Occurrence of the Malayan badger or teledu in Borneo
J.C. Moulton’s 1921 article in the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society examines two skins of the Malayan badger (Mydaus) collected from Mt. Murud in British North Borneo, arguing that they represent a previously undescribed mountain form substantially larger than the lowland species M. lucifer described by Oldfield Thomas in 1902. The piece combines taxonomic reasoning with field correspondence and indigenous testimony to reconstruct the distribution, behaviour, and probable decline of a rare and poorly known carnivore.
Summary
Moulton’s central taxonomic argument rests on the two skins held in the Raffles Museum, which he identifies as roughly twice the size of Oldfield Thomas’s type specimens of M. lucifer in the British Museum. He proposes the name Mydaus javanensis montanus for this larger mountain form while simultaneously advocating that all previously described Mydaus “species” be relegated to subspecific rank under the oldest available name, M. javanensis Desmarest (1820). He acknowledges the provisional nature of this proposal, noting that a complete skin with skull would be needed before the new form could be confidently elevated to specific rank (p. 143).
The article’s evidential base is a patchwork of museum specimens, correspondence, and indigenous knowledge. Moulton draws on letters from R.J. Cockrill at Lahad Datu and E. Stuart Young near Tenom, both of whom describe encounters with the animal in the field, including the powerful odour it emits when threatened. He supplements these with Kalabit accounts from the Baram region, which place the badger exclusively in caves on Mt. Murud and claim that dogs entering its cave have been killed by the smell. Moulton cross-references these claims with an 1879 letter from H.O. Forbes in Java, which records similar effects on native hunters, lending credibility to the Kalabit testimony (pp. 143–144).
A secondary thread concerns the animal’s altitudinal range. Moulton challenges Lydekker’s 1894 assertion that the Bornean form occurs at elevations of only 80–100 feet, pointing out that the Pemabo Range rises from a base of approximately 3,000 feet to over 6,000 feet, with Mt. Murud itself estimated at around 8,000 feet. This correction has implications for understanding the ecological niche of the Bornean population (p. 144).
Key Findings
- The two Raffles Museum skins from Mt. Murud are approximately twice the size of Oldfield Thomas’s M. lucifer type specimens in the British Museum, prompting Moulton’s proposal of a new subspecies, M. javanensis montanus (p. 143).
- Only two Bornean Mydaus specimens had reached European museums by 1921, both held in the British Museum; the Zoological Museum at Buitenzorg, Java, confirmed it held none (p. 144).
- Mt. Murud, the source locality of the Raffles Museum skins, is estimated at approximately 8,000 feet in elevation, contradicting Lydekker’s claim that the Bornean form is restricted to 80–100 feet (p. 144).
- Field accounts from Cockrill (Lahad Datu, 1921) and Stuart Young (Pegallen River, 1915) confirm the animal’s presence in British North Borneo and its capacity to render humans unconscious via its anal secretion (pp. 143–144).
- The Kalabit people of the Baram region report that the badger is found only in caves on Mt. Murud and that dogs entering its cave have been killed by the odour (p. 144).
- Moulton concludes that both the lowland and mountain forms are rare, geographically restricted, and “probably dying out” (p. 143).
Conclusion
Moulton’s definitive takeaway is that the Bornean Malayan badger exists in at least two distinct forms—a lowland race (lucifer) and a larger mountain race (montanus)—both of which are vanishingly rare and likely in decline. His work establishes the first credible evidence for a high-altitude Bornean population and corrects the altitudinal record, while his broader taxonomic argument for collapsing all Mydaus taxa into a single species remains a provisional but well-reasoned hypothesis pending further material.
Context
- The article draws on the Raffles Museum collection (Singapore), the British Museum (Natural History), and the Zoological Museum at Buitenzorg, Java, supplemented by unpublished correspondence from field personnel in British North Borneo.
- Historiographically, the piece represents early 20th-century colonial-era zoological documentation, in which museum-based taxonomy was informed by indigenous knowledge and settler correspondence rather than systematic field survey. It contributes to the sparse literature on Bornean carnivore biogeography at a time when the island’s interior remained largely unexplored by European naturalists.