January 13, 2020

Earth has been a particularly dangerous place in recent weeks. Airplane crashes, military clashes, terror attacks, and political unrest have taken a toll on human life and happiness lately, but it is a series of natural disasters that has caused the most trouble. A typhoon ravaged the Philippines, deadly flash floods hit Indonesia, bushfires continued to rage in Australia, a measles epidemic continued to kill in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and a series of earthquakes rattled Puerto Rico.

Firefighters confront a bushfire near the Blue Mountains town of Bilpin, New South Wales, on Dec. 19, 2019. Credit: © 1234rf/Shutterstock

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Typhoon Phanfone (also called Ursula) struck the Philippines, producing high winds and flooding that killed 105 people in the Visayan Island provinces of Biliran, Capiz, Iloilo, and Leyte. Phanfone was a Category 2 storm (moderate strength) with sustained winds of more than 90 miles (150 kilometers) per hour. Storm surges and deadly flash floods hit communities just as families were gathering to celebrate the Christmas holiday. Thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed.

On New Year’s Day in Indonesia, abnormally heavy monsoon rains caused flash floods that killed 66 people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others in Jakarta, the capital. Some 14.5 inches (37 centimeters) of rain fell on New Year’s Eve, causing the Ciliwung and Cisadane rivers to overflow. Floodwaters submerged more than 150 neighborhoods and caused landslides in the Bogor and Depok districts on the outskirts of Jakarta. Flood water levels in some areas peaked at more than 13 feet (4 meters). Electric power was cut off, and closed schools and government buildings were converted into emergency shelters.

On January 7, the World Health Organization announced the 6,000th death from measles in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since an epidemic began there in 2019. More than 300,000 suspected measles cases have been reported in the DRC—a nation also troubled by recent terror attacks. The epidemic has continued and grown because of low vaccination coverage, malnutrition, weak public health systems, outbreaks of other epidemic-prone diseases (such as Ebola), and the difficulty of getting health care to people in remote areas.

In Puerto Rico, after several smaller earthquakes, a 6.4-magnitude temblor struck the southwestern part of the island on January 7. The earthquake, the strongest to hit Puerto Rico in more than 100 years, killed one person, toppled hundreds of structures, and forced a state of emergency. Many people lost their homes, the island briefly lost electric power, and schools and public offices were closed. In the 10 days before the 6.4-magnitude earthquake, the United States Geological Survey recorded hundreds of temblors in Puerto Rico—including 10 of 4-magnitude or greater.

A number of major bushfires have lately devastated southeastern Australia. Since September, the wild fires—mostly in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria—have burned more than 25.5 million acres (10.3 million hectares), an area the size of South Korea. The bushfires have destroyed more than 2,100 homes and killed 27 people and hundreds of millions of animals. On January 8, the Australian government ordered the mass slaughter of thousands of wild camels and horses that have invaded rural towns looking for water. Many people are without electric power and telecommunications in Australia’s southeast, and some were without drinking water and other supplies. Smoke has obscured the city skies of Canberra, Melbourne, and Sydney. The bushfires followed a three-year drought that experts link to climate change.

August 10, 2018

Early on July 29 in southern Indonesia (July 28 in the United States), a 6.4-magnitude earthquake destroyed buildings and killed 17 people on the small island of Lombok. As bad as that was, it proved to be only a warning shot. A week later, on the evening of August 5, a second, stronger earthquake struck the island, and this one, a 6.9-magnitude temblor, proved to be much more destructive. The earthquake collapsed numerous buildings already weakened by the earlier quake, and thus far the dead bodies of 259 people have been pulled from the rubble. Thousands of people have been injured in the disaster, and tens of thousands more have been left homeless.

A man searches through the ruins of houses in Pemenang village in northern Lombok on Aug. 7, 2018, two days after a powerful earthquake devastated the area. Credit: © Sonny Tumbelaka, AFP/Getty Images

Lombok is a lovely tropical island popular with tourists. Only about 40 miles (60 kilometers) across, Lombok sits between the islands of Bali and Sumbawa among Indonesia’s Lesser Sunda Islands. More than 3 million people live on Lombok, and tens of thousands of tourists visit the island every year. Lombok has beautiful beaches, highland forests, and a mountainous interior dominated by Mount Rinjani, an active volcano. Lombok lies at the junction of tectonic plates, however, making it prone to earthquakes. Much of Indonesia sits on the infamous Ring of Fire, a turbulent zone of frequent seismic and volcanic activity along the islands and continents rimming the Pacific Ocean.

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Lombok lies just east of Bali in the Lesser Sunda Islands of southern Indonesia. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

On July 29, the 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Lombok’s northern coast near Mount Rinjani. The earth shook violently near the epicenter for more than 10 seconds, knocking buildings to the ground and causing landslides along the slopes of the volcano. Seventeen people died in the earthquake, and hundreds of hikers were briefly stranded in Mount Rinjani National Park. Some 1,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed.

On August 5, as people were still cleaning up from the earlier earthquake, the 6.9-magnitude temblor hit in almost the exact same location. Structures collapsed throughout the island, including in the provincial capital of Mataram near Lombok’s west coast. Terrified people fled to soundly built mosques as aftershocks continued, and a tsunami warning caused panic in low-lying coastal areas. No tsunami occurred, but damage from the earthquake was significant. More than 40,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed on Lombok (including several mosques), electric power and communications systems were knocked out, and three bridges collapsed. The death toll stands at 259, but many people remain missing, so that number will almost certainly rise.

Hundreds of aftershocks have since shaken Lombok, the strongest of which, a 5.9-magnitude temblor, hit early on August 9 (August 8 in the United States), causing still more damage and further frightening the population.

The more than 150,000 people left homeless by the earthquakes are now in need of shelter, food, clean water, and medical supplies, but aid is pouring in from elsewhere in Indonesia and from around the world. Several thousand tourists were forced to evacuate resorts and hotels and leave the island. The Lombok temblor was the deadliest to hit the Lesser Sunda Islands since December 1992, when an earthquake and tsunami killed more than 2,000 people on Flores island east of Sumbawa.

June 18, 2018

Malay is the language of a large group of people in Southeast Asia. The language is spoken by about 13.5 million in Malaysia, plus millions of other people who live in nearby Brunei, Indonesia, and Singapore. Malay belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of Austronesian, a language family that includes Javanese, Sundanese, and Tagalog.

The flag of Malaysia flies over some 13.5 million Malay speakers. Credit: © PhotoRoman/Shutterstock

The Malay language has numerous dialects. The official language of Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia, is based largely on the Malay dialect of Johor, a southern state in Peninsular Malaysia. The official language of Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia, is based on the dialect used in the Riau Islands of Indonesia. Because of the similarities between the language used in Johor and in the nearby Riau Islands, the two forms are sometimes classified together as Johor-Riau Malay. Other dialects include Ambon Malay, Ternate Malay, and Banjar Malay. In most cases, speakers of different dialects can communicate with each other without great difficulty.

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Malaysia. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The Malay language includes elements of Sanskrit and Arabic. These elements entered the language through contact with the culture and religions of India and the Arab world. Contact with traders from many countries led to the development of Bazaar Malay, which became widely spoken in trading communities.

The oldest known Malay text is a stone inscription from the early years of the Srivijaya Empire, a Malay kingdom that emerged in the late 600′s and lasted until the late 1300′s. The text is written in the Indian Pallava script, and it tells of military expeditions. Later Malay texts were written in Devanagari, an alphabet and script used to write Hindi. Beginning in the late 1300′s, many Malay literary and religious works were written in an Arabic-based script called Jawi or Classical Malay. Beginning in the 1500′s, Dutch and British influence in Malaysia led to the adoption of a Malay writing system using the Roman alphabet.

In the 1970’s, Indonesia and Malaysia adopted a common spelling system for their official languages. Since then, efforts have continued to further standardize the Malay language.

May 28, 2018

Javanese is a unique language spoken by people from Java, the largest island in Indonesia, a large nation in Southeast Asia. Indonesia is made up of thousands of islands and has an extremely diverse population. Its people belong to about 300 ethnic groups and speak more than 250 languages. The Javanese are the nation’s largest ethnic group, and the Javanese language is Indonesia’s most widely spoken traditional language. More than 84 million people speak Javanese, but it is not the nation’s official language. In the late 1920′s, Indonesian nationalists created a modified form of the Malay language, Bahasa Indonesia, to serve as the official language.

The flag of Indonesia flies over thousands of islands in Southeast Asia. The nation’s largest island, Java, is home to the Javanese language. Credit: © T. Lesia, Shutterstock

Javanese belongs to the Austronesian language family that also includes such Indonesian languages as Balinese (spoken on the island of Bali), Madurese (spoken on the island of Madura), and Sundanese (spoken in western Java). The Austronesian language family spreads far beyond Indonesia, reaching many islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

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This map shows the population density in Indonesia. About 60 percent of all the Indonesian people live on the island of Java, though Java accounts for only about 7 percent of the country’s total area. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

A number of languages have influenced Javanese. Ancient overseas trade with India influenced Java’s early culture and language from at least the A.D. 100’s. Javanese contains many words borrowed from Sanskrit, an ancient language of India. The traditional Javanese alphabet also developed from Indian writing. Ancient India’s two great epic poems, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, are popular among the Javanese people today. The poems often shape the plots in traditional Javanese theater, known as wayang. Javanese also contains many words borrowed from Arabic. Arab traders brought Islam to Indonesia in the 1400’s and 1500’s, and most Javanese today are Muslims.

Traders from the Netherlands reached Java in the 1590’s. During most of the period from the 1600’s until 1945, the Netherlands ruled Java and the other islands that eventually became Indonesia. During those years, when Indonesia was known as the Dutch East Indies, many Dutch words were absorbed into Javanese. The Dutch period also introduced the Roman alphabet for writing Javanese.

Javanese was Indonesia’s most widely spoken traditional language in the early 1900’s, but Indonesian nationalists wanted a language that could serve as a unifying force for all Indonesians. They believed that making Javanese the national language would give Javanese speakers an unfair advantage. The nationalists developed Bahasa Indonesia, which means language of Indonesia. They based Bahasa Indonesia largely on a dialect called Coastal Malay. People of different ethnic groups had long used the dialect to communicate with one another in marketplaces and ports. Bahasa Indonesia is the official language used in schools, in newspapers, and for official communication throughout Indonesia. It is closely related to Javanese, and the languages share many words and expressions. Javanese, however, remains the primary language for private and individual communication for millions of people.

December 15, 2017

On the Indonesian island of Sumatra, already home to the Sumatran orangutan, a new species of the great orange ape has recently been named: the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis). Orangutans are shy and reclusive, and they live in remote jungle areas. This, combined with their small numbers, can make the animals extremely hard to find. It is little wonder, then, that every once in a while people should learn of a new species. Since 2001, the Tapanuli is the third newly recognized species of orangutan, following its recently named Sumatran cousins (Pongo abelii) and the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus). An international team of anthropologists and evolutionary biologists recently described the Tapanuli species in the journal Current Biology. Among all the great apes, the Tapanuli orangutan’s population is the smallest. The team estimated Tapanuli numbers at just 800.

A Tapanuli orangutan relaxes in the comfort of a tree on the island of Sumatra. Credit: Tim Laman (licensed under CC BY 4.0)

In the 1930’s, scientists reported an orangutan population in the rain forest of Batang Toru on Sumatra. However, it was not until 1997 that scientists rediscovered the population and later began studying the animals. Michael Krützen, a Swiss evolutionary geneticist from the University of Zurich, is one of the authors of the Current Biology report. Krützen believes the new orangutan species differs genetically, physically, and behaviorally from both the Sumatran and Bornean species. The three species also seem to have distinct evolutionary lineages. Tapanuli orangutans are believed to be direct descendants of the first orangutans that arrived in Sumatra from mainland Asia long ago.

Tapanuli orangutans are found only in the isolated high-elevation rain forest of Batang Toru. Their small population is distributed over about 386 square miles (1,000 square kilometers), an area roughly the size of Dallas, Texas. Calls made by Tapanuli males vary from calls made by Sumatran and Bornean males. Sumatran males produce calls that are long and low-pitched, while those on Borneo belt out shorter and higher-pitched calls. The calls of Tapanuli males fall somewhere in between.

Tapanuli orangutans have slightly different facial features (including a noticeable mustache) from other orangutans, as well as smaller skulls. Female Tapanuli orangutans have beards, unlike Bornean orangutans. Tapanuli fur is slightly different, too: frizzier and more cinnamon-colored. The analysis of Tapanuli bones, plus a genetic review of blood samples, convinced the anthropologists and biologists that they had found a unique orangutan species.

Jungle cats hunt Tapanuli orangutans, but otherwise the apes have few natural predators. Human activity poses the biggest threat. The spread of agriculture, particularly palm oil plantations, has greatly reduced the orangutan’s habitat. Plans for a gold mine and a hydroelectric plant in the area also pose threats to the animal’s Batang Toru forest. With only about 800 Tapanuli orangutans living in the wild, urgent study and conservation is needed to help protect the endangered orange apes from extinction.

April 5, 2017

Scientists, never satisfied with the current number of known frogs in the world, have added two new species of toads to the ever-growing list. These new toads, native to Indonesia, have DNA so different from other toads that scientists went a step further and gave them their own genus, Sigalegalephrynus. When classifying living things, a genus (a group of related animals or plants) ranks below a family or subfamily and above a species. The discovery of a new frog genus is rare. The last one in Asia occurred in the 1800’s. The new toads live in a densely vegetated volcanic region of Batang Gadis National Park on Sumatra, one of the world’s largest islands. One species was found in a shallow cave; the other was scurrying about the nearby forests. (Remember that frogs and toads are not different animals. Toads are simply certain types of frogs.)

A toad of the new genus Sigalegalephrynus sits among the bristly hairs of a leaf. These toads resemble puppets used in funerary festivals in Sumatra, the island in western Indonesia where the toads live. Credit: © Eric N. Smith, Amphibian And Reptile Diversity Research Center/University of Texas at Arlington

Researchers spent eight months in 2013 and early 2014 taking inventory of the toads in the Sumatra Highlands. Then, for more than a year, they studied their findings and analyzed the physical and genetic characteristics of these unusual specimens. The researchers used nuclear and mitochondrial cell data to describe the toads, and the results showed that members of Sigalegalephrynus are unique among other toads of that region. The researchers’ findings were published in the March 2017 issue of the journal Herpetologica. Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of reptiles and amphibians.

The new toads have unusual chattering mating calls unlike other frogs of their native land. Sigalegalephrynus are medium-sized toads with lanky limbs. Most are mottled dark brown and tan, but one version has green colors on its body. Because of their resemblance to wooden puppets used in local ceremonies in the region, these frogs earned the name of “puppet toads.” But their name can extend further. The wooden puppets are used during specific funerary festivals to appease the spirits of the dead. So, these newfound amphibians are sometimes called “puppet toads of the dead.”

The discovery of these puppet toads comes as scientists and conservationists feel mounting urgency to locate and classify species throughout Indonesia, where toads and many other forms of life are threatened by deforestation. About half of Indonesia’s amphibian species are not found anywhere else in the world. The future of the “puppet toads of the dead” and other Indonesian wildlife depends on saving the precious forests they call home.

December 19, 2016

This Monday’s monster—perhaps more comical than monstrous—gets its name from its rather prominent proboscis (nose). Its scientific name, Nasalis larvatus, means nose mask. In fact, the “schnoz” on the proboscis monkey is the longest and largest of all primates. Among adult males, the average snoot is up to 7 inches (18 centimeters) long. Some male proboscis monkey sniffers are so large that they must be pushed aside in order to eat!

The proboscis monkey gets its name from its prodigious nose. Credit : © Berendje Photography/Shutterstock

Proboscis monkeys don’t seem to resent  “big-nose jokes” told by other primates (including humans, of course). Instead, they seem rather proud of their humongous honkers. Male proboscis monkeys use their giant noses to trumpet loud bellowing noises that warn of predators, shoo away rivals, or even attract mates.

Proboscis monkeys are large monkeys that live only in the swampy forests of Borneo, an island in Indonesia. They feed mainly on leaves, fruits, and flowers. These monkeys also tend to have large stomachs (necessary to digest their leafy diet), giving them an amusing potbellied appearance to go with their super snouts. Adult proboscis monkeys have reddish hair on their heads, backs, shoulders, and thighs, and pale gray hair on the arms and legs. People of Borneo call them bekantan. But some locals on the island jokingly refer to the monkey as an orang belanda (Dutch person) because of its supposed resemblance to overfed colonists of times past. (Indonesia was once part of the Dutch East Indies, a colony created by the Netherlands.)

Zoologists studying proboscis monkeys in the wild have found that females, which lack the distinctive large noses, find the male’s facial appendage rather attractive. Biologists understand that adults of many species prefer mates who display certain behaviors or have certain exaggerated external features. Over time, this process can lead to the evolution of complicated courtship rituals, bright coloring to attract mates, and other unusual physical features (see the sexual selection paragraph in the evolution article). From the female proboscis monkey’s point of view, it seems the bigger the nose, the more attractive the male.

Monster Monday
November 30, 2015

For the male babirusa (Babyrousa babyrussa) of Indonesia, being ugly has never been a disadvantage. These large, wild members of the pig family have rough, wrinkled, brownish-gray skin with only a thin covering of white or gray bristles. Adult males grow huge tusks on their snout. The people of Sulawesi, Indonesia, consider the babirusa to be so ugly that they make babirusa masks to represent demons in ceremonies. But the male babirusa actually uses one of its most fearsome features to gain an advantage attracting mates. After all, love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.

The babirusa is a wild hog found in Indonesia. The male has tusks that grow from the top of the snout and curve backward to the forehead. Credit: © NHPA/SuperStock

Many species of mammals are endowed with impressive tusks, which are actually canine teeth that grow to great length. Scientists have proposed many explanations for why some animals grow tusks. They often help in self-defense and can be used to dig up roots and bulbs for food. But much of the time, tusks play a role in selecting mates.

Adult male babirusas sport two pairs of tusks. As in many members of the pig family, to which the babirusa belongs, the lower pair grows up and out of the mouth, curving above the upper lip. The upper pair, however, is unique. These teeth start out growing downward, but as the babirusa reaches adulthood, the tooth sockets rotate, and the teeth begin to grow up and into the top of the snout. The tusks pierce through the animal’s skin and sometimes even curve back until they impale the animal’s skull!

Male babirusas fight as they compete to impress females. During these fights, males rear up on their hind legs to butt heads against other males. Their large tusks may help protect the animal’s eyes during the fierce combat. But the impressive tusks of the babirusa are actually quite brittle and break easily, so they have limited value in fights between males. The real purpose of the massive tusks may be to help male babirusas avoid fighting. Some males might think twice before challenging another babirusa sporting an array of ivory armor like a football helmet. Zoologists studying the animals in the wild have found that female babirusas, which lack large tusks, seem to prefer males with the largest tusks as mates. For the female babirusa, the bigger the tusks, the stronger the male.

May 20, 2015

Government officials from three Southeast Asian countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand—met today in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, and agreed to stop turning away migrant ships from their coasts. At least 3,500 migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar have come ashore in one of the three nations over the last few weeks, but some 7,000 more migrants are thought to be still adrift at sea. The migrants are in distress from their long journeys and many of them are dehydrated and malnourished.

Migrants wait to be rescued by fishermen off the coast of Aceh, Indonesia, May 20, 2015. Hundreds of migrants stranded at sea for months were rescued and taken to Indonesia, officials reported, the latest in a stream of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants to reach shore in a growing crisis confronting Southeast Asia. Credit: AP Photo

Refugees from Bangladesh are mostly economic migrants seeking jobs. The migrants from Myanmar, however, are Rohingya Muslims, a group that has long been persecuted in Myanmar. Rohingya, even those from families who have lived in Myanmar for generations, are denied citizenship in the predominantly Buddhist nation and have few rights there.

The current migrant boat crisis in Southeast Asia began a few weeks ago. Previously, migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar had traveled by sea to Thailand and then overland. Thailand recently cracked down on this overland traffic, and now smugglers are sending migrants exclusively on sea routes. Often these human traffickers abandon the migrants if a ship founders. Navies from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand have been turning away the boat people at their shores and have sometimes towed stricken boats to the shores of other nations.

The agreement to permit migrants to enter the host nations by sea solves a humanitarian crisis in the short run. Eventually, however, the solution lies in helping Bangladesh to become more economically sound and pressuring Myanmar to recognize and stop persecuting the Rohingya population living in its borders.

Other World Book articles:

• Immigration

• Myanmar (2014-a Back in time article)

December 31, 2014

The first two bodies from the AirAsia Flight QZ8501 crash today arrived back in the Indonesian city of Surabaya. Relatives are providing DNA samples to help identify the victims as they are returned. Flight QZ8501, en route from Surabaya to Singapore, disappeared on December 28. On board were 137 adult passengers, 18 children, including an infant, along with 2 pilots and 5 crew members.

Officials believe the crash was caused by turbulent weather. Around 40 minutes after takeoff, the pilot requested permission to change course due to stormy conditions. There was no further contact with air traffic controllers, and the AirAsia pilots sent no distress signal.

Bodies and debris were first discovered yesterday in the Java Sea off Borneo. There has been no confirmed sightings of the Airbus A320-200 fuselage, and bad weather continues to hamper further salvage efforts.

AirAsia Flight QZ8501 crashed into the Java Sea on December 28. Over the last decade, the death rate in airplane crashes across Indonesia has been 25 times higher than that in the United States. UN Auditors determined that Indonesian authorities have not kept up with the ever-growing popularity of air travel as flying replaces ferry journeys in a nation made up of many islands. (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.)

In May, a team of United Nations auditors visited Indonesia to rate the country’s aviation safety record. They came to a troubling conclusion: Indonesia had chronic aviation safety problems; and it has not kept up with the ever-growing popularity of air travel as flying replaces the ferry journeys that Indonesians use to take across a country consisting of 17,000 islands. Arnold Barnett—a Massachusetts Institute of Technology statistician specializing in aviation—has noted that the death rate in airplane crashes across Indonesia during the past decade was 25 times higher than that in the United States. “To assert that the disparity is only a coincidence or manifestation of bad luck would be preposterous,” stated Barnett.