Bali National Park

BALI NATIONAL PARK

West Bali National Park (in Indonesian Taman Nasional Bali Barat) is located on the north western side of Bali, Indonesia. The park covers around 190 square kilometres (73 sq mi), of which are 158 square kilometres (61 sq mi) land and the remainder is sea. This is approximately 5% of Bali's total land area. To the north, it includes a 1,000-metre (3,300 ft) long beach, reef and islets. A seaport at Gilimanuk is west of the park, and the village of Goris is to the east. The National Park can be reached by roads from Gilimanuk and Singaraja.



The park was first officially recognised as an area of importance in 1917 when the council of Bali rulers designated it as a nature park. It was fully established as an Indonesian National Park in 1941.

The habitat is very varied with rainforest, dry savanna, acacia scrub and lowland forests, as well as more Montana forests in the higher center. There are also some pockets of dense mangrove forest.
In the north of the park there is an obvious north jutting peninsula called Prapat Agung. Around this peninsula there are long stretches of protected beach and offshore coral reef as well, as a small offshore island called Menjangan. The latter is a very popular diving destination.

There are several long extinct volcanoes in the protected reserve area to the east, with Mount Patas (1,412 meters) and Mount Merbuk (1,388 meters) being the highest points. These peaks are dominant visual landscape features from within every area of the park.
One hundred and sixty species of bird have been recorded in the park, including the near extinct Bali Starling, Bali's only endemic vertebrate species, and a key reason why this national park was created in the first place. By 2001, as few as six individuals were thought to survive in the wild, all of them in this park. Since then captive breeding and re-introduction efforts have continued apace, but poaching pressures are a large problem. With that in mind, a second re-introduction program was started in remote regions of Nusa Penida in 2004. Keen birdwatchers can find a checklist of likely species and their status here

Mammals found inside the park include Banteng, a species of wild cattle from which the familiar Bali cows are descended. Java Rusa and Indian Muntjac deer are quite widespread, and Menjangan Island is in fact named after these (Menjangan means deer in Bahasa Indonesia). Wild Boar and Leopard Cats are both quite common but seldom encoutered.
A Bali Tiger (a full sub-species of Tiger) was shot here in 1937, and despite rumours to the contrary, that is the last ever confirmed sighting of an animal considered extinct since that moment.