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The stink badgers occur only in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippenes, specifically on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo and Palawan plus a few smaller neighbouring islands such as Natuna Besar and some of the Calamianes.

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Indonesian stink badger

The Indonesian stink badger Mydaus javanensis is the more widespread of these two species, ranging across Sumatra, Java and Borneo and also occuring on two small islands near Borneo, namely Pulau Lemukatan (just off the western coast of Borneo, near Batupayang in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan) and Natuna Besar or Bunguran (one of the North Natuna islands, situated to the north of West Kalimantan and to the east of peninsula Malaysia) [p36, p111-3, p698, p808].

Little has been written of the Indonesian stink badger on Sumatra, Indonesia. However it is known to occur in Way Kambas National Park in Lampung province (which is also home to the Sumatran tiger) [p1588], at Tandai in the province of West Sumatra [w230], and in forests adjacent to the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park [w260-4], which falls within the provinces of Lampung, Bengkulu and South Sumatra. These locations indicate that the stink badger occurs not only in the forests of the mountain chain stretching along the eastern side of the island (Tandai, Bukit Barisan Selatan), but also at lower elevations and in secondary forest (Way Kambas).

Of this species' distribution in Java, Indonesia, Thomas Horsfield wrote in 1820 [p1174]: "It is confined exclusively to those mountains which have an elevation of more than 7,000 feet above the level of the ocean; on these it occurs with the same regularity as many plants. The long-extended surface of Java, abounding with conical points which exceed this elevation, affords many places favourable for its resort. On ascending these mountains, the traveller seldom fails to meet with our animal, which, from its peculiarities, is universally known to the inhabitants of these elevated tracts; while to those of the plains, it is as strange as an animal from a foreign country." Other sources indicate that Java's stink badgers are not confined to the high mountains, occuring for example as low as 250 m above sea level in West Java [p111-3]. Specific locations in Java from which stink badgers have been reported include Cibodas Biosphere Reserve (Gunung Gede-Pangrango) [w59, w254, w648], Halimum National Park, West Java [p154] and Ijen crater nature reserve, Banyuwangi, at the eastern end of the island [w262].

M. javanensis has been reported from a number of locations on Borneo, falling within the Indonesian and Malaysian parts of the island, including:

• Danum Valley Conservation Area, Sabah, Malaysia [p1589]
• Deramakot Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysia [p1426]
• Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, Sabah, Malaysia [w258]
• Maliau Basin Conservation area, Sabah, Malaysia (and in the adjacent bufferzone) [w257]
• Sandakan district, also Sapagaya Forest Reserve near Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia [p129, p1460]
• Ulu Segama Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysia [p379]
• Kelabit Plateau, Sarawak, Malaysia [p111-3, p1460]
• Kayan Mentarang National Park, East Kalimantan, Indonesia [w260-1]
• Tanjung Puting National Park, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia [w260-2]
• Danau Sentarum National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesia [w260-3]

The sites from which the stink badgers of Borneo have been reported show that the species ranges from relatively low-lying coastal districts to the mountainous heart of the island.

Forests, both primary and secondary, appear to be the main stronghold of the Indonesian stink badger throughout its range. However they can also be found in open ground close to the cover of trees and have been observed in farmland, ricefields, and even in gardens [p111-3, p154, p381].

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Palawan stink badger

This stink badger is named for its occurence on the Philippene island of Palawan, which lies to the north and east of Borneo and to the west of the main Philippene island group. Although apparently absent from Dumuran Island, off the east coast of the northern part of Palawan [p534], the Palawan stink badger has been reported from the following islands in the Calamian Group, which are situated to the north of the northernmost tip of Palawan:

• Busuanga Island (the largest island of the group) [p1, p111-5, w386]
• Calauit Island (a small island at the north-west tip of Busuanga) [p111-5, w386]
• Coron Island (a small island lying close to the south-eastern end of Busuanga) [p464]
• Culion Island (the second largest island of the Calamian Group) [p808]

Within its restricted geographic range M. marchei occurs in a range of habitats [p36, p534, p111-5, p1464, w238-3, w386] including:

• forests (primary and second-growth)
• freshwater swamp forest
• grassland with patches of forest or shrubs
• open pastures and grasslands including damp grasslands
• ricefields and other cultivated areas, particularly where shrub cover is also available
• residential areas

Clearly, this species is adaptable and appears to have coped well with the considerable changes made to its natural habitats by humans, even invading villages and towns. One young stink badger has been watched foraging undisturbed in a village waste heap [p534], while another had a den in the grounds of the State Polytechnic College campus [p1464].

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Picture credits

Map © Steve Jackson, modified from a map at Wikimedia Commons. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this image under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

The Palawan stink badger photo used at the head of this Article is © Peter Widmann, and used with his permission. Credits for the photos used in the right-hand margin of this page for site navigation can be found on the Credits page.

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