races on Sundays between July and October. On Independence Day - August 17 - one of the biggest mekepung races is held. The teams bring together two to four buffaloes, with their headdresses (as only the Balinese can do) and their horns swaddled. These beasts are a sight to behold, and the two-kilometre race is met with delirious enthusiasm by the spectators. Teams are chosen according to their location in relation to the Ijo Gading river. Before the race proper, the kerbau (buffalo) parade before the crowd like majorettes. The carriage is made of wood and is driven by a driver. The winners score points for their team, but the style of driver and carriage is also noted. Speculation is rife, even though betting was banned in Bali in 1981. These free races are located throughout the surrounding area, including Delod Berawan.
Marine species
Until a few years ago, turtles were the dish of choice for tourists. Although they still feature in Balinese ceremonies in the form of satay (especially when teeth are filed), they have disappeared from restaurant menus. However, there are still a few places where you can buy tortoiseshell boxes, combs and hair clips... Absolutely not! Fortunately, turtles, now classified as a protected species, have taken refuge on the shores of Menjangan Island, off the coast of Bali Barat Park. While diving or snorkeling in Balinese waters, you can admire manta rays, sharks (harmless: white tip, nurse sharks, etc.), mola-mola (or sunfish), crocodile fish, pygmy seahorses, moray eels, emperor fish, barracudas, starfish and many other species. Corals of the mushroom coral family provide a natural refuge for many fish.
The seabed of Pemuteran
The Pemuteran coral reef, in the north-west of the island, has been considerably damaged over the past decades, due to violent fishing practices and the warm El Niño current that killed off much of the underwater life in the late 1990s. Since then, global warming has made matters worse. To observe the remaining coral reef, you need to take a boat a few kilometers offshore. You can then observe Bali's most varied marine fauna. And soon, you'll be able to do the same on the beaches of Pemuteran: a major program to re-establish the coral along the coast is underway. The ingenious technique involves passing a weak current over a metal frame in the form of a grid. The principle of electrolysis is then set in motion, and minerals are deposited on the grids. These minerals attract corals, which feed on them. And it's not long before the fish come flooding in. The advantage of this artificial but non-polluting technique is its speed: the abundance of minerals means that coral grows faster. The results are very encouraging, and the new corals can already be observed with masks and snorkels, compared with the old grey skeletons lying around in the water. The Yos Dive Club, the Taman Sari Hotel and the Archipelago Dive Club are behind the Pemuteran Karang Lestari Coral Conservation Project. The Biorock®Process technique has been registered and is now being used in other parts of the world, including the Maldives and the Seychelles. This BIOROCK artificial coral culture can be freely observed with snorkel and mask in front of the Taman Sari and Pondok Sari hotels.
A varied vegetation
The oldest plant varieties are found mainly in the west, in the Bali Barat National Park. The park currently covers over 90,000 ha of protected areas, including the park itself (19,000 ha), 50,000 ha of inland protected areas and 10,000 ha of coral reefs off the island's north-west coast. We can only applaud this environmental policy after the natural damage caused by uncontrolled tourism in southern Bali. Four types of forest can be distinguished. The lowland rainforest, especially in the west, is home to rare species, huge trees and unspoiled fauna that are still untouched by tourism and its nuisances. The deciduous forest in the north-west, in rugged, hard-to-reach areas, is mainly composed of sapotil trees. The savannah is home to lontar palms: their trunks are long and slender like those of a coconut palm, and the leaves are concentrated at the top in bunches. You'll also find crocodile trees(panggal buaya), so called because of the scales on their trunks and their white satin-like wood, and rosewoods(sonokeleing), with their gnarled trunks that can exceed 25 meters, used in cabinetmaking for their purplish sheen. The mountain forest, rarely found below 1,500 m, is home to casuarinas and filaos.
The trees
Banyan trees (a type of giant ficus) are sacred, and the Balinese can be seen dressing them in black and white chequered cloth. Their aerial roots allow them to grow endlessly, feeding a large fauna (hornbills, bats, monkeys and squirrels). Some of these trees, several hundred years old, are venerated throughout the island. In the temples, you can appreciate the gnarled trunks of the frangipani trees that bring the flowers needed for the offerings. Bamboos, of all sizes (some can reach thirty to forty centimetres in diameter), grow all over the island and are used for building houses and making furniture, as well as for cutting satay sticks, the resonators of gamelan blades and the blades of certain gamelans.
Palms come in many varieties: lontar, the sugar tree used to make offerings or for cooking fires; coconut palms, whose nuts are used to extract the pulp, and whose bark is used to make mats, among other things; and finally, the leaves are used to make hats, baskets and shoes.
You'll also see other trees, such as pangge baya or ebony, which is rarer but present in certain regions. Pule wood (pronounced "poulé") is a type of balsa, extremely light and used for carving dance masks.
The flowers
You'll find a multitude of flowers, each more exotic than the last. As the Balinese love plants, the streets of every village are multicolored and abundantly fragrant. Red, pink and white hibiscus, jasmine, bougainvillea, oleander and white laurel, water lilies to protect buffalo toads, lotus, poinsettia and more are all easily recognizable. But you'll be delighted to discover angsoka with their red and orange clusters, yellow cempaka (magnolias) with their intoxicating perfume, pink or yellow frangipani with their tangy fragrance, manori and hundreds of orchids, from heady white to ominous black. In short, flowers abound everywhere, in temples and gardens, along roadsides and in nurseries. Often, as you stroll along, you see climbing lilies, sungsang, not far from the unpleasantly fragrant but freshly beautiful lantana or kerasi.
Crops
Bali and Lombok grow mainly coffee, tobacco, rice and fruit trees. The latter offer enough variety and quantity to feed the island's entire population: jackfruit, watermelon, banana, pineapple, melon, apple, mango, papaya, guava, salak (or snake fruit, due to its reptile-like skin, the size of a hazelnut, with white flesh and a sweet taste similar to pineapple and strawberry - a real treat!), lime, etc. - you're spoilt for choice. Coconut palms, widely used for construction, clothing and cooking, form large plantations all over the territory, making for great photo opportunities. A visit to the Bedugul Botanical Garden is a great way to discover the different species.
