The Sumatra banner in its current location at the Sumatran tiger exhibit at the Honolulu Zoo. Photo: K. Carlstead.

Display: Indonesia

With the Zoo Education Committee, I developed the display "Indonesia" for a fundraising event at the Honolulu Zoo. The purpose of the event was to raise funds for the completion of a new enclosure to house the Zoo's orangutans.

The display consists of six banners, each 3 x 4 feet. Each banner features an Indonesian island: Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Komodo, Sulawesi, and New Guinea, as well as one of the Zoo's Indonesian animals: orangutan, tiger, mangrove monitor, komodo dragon, bird of paradise, and green peafowl.

The texts are evocative as well as engaging, thus promoting an "exotic" feel to the fundraising event.

The Indonesia banners are currently being incorporated into the Honolulu Zoo signage, thereby creating an "Indonesia Experience". This experience will consist of a themed activity guide (worksheet) that leads vistors through the Indonesia-related exhibit areas of the Zoo. When implemented, the banners will thus serve as both educational devices and orientation helpers. Already in place is the Borneo banner and the Sumatra banner (shown on right).

I created the banners in Photoshop. Chris Gadegaard was the graphics consultant on this project.

Borneo
Island of Biodiversity
Towering trees darken the forest floor, a cacophony of monkeys and hornbills greets the dawn, and insects crawl through colorful fungi littering the ground. Higher up, the forests are thick with moss, lichens and lady slipper orchids. This is Borneo - second largest tropical island on Earth and home to a wealth of biodiversity found nowhere else.

The Arboreal Ape
The elusive, arboreal (tree-dwelling) orangutan is the only great ape in Asia. Found exclusively in Bornean and Sumatran rainforests, orangutans spend much of their time searching for fruit such as durian and figs, using their long arms and legs to move from tree to tree. Each night, orangutans build a nest of leaves and sticks high above the ground, often with "roofs" to provide shelter from the rain.

Threatened Treasures
Borneo's precious lowland forests are in danger of being destroyed
within this decade. Clearing for timber and plantations threaten
endangered orangutans, elephants, clouded leopards and sun bears. We can help by purchasing only responsibly harvested (FSC certified) wood products and supporting international efforts to protect the forest homes of these treasured species.

Sumatra
Far from the Light
Far below the sunlit rainforest canopy lies the damp and shaded world of the forest floor. Few plants flourish here, and for forest floor dwellers, all nourishment must fall from above. Wild pigs, deer of all sizes, and sun bears feast on fallen fruits, while busy invertebrates convert dead leaves, broken branches and animal corpses into a rich forest litter that nourishes the trees.

Hunter of the Night
There is another inhabitant of the forest floor. At night, the solitary
Sumatran tiger prowls the murky habitat. Relying on stealth and
surprise, the tiger silently stalks its prey, often a deer or a pig.
With a quick throat bite, it deftly suffocates its victim. Tigers require more than 100 lbs of meat per week, and need vast hunting
ranges.

Uncertain Island Habitats
Island animals are especially vulnerable to extinction because they are limited to small areas. This makes them more susceptible to natural threats such as disease and fire, but also to human influences such as poaching and the clearing of forest habitat for agriculture. Sadly, both the Java and Bali tigers have become extinct during this last century. As consumers we can help the Sumatran tiger by buying products, such as shade-grown Arabica coffee, that are not destructive to tiger habitats.

Java
People, Peacocks and Parks
Located in one of the biologically richest spots on Earth, Java is the
most densely populated island in Indonesia. Dominated by conical
volcanoes, Java shelters species found nowhere else on Earth, such as hundreds of orchid species, the one-horned Javan rhino, and the Java green peafowl. As with all heavily populated areas, pressures exerted by humans threaten these species with extinction and they must now be protected in parks and wildlife refuges.

Flirty Eyes
The Java green peafowl is a different species than the much more common Indian peafowl you see running loose on Zoo grounds. Peafowl are notable for the male's long, iridescent tail feathers, sporting hundreds of brown, green and gold eyespots, which he quivers at the female during courtship. Females select a mate based on the number of eyespots and the length of the train.

The Last Place
Populations of the Java green peafowl and the Javan rhino have both been severely reduced due to habitat degradation and over-hunting. Poaching of rhino horn used in traditional Asian medicine has reduced the number of Javan rhinos to only 40-50 individuals. Both species are now protected in Ujung Kulong National Park, although disease and changes in park vegetation are concerns for their small remaining populations.

Komodo Island
Where Continents Meet
Komodo Island is located in a string of volcanic islands at the junction of the continents of Asia and Australia. Komodo's distinctive seasonal dry forests and grasslands harbor a unique community of animals; some distinctly Australian, some distinctly Asian. Still unknown, however, are the origins of the massive monitor lizard that rules the landscape.

Here there be Dragons...
From its vantage point at the top of the food chain, the enigmatic
Komodo dragon rules Komodo and neighboring islands. The lizard's sharp, serrated teeth harbor various strains of toxic bacteria, and bites inflicted on its prey are almost always fatal. Not many animals are safe from this predator, which will even eat its own young.

Islands and Giants
The powerful Komodo dragon is the largest lizard on Earth. Giant
creatures sometimes evolve on islands where they have no predators, enabling them to feed on bigger prey. The Komodo dragon's great size allows it to ambush and kill animals as large as water buffalo and to consume more than a hundred pounds of meat in a single meal.

Sulawesi
Where Land and Sea Intertwine
Along Sulawesi's extensive, orchid-shaped coastline, mountainous land meets coral-rich sea. There, a dynamic habitat is found: the mangrove forest. A squelching mudflat at low tide and a submerged tangle of roots at high tide, mangroves prevent fragile off-shore corals from choking to death. They shelter the nurseries of countless marine and freshwater species and provide refuge for many birds and land animals.

The Mangrove Monitor
Equally at home in trees as in the water, the mangrove monitor lizard is a versatile hunter of the swamp. It swims, dives and climbs with great agility, leaps from high trees or rocks and digs proficiently to catch crabs, insects, snails, fish and small mammals that inhabit the mangrove swamp.

Why We Need Mangroves
Mangrove forests are the quiet sentinels of land and sea. They are the barriers that not only protect delicate marine ecosystems from
nutrient-laden runoff from land, but also greatly lessen the impacts of tsunamis and other tropical storms by stabilizing the coastline against erosion.

Contributing photographers: Jeffrey Seidel, Bridgit Stegenga, Dave Stegenga, Bryan Thompson, Chris Kehlor. All rights reserved.