"The Binturong" for the Light Grey Art Lab show SWARM,
an exhibition about the beauty of creepy critters and nightdwelling creatures.
High in the tree tops of the oldest rainforest of our planet in Borneo there lives the binturong (Arctictis binturong),
also known as asian bearcat. The nocturnal binturong lives in a symbiotic relationship with the strangler fig.
In a process called endozoochory, the binturong eats the fig fruit and the seed’s tough outer covering is removed by the binturong’s digestive tract as the seed passes through its system, thus helping the seed to germinate.
The strangler fig is a parasitic plant that lives on host trees, twisting around them and essentially slowly "strangling" them to death, leaving only the hollow fig tree. Ironically, it is also believed that the strangler fig can help its host tree survive storms.
Besides the binturong, the Borneo rainforest is home to a vast array of other species.
As many as 1,000 insect species can be found in just one dipterocarp tree, amongst them the giant millipede, the moon moth,
the lantern bug, the praying mantis and the rhinoceros beetle.
an exhibition about the beauty of creepy critters and nightdwelling creatures.
High in the tree tops of the oldest rainforest of our planet in Borneo there lives the binturong (Arctictis binturong),
also known as asian bearcat. The nocturnal binturong lives in a symbiotic relationship with the strangler fig.
In a process called endozoochory, the binturong eats the fig fruit and the seed’s tough outer covering is removed by the binturong’s digestive tract as the seed passes through its system, thus helping the seed to germinate.
The strangler fig is a parasitic plant that lives on host trees, twisting around them and essentially slowly "strangling" them to death, leaving only the hollow fig tree. Ironically, it is also believed that the strangler fig can help its host tree survive storms.
Besides the binturong, the Borneo rainforest is home to a vast array of other species.
As many as 1,000 insect species can be found in just one dipterocarp tree, amongst them the giant millipede, the moon moth,
the lantern bug, the praying mantis and the rhinoceros beetle.
© Jasmin Dreyer 2017
