Rare RI primates find a home in rural England<\/p>\n
Bruce Emond, Contributor, Kent, England<\/p>\n
Jakarta and Bandung are English-born and bred, but their names
\ntell of their ancestral homeland a world away from the Kent
\ncountryside.<\/p>\n
They are grizzled leaf monkeys, highly endangered in their
\nnative habitat on Java, but have these two have found a new home
\nin the unlikely setting of Bekesbourne, one of the charming
\nvillages clustered around the historic city of Canterbury.<\/p>\n
While other parts of Kent county are known for culinary
\ndelicacies like jellied eels and oysters, their fruit orchards
\nand oasthouses -- the distinctive thatched buildings once used to
\ndry hops for beer -- Bekesbourne's claim to fame is Howletts Wild
\nAnimal Park.<\/p>\n
Since it was founded as a private zoo 45 years ago, Howletts
\nhas become a breeding center for rare and endangered animals. Its
\ncollection of animals includes traditional zoo draws such as
\ntigers, rhinos and gorillas, with Howletts and its sister zoo of
\nPort Lympne sending a group of the latter to Jakarta's Ragunan
\nZoo last year.<\/p>\n
Other animals are those of the smaller, lesser known species,
\nwhich are hurtling toward oblivion with little fanfare about
\ntheir plight.<\/p>\n
While there is no doubt about the threats to the survival of
\nthe grizzled leaf monkey (Presbytis comata), the chronic shortage
\nof human and financial resources in Indonesia may put it at a
\nlower conservation priority as compared to, say, the orangutan or
\nSumatran rhino.<\/p>\n
Howletts has tried to fill the conservation vacuum with a
\nfocus on Indonesian primates in recent years.<\/p>\n
As well as the grizzled leaf monkey, it is home to the Javan
\ngibbon (Hylobates moloch), also known as the silvery or Moloch
\ngibbon, the world's most endangered gibbon species with a maximum
\n2,000 surviving in its wild habitat of West Java; the Javan
\nlangur (Trachypithecus auratus auratus); siamang (Hylobates
\nsyndactylus) of Sumatra; and banded leaf monkeys (Presybitis
\nmelalophos), a little-studied species from the threatened forests
\nof south and central Sumatra.<\/p>\n
The park's Indonesian connection began in the early 1980s when
\nits founder, John Aspinall, funded the transfer of three Sumatran
\nrhinos -- one male and two females -- from Indonesian zoos to
\nHowletts as part of a global captive breeding program. Although
\nthe program ultimately foundered due to a variety of problems,
\nHowletts had established the necessary Indonesian government
\ncontacts for future projects, and the joint efforts have reaped
\nsuccess in breeding primates.<\/p>\n
Howletts is now home to almost 20 Javan gibbons, by far the
\nlargest zoo population in the world, and it has been even more
\nsuccessful with the Javan langur, with almost 40 animals, some of
\nthem third-generation zoo births.<\/p>\n
Jakarta and Bandung are the result of its cooperation with the
\nBandung Zoo, the only other facility housing grizzled leaf
\nmonkeys.<\/p>\n
Others may lambaste the Indonesian government for its failure
\nto take wholehearted measures to protect species in the wild, but
\nHowletts\/Port Lympne director of collections Peter Litchfield
\ncharacterized his cooperation with the Ministry of Forestry as
\nbeneficial.<\/p>\n
\"We've always viewed our relationship in a positive way, since
\nit was instigated by John Aspinall in the first place, and we
\nvery much want to continue in that line of thought,\" he said,
\nnoting the park would be interested in a captive breeding program
\nfor the endangered primates of the Mentawai Islands off the
\nSumatran coast.<\/p>\n
\"We've had successes here, and it's very important that we can
\nmaintain that cooperation with the Indonesian government.\"<\/p>\n
Litchfield attributed much of the success to the
\nunconventional approach of millionaire Aspinall, a famed man-
\nabout-town who founded Howletts in 1957 as a private zoo.<\/p>\n
Aspinall, who died at the age of 74 in 2000, advocated large,
\nspacious enclosures instead of cramped cages, and doing away with
\nthe taboo of close interaction between keepers and their animals.<\/p>\n
Head keeper of primates Ernie Thetford said breeding primates
\nproved a \"long, complicated journey\" during his 15 years at
\nHowletts. Primates generally reach sexual maturity at a later age
\nthan many mammals and usually give birth to only one offspring.<\/p>\n
However, they found that keeping small family groups in large
\nenclosures and their food provision as close as possible to
\nconditions in the wild were conducive to healthier animals.<\/p>\n
\"The enclosures are obviously nothing like the forest, but the
\nheight aspect, which is often missing in zoos, does make a
\ndifference to primates,\" Thetford said.<\/p>\n
\"It makes a primate feel secure, because when a primate is
\nfrightened, it goes up ... It also allows plenty of movement and
\nexercise, which I think is really important ... it does their
\nheart good and builds up good musculature.\"<\/p>\n
The enclosures, set back several meters from visitor pathways,
\nalso have centrally heated indoor quarters that provides not only
\nan escape from the cold:<\/p>\n
\"They are always available to the animals, and the public
\ncan't see in there, so they've always got another area where they
\ncan get away from being stared at. Primates generally don't like
\nbeing stared at ... And less stress for the animals means better
\nsocial bonding among them....\"<\/p>\n
While many zoos have resorted to \"primate pellets\", which
\nprovides all the nutritional needs for the animals, Howletts
\nfocuses on natural diets of fruits, vegetables and herbs, as well
\nas Kenyan green beans for the leaf-eating monkeys. \"We have a
\nvery wide range, including tropical fruits like rambutan, salak
\n(snakefruit) and durian, which the siamangs really like,\"
\nThetford said. \"We've got a good diet that's very varied every
\nday, and while most zoos will say that, we really do that, which
\nis a joy to be able to do that for the animals.\"<\/p>\n
Thetford said the general philosophy was based on putting the
\nanimals first.<\/p>\n
\"It's not about compromising them for the public's viewpoint
\nor anyone else's ... we let them just relax and be happy and get
\non with it.\"<\/p>\n
They have got on with it so well that success brings its own
\nset of problems, sadly evident in the story of the babirusa,
\nanother Indonesian resident of Howletts. The two males at the
\nzoo, like almost all their cousins at European and U.S. zoos, are
\ndescended from two small groups and are now terribly inbred.<\/p>\n
The problem of a limited genetic pool is especially acute for
\nthe Javan gibbon. With no recourse to source new bloodlines from
\nthe tiny wild population, the best option is to confiscate
\ngibbons kept as pets in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\"There are some estimates that there may be up to a couple of
\nhundred animals as pets,\" Thetford said. \"It's not the best
\nsituation to bring in a pet, but a lot depends on how it was
\ntreated and its interaction with other gibbons, and it's
\nimportant for primates to have had infant-rearing experience.<\/p>\n
\"But, with the right philosophy and infant techniques, you can
\nusually let them get over it.\"<\/p>\n
While the ultimate goal of captive breeding is to return the
\nanimals to the wild, Litchfield recognized the irony in having
\nsuccessful captive breeding populations but no guarantee of the
\npreservation of their habitat.<\/p>\n
\"The whole ethos of John Aspinall was that once we had enough
\nof the animals, we would send them back, because have no major
\ninterest in supplying another zoo,\" he said. \"Indonesian species
\nare being bred in the hope that there will be an area of natural
\nwild for them to be returned to.<\/p>\n
\"We are breeding these animals for Indonesia, and any help
\nthey can be along the way is greatly appreciated.\"<\/p>",
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