Local Animals

The wrong side of the Wallace Line

Bali is visible from our beach on a clear day, forty-odd kilometres west. Its wildlife is Asian. Ours is not. The strait in between is one of the sharpest biological boundaries on the planet, and Lombok sits on the far side of it.

Why this matters

Alfred Russel Wallace's line

In 1859 Wallace noticed that the birds and mammals of Bali were unmistakably Asian, while those of Lombok were not — despite the two islands being within sight of each other.

The reason is depth. The Lombok Strait stays deep even at the lowest ice-age sea levels, so while Bali, Java, Sumatra and Borneo were joined to mainland Asia by dry land, Lombok never was. No tigers, no rhinos, no elephants, no leopards ever walked here. What you get instead is a thinner, stranger fauna — the western edge of the transition zone that now carries Wallace's name.

Practically speaking: the birdlife here has Australasian relatives, several species occur nowhere else, and there is nothing on this island big enough to be dangerous on land.

From the kayak

Birds you will actually see

A sea kayak is a superb bird hide — quiet, low and slow. These are the ones we point out most often on the water.

Elang laut perut putih

White-bellied sea eagle

Haliaeetus leucogaster

The big one. Nearly two metres across, white below, grey above, with a wedge tail. Hunts sea snakes and fish, and often perches on a dead branch on the seaward side of the small gilis. Frequently mobbed by crows.

Elang bondol

Brahminy kite

Haliastur indus

Chestnut body, clean white head, smaller and far more common than the sea eagle. Patrols the shoreline picking scraps off the surface. Once you learn it you will see one on nearly every paddle.

Cekakak sungai

Collared kingfisher

Todiramphus chloris

Turquoise back, white collar, an oversized black bill and a loud ringing call from the mangrove edge. Absurdly photogenic and completely unbothered by kayaks.

Kuntul karang

Pacific reef heron

Egretta sacra

Stalking the reef flat at low tide in a permanent crouch. Comes in two colour forms — pure white and dark slate grey — and both turn up on the same beach, which confuses everybody the first time.

Dara laut

Terns

Thalasseus, Onychoprion spp.

Greater and lesser crested terns work the channels, and bridled terns nest on the outer rocks. A dense feeding flock of terns usually means predatory fish have pushed bait to the surface underneath — worth paddling toward.

Burung madu sriganti

Olive-backed sunbird

Cinnyris jugularis

Tiny, hovering, with a metallic blue-black throat on the male. Feeds on hibiscus and coconut flowers around every beach bungalow, and hangs a scruffy pendant nest off a low branch.

Found nowhere else

Lombok's own owl

Rinjani scops owl

Otus jolandae

Endemic to Lombok and found nowhere else on Earth. Ornithologists had heard it on Rinjani's slopes for decades and assumed it was a known species; it was only formally described as new to science in 2013, after someone finally matched the strange whistling call to the bird making it. Locally it is known as burung pok, after that call.

Other Wallacean specials

The orange-footed scrubfowl (Megapodius reinwardt) buries its eggs in huge mounds of warm sand and leaf litter and lets the heat do the incubating — a distinctly Australasian trick. Green junglefowl, helmeted friarbird, black-naped oriole and several Wallacean flowerpeckers round out the list that Bali, just across the strait, largely lacks.

On land

Mammals

Monyet ekor panjang

Long-tailed macaque

Macaca fascicularis

The monkeys lining the Pusuk Pass road and hanging around temple car parks. Clever, bold and entirely willing to take a bag off your shoulder. Do not feed them and do not make eye contact if one gets assertive.

Lutung

Ebony leaf monkey

Trachypithecus auratus

Shyer and far more attractive than the macaque — glossy black, long-tailed, with bright orange infants. Lives in forest canopy rather than roadsides, so seeing one takes patience and a quiet walk at dawn.

Kalong

Flying foxes

Pteropus spp.

Large fruit bats that roost by day in mangrove and shoreline trees on several of the southwest gilis, then stream out at dusk toward the fruit trees on the mainland. Watching a colony lift off from a kayak at sunset is a genuine highlight.

Rusa timor

Timor deer

Rusa timorensis

Small, grey-brown deer in the drier forest and national park areas. More often heard than seen. The dominant large herbivore here, in an island fauna that never had anything bigger.

Musang

Common palm civet

Paradoxurus hermaphroditus

Nocturnal, cat-sized, and fond of ripe fruit and roof cavities. If something is running across the ceiling at two in the morning, this is usually the culprit. Also, unfortunately, the animal behind kopi luwak.

Babi hutan

Wild boar

Sus scrofa

Widespread in forest and scrub, and a serious pest in hill gardens. You are most likely to see rooted-up ground and tracks rather than the animal itself.

Offshore

Marine mammals

Spinner dolphins

Stenella longirostris

The common one, in fast-moving groups of a few dozen, often at dawn in deeper water off the peninsula. Named for the corkscrew leaps, which they do apparently for the fun of it.

Bottlenose dolphins

Tursiops aduncus

Larger, slower, in smaller groups, and more likely to come and inspect a kayak. Resident along this stretch of coast rather than passing through.

Whales in the strait

Various

The deep Lombok Strait is a migration corridor. Pilot whales, sperm whales and occasionally larger baleen whales pass through. Sightings from a kayak are rare and entirely a matter of luck.

Dugong

Dugong dugon

Genuinely rare now, but the seagrass meadows of this bay are exactly the habitat they need, and there are still occasional credible reports. If you see one, tell us — it matters.

Watching wildlife responsibly

Never feed anything, monkeys least of all. Keep at least fifty metres from dolphins and let them approach you rather than paddling at them. Do not disturb roosting bats or nesting birds on the small islands — a colony that flushes at midday loses a day's rest. And skip any operator offering to hold, ride or pose with wildlife.

Good to know

Questions we get asked

Is there anything dangerous on land?

No large predators at all — that is the Wallace Line at work. The realistic hazards are macaques that bite when provoked, stray dogs, and mosquitoes. Cover up at dusk and dawn, and treat any monkey bite or scratch as a reason to see a doctor promptly.

What is the best time of day for wildlife?

First light and the hour before dark, for essentially everything. Our early departures are timed for exactly that. Fruit bats leave the roost right on sunset.

Are there monkeys on the Gilis?

Not on the small southwest islands, no. For macaques you want Pusuk Pass or the forest edges inland.

Should I bring binoculars?

Yes, if you have compact ones — and put them in a dry bag. Full-size binoculars are awkward in a kayak, but they transform an afternoon on the beach or a morning walk inland.

Keep exploring

Go out at first light

Our 07:30 departures put you on the water while the eagles are still hunting and the bay is glass. Ask us about an earlier private start.

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