Rinca, also known as Rincah, Rindja, Rintja and Pintja, is a small

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

near

Komodo Komodo may refer to: Computers * Komodo Edit, a free text editor for dynamic programming languages * Komodo IDE an integrated development environment (IDE) for dynamic programming languages * Komodo (chess), a chess engine People * Komodo ...

and

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Including the Komodo Islands off its west coast (but excluding the Solor Archipelago to the east of Flores), the land area is 15,530.58 km2, and th ...

island,

East Nusa Tenggara East Nusa Tenggara ( id, Nusa Tenggara Timur – NTT; pt, Sonda Oriental) is the southernmost province of Indonesia. It comprises the eastern portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands, facing the Indian Ocean in the south and the Flores Sea in the nor ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, within the

West Manggarai Regency West Manggarai Regency ( id, Kabupaten Manggarai Barat) is one of the eight regencies which comprise the island of Flores, located in the province of East Nusa Tenggara (''Nusa Tenggara Timur'') in Indonesia. The Regency was created on 25 Februar ...

. It is one of the three largest islands included in

Komodo National Park Komodo National Park ( Indonesian: ''Taman Nasional Komodo'') is a national park in Indonesia located within the Lesser Sunda Islands in the border region between the provinces of East Nusa Tenggara and West Nusa Tenggara. The park includes the ...

. The island is famous for

Komodo dragon The Komodo dragon (''Varanus komodoensis''), also known as the Komodo monitor, is a member of the monitor lizard family Varanidae that is endemic to the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang. It is the largest extant ...

s, giant lizards that can measure up to long. Rinca is also populated with many other species such as wild pigs, buffalos and many birds.

Area

The island's area is .

Living conditions

Living conditions for local people on the island are often difficult. Education facilities, for example, are quite limited for children. Some non-government organisations help with the provision of books for children on Rinca. Local people must also take some care to avoid Komodo dragons because Komodos in the area occasionally attack and kill humans.

Sea conditions

Rinca and Komodo Islands bracket a north-south passage between the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

and the

Flores Sea The Flores Sea covers of water in Indonesia. The sea is bounded on the north by the island of Celebes and on the south by Sunda Islands of Flores and Sumbawa. Geography The seas that border the Flores Sea are the Bali Sea (to the west), Java ...

. Due to the large bodies of water and narrow gap, the waters between Rinca and Komodo are subject to

whirlpools A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle. Small whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. More powerful ones formed in seas or oceans may be called maelstroms ( ). ''Vo ...

and

currents Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (stre ...

in excess of 10

knots A knot is a fastening in rope or interwoven lines. Knot may also refer to: Places * Knot, Nancowry, a village in India Archaeology * Knot of Isis (tyet), symbol of welfare/life. * Minoan snake goddess figurines#Sacral knot Arts, entertainme ...

. Diving in the region requires care. In June 2008, five scuba divers (three British, one French and one Swedish) were found on the southern coast of Rinca after having been missing for 2 days. The group had drifted from where their dive boat abandoned them. They survived on oysters and other shellfish.

Fauna

Being less known and less visited than Komodo Island, it is a good place to see the

in its natural environment with fewer people to disturb them. Day trips can be arranged to the Loh Buaya park facility on Rinca Island from

Labuan Bajo Labuan Bajo is a fishing town located at the western end of the large island of Flores in the Nusa Tenggara region of east Indonesia. It is the capital of the West Manggarai Regency ''(Kabupaten Manggarai Barat)'', one of the eight regencies whic ...

by small boat at the park headquarters. A jetty which marks the entrance to the park facility. A short walk leads to the local park office where there are rangers to accompany visitors on short or medium-length walks to see komodos and other animals such as monkeys, deer and buffalos.

Gallery

File:Rinca at dry season.JPG,

Dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...

at Rinca File:Juvenile Komodo dragon at Rinca.JPG, Juvenile

File:Water buffalo at Rinca.jpg,

Water buffalo The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called the domestic water buffalo or Asian water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also found in Europe, Australia, North America, So ...

at Rinca File:Crab-eating macaque at Rinca.JPG,

Crab-eating macaque The crab-eating macaque (''Macaca fascicularis''), also known as the long-tailed macaque and referred to as the cynomolgus monkey in laboratories, is a cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. A species of macaque, the crab-eating macaqu ...

File:Rinca Island - Pulau Rinca.jpg, Rinca shore File:Indonesia1-1386-1.jpg, Juvenile Komodo Dragon, Rinca Island

References