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1.) Specific terms and labels
When you surf through the Gallery, you might see some labels that might be confusing or new to you. Here are some short and clear explanations:
Taxa/taxas: Short for "taxonomy", which in short is the science, practice, or systems of classifying living organism. In this Gallery, "taxa" or the plural "taxas" are used to describe pure species and subspecies (I.e not affected by hybridization or selectively farmed breedings like color morphs).
^All three subspecies of violet-necked lory (Eos squamata).
This is an example of both a pure species and subspecies. All three birds seen on the left is an species called the violet-necked lory (Eos squamata), a member of the lory and lorikeet (Loriinae) sub-family of the Old World parrot (Psittaculidae). But, notice the morphological or physical differences between the three birds despite being in the same species. These differences, as long as not being distinct enough, will then be lowered again in the taxonomic ladder into a subspecies. Geographic isolation between populations of an species lead to further divergence over time, which eventually results in an subspecies.
A.) Eastern violet-necked lory (Eos squamata squamata) - This is the nominate subspecies, which is the population that is the original basis of when the species was first described. The nominate scientific naming always repeat the species name. Adding into this, the violet-necked lory was first described in the island of Gebe in the Maluku Islands in 1780. So, violet-necked lories from Gebe and nearby regions which each shares physical characterics with one another are considered to be the nominate subspecies.
B.) Obi violet-necked lory (Eos squamata obiensis) - An separate population in the Obi and Bisa Islands that has diverged into an subspecies, with notable physical differences like having a fully red upper body.
C.) Bechstein's violet-necked lory (Eos squamata riciniata) - An separate population in the northern Maluku Islands that has diverged into an subspecies, with notable physical differences like having extensive purple feathers on their upper body, except the face.
While there are more than many examples of hybridizations or selective farming in captivity that results in animals with unpure genetics, the hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) serves as an great example in zoos. While people often though that hybridizations are just between two different species, interbreeding between two or more different subspecies of one species can be categorized as hybridization too, especially considering how genetically distinct each subspecies are. Back to the hippopotamus, which contains 3 or 5 subspecies, their subspecies in captivity around the world can no longer be identified or traced back. This is due to how long this large mammals has been maintaned in zoos throughout history around the world, that the record of where they or their ancestors originated from has become too hard to be tracked, as well as the possibility that the various subspecies has been intermixed between each other. Outside of Africa, unless they came directly from that continent, potentially most hippopotamus in captivity sadly don't belong into one or more pure subspecies due to their possible genetic intermixing or atleast unknown heritage, thus have very little value in the actual conservation of this species.
^This hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius), named Gombloh, was born around the early 1960's. Due to this, there's posibility that it could be of an pure subspecies, as during this time period, many zoos around the world are still recorded to have one of the pure subspecies. But, due to lack of informations of where Gombloh or his parents originated from, it can't be said for certain.
^The "Irian Jaya blue-tongued skink" (Tiliqua sp.) is an form of blue-tongued skink that are still yet to be fully described into a species or even subspecies level. It's still debated on where this lizards belong. Some suggest that they could even be descendats of Tiliqua gigas of New Guinea and Tiliqua scincoides of Australia that naturally interbreed back when both regions were still connected as part of the Sahul continent over 18,000 years ago, which is due to physical traits seen in the "Irian Jaya" form that are also found in both species. Though, as of writing, no conclusive answer has been brought up yet
"sp." labels: Taxas that are given the "sp. " label are taxas that have yet to be fully described or scientificaly-classified into a species or subspecies level, so they're considered to be a undescribed taxon.
Undescribed taxons are found in most kingdom of animals. There are no concrete estimate on how many undescribed animals are out there, due to the ever developing world of taxonomy and zoology that constantly describes further new taxons every single year. Though, some animals that are still considered to be "undescribed" do ended up in captivity. Examples like the Msobo mbuna (Maylandia sp. 'Msobo') and Sulawesi black tarantula (Selenocosminae sp. 'therindo') appears from time to time, which despite of their wide presence even under human care, any formal descriptions has yet to be made. This is due to many reasons; taxonomic limitacy, the geographic remoteness of where the undescribed taxon came from, indistinguishable physical features despite having distinct genetic (Cryptic species), and the possibility of the taxon just being a naturally-occuring hybrization between recognized species, among others.
Subspecies given single quotation mark (' '): Some subspecies aren't given the "sp." label or the "species" label, which means they has or had been recognized, but are still labelled with the single quotation mark. These are due to certain subspecies being no longer fully valid or are considered outdated with scientific datas. This results in some of them to be grouped as part of another subspecies or being grouped to form a entirely new subspecies, with some species even losing all of their subspecies and are now considered monotypic. Species Gallery will try to include these older taxonomy.
Taxonomy is a rapidly changing world. An grouping of animals, from the lowest ranking of subspecies to even to family level, are not always a constant. With new technologies that came over time, new discoveries are also made on the genetics of these animals. This often results in a lot of outcomes, which included as mentioned, the validity of one taxas. Though, there are always wide disagreements regarding this, as some may still consider these invalid taxons to actually still being valid.
^If we are still following the old and previously widely-used taxonomic naming, the two tiger and lion species are Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) and Masai lion (Panthera leo massaica). Nowadays, both tigers and lions are just differentiated to just be two different subspecies. For the tigers, they're the mainland tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) of continental Asia and the Sunda Islands tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) with one last remaining population in the island of Sumatra. For the lions, they're classified as the southern lion (Panthera leo melanochaita) from southern Africa and the northern lion (Panthera leo leo) from northern and western Africa as well as in Gujarat, India.
^This purple-colored domesticated pigeon (Columba livia f. domestica) is of an specific breed called the archangel pigeon, originally bred in the Dalmatia region of modern-day Croatia. These variations of pigeons are a domesticated form of the rock dove (Columba livia).
Domesticated animals or farmed variants ("f." label): The "f." label is a short for "form or forma". It's a informal designation for certain varieties within an species that is of little taxonomic significance. This label are used often in man-made mutations of certain animals or more generally farmed animals. Species Gallery also include of a handful of domesticated form of animals that both physicaly and behavioraly differs significantly to their wild ancestors, so I won't include generic farmed mutations of certain wildlifes that are just selectively-bred color variations or hybrids (Ex. "tiger" form of the reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus)).
2.) Validity of the animals
Despite all of the things mentioned above, guessing the species of certain animals, let alone the subspecies or the genetic purity of them in captivity (I.e zoos, pet trade, etc.) are very difficult, if not impossible. This is something that I'm dealing with constantly, which affected my Species Gallery work and myself personally as determining the identity of these animals are one of the main pillars of this work. To make things easier and less complicated, the Species Gallery include both the photos of the generic taxa (Only into the species level) for certain animals in which their subspecies and origin are hard to determine or unspecified, as well as those that have been determined to be a certain subspecies or locality. The number of animals photographed will consist on both of these.
In the Species Gallery, generic taxa namea will be bolded and additional informations on their subspecies and their ranges will also be added.
^Found widely across North and Central America, the raccoons (Procyon lotor) are comprised of more than 20 subspecies. Outside of their range, in zoos, fur farms, pet shops, and feral populations, their subspecies, lineage, or origin aren't fully determined. Aside from due to the very massive numbers of subspecies, their long history of being introduced outside of their native ranges makes it very difficult to be traced back accurately.
^All four gibbon species across the island of Borneo, including this Bornean white-bearded gibbon (Hylobates albibarbis), are often all collectively called kalawet or kelawat, or sometimes owa Kalimantan (Bornean gibbon) in Indonesian. Though, the Bornean white-bearded gibbon are also sometimes called owa janggut-putih (White-bearded gibbon) specifically.
3.) Indonesian name
As a way to give tribute to the Indonesian basis of the Gallery and my upbringing, taxas and domestic breeds that are native, endemic, or originated from Indonesia will also have their local Indonesian names labelled to them. Aside from the mentioned motives, the addition of the local names are made as a way to slowly decolonize knowledges and also put into perspective the views of the people and culture that seen these animals firsthand for generations, not only from foreigners who first "discovered" them. While I'd be interested to learn more about the local names for taxas and breeds from different countries and cultures, I'm only be limiting the local names to Indonesian taxas and breeds due to my limitacy, my apology.
Despite of this, it's still worth noting using regular names, both in the many languages of Indonesia and other languages as well, might be a flawed way to specifically and scientifically describe certain taxas, as one name might potentially be used to describe not just one, but two or even more species. Using the designated scientific (or Latin) name to describe an taxa is the most best way, while using regular name should be used for convenience and for people to better understand said taxa.
Example of these labels are as following:
Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas) - Macan tutul Jawa
Citron-crested cockatoo (Cacatua citrinocristata) - Kakatua cempaka
Forsten's tortoise (Indotestudo forstenii) - Baning Sulawesi
Asian common toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus) - Bangkong kolong
Kissing gourami (Helostoma temminckii) - Ikan tembakang
Coconut crab (Birgus latro) - Ketam kenari
Sandalwood pony (Equus ferus caballus) - Kuda sandel
On another note, some native taxas are yet to have a clear local names, especially invertebrates and several subspecies. These are either due to the limited knowledge or sightings of the taxas, or that these taxas are considered to not be as significant as others, often lumping them into general names like "laba-laba" (Spider) or "karang" (Coral). So, generic names and the closest labels are given to these local taxas, mostly in a descriptive way in term of colorations, shape, and geographic distributions. Examples include;
Dang's cross spider (Argiope dang) - Laba-laba taman (Generic names often given to generally describe orb-weaver spiders)
Branching purple sponge (Amphimedon queenslandica) - Spons batang ungu (Descriptive names based on shapes and color)
Javan crested drongo (Dicrurus hottentottus jentincki) - Srigunting Jawa Timur (Name based on geographical distribution)
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