e-ISSN: 2723-6692 🕮 p-ISSN: 2723-6595
Jurnal Indonesia Sosial Sains, Vol. 5, No. 4, April 2024 789
In essence, books have an essential function in human life, both as a medium of learning, a
means of disseminating ideas, and a medium of entertainment. Books are a source of knowledge that
can help readers acquire new knowledge, broaden their horizons, and deepen their understanding in
various areas of life. Readers can explore new ideas through books and enrich their imaginations and
minds.
For example, fiction books offer compelling stories, which can distract readers from daily
routines; religious books can provide guidance and teachings for religious people and inspire those
who are looking for the meaning of life; and educational books can be a source of learning for readers
and help readers improve their knowledge, abilities, and skills in various fields, including Animal
introduction (Siregar & Rahmah, 2016).
Interest in reading in Indonesia is currently still shallow when compared to other countries in
the world; referring to data from the survey results of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO), from the national index data shows that the level of interest of
Indonesian people is only 0.001 per cent of the Indonesian population, which means there is only one
person out of 1000 residents who actively read books. This is undoubtedly a severe problem because
low reading interest in the population can hurt increasing public knowledge. Therefore, solutions are
needed to increase people's interest in reading and love for books, especially children.
Learning to use creative media with many visual elements will make it easier for children to
remember. According to Boby Hartanto, M.Psi (Alamsyah & Purba, 2020), "The human brain prefers
everything that is pictorial and colourful because images can have a million meanings while colours
will make everything more alive." This certainly makes creative media an effective means to increase
interest in reading and introduce animals to children.
One of the protected animals that is interesting to discuss in the book is Binturong, scientifically
named Arctictis Binturong. This animal is related to the weasel but has a larger body than the weasel;
this animal has many names, in some areas referred to as Binturong, Binturung, Menturung, or
Menturun. In English, this animal is called Binturong, Malay Civet Cat, Asian Bearcat, Palawan Bearcat,
or simply Bearcat. It is called the Bearcat (Cat Bear) probably because this dense black furry carnivore
resembles a long-tailed bear with a bushy and long moustache like a cat. While in China, this animal
is called Xiong-Li (Alamendah, 2010).
Binturong is a nocturnal animal that spends most of its life on trees; Duckworth said, "Binturong
is an Arboreal animal and rarely goes to the ground" (Duckworth, 2016). This directly contradicts
Fadli's statement, "Binturong, like most ferrets, is a nocturnal animal active at night (Meikawati,
2018). Although more often on top of trees (Arboreal), Binturong also descends to the ground
(Terrestrial). Moreover, this animal is distributed in tropical forests (Rahmadi, 2015).
Binturong wild populations are likely to decline and need to be protected, so the International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) put this animal into Vulnerable conservation status (VU;
Vulnerable). Even Holden (2016) said in (Pryono, 2018) that "This animal by the Indonesian
government is one of the protected animals." this is evidenced by the inclusion of Binturong animals
in the list of protected animals in the regulation of the Minister of Environment and Forestry of the
Republic of Indonesia P.106/2018. The decline in the population of this animal is inseparable from
human intervention that exploits this animal and damages the habitat where it lives with a lot of
hunting, deforestation, and forest fires. Alamendah also suggests that "Binturung is hunted for its
thick furry skin and to be used for its body parts as traditional medicinal materials" (Alamendah,
2010).
As a society, we are responsible for preserving the environment and biodiversity, especially
children who, as the next generation, need to get education about Binturong animals to understand
the importance of maintaining the survival of this species and how to preserve the ecosystem around
these animals. Therefore, creative and exciting information media alternatives are needed to explain