Gibbons in need of better digs

Gibbons in need of better digs

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post/Bogor

Five Javan gibbons, known locally known as Owa Jawa, and a gibbon
from Kalimantan, known as a Owa Agilis, are in need of a new
home.

The primates are currently being kept in separate, small cages
at the Owa Jawa Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Nanggerang
village, Cicurug, Sukabumi regency, a few hours drive from
Jakarta.

"They need large enclosures that would enable them to interact
with each other," the center's coordinator, Ida Yuniati Masnur,
told The Jakarta Post recently.

The Javan gibbons -- 13-year-old Yuki; Jefri, 7; Nancy,
6; Kis-kis, 4; Moli, 3 -- and the two-year-old Owa Agilis
Kiddy are being prepared for a return to the wild after being
rescued from private homes where they were kept as pets.

The center lies on 2.5 hectares of land that it rents from
agro-tourism firm PT Pengembangan Agrowisata Prima on a year-to-
year basis.

"The land owner doesn't want us to rent the site for a longer
term because they want to make it available to interested buyers.
We're trying to talk PT Pengembangan into letting us continue
renting the land into the future," Ida said.

She said, however, that as a state facility, the center should
have its own site with better security to avoid people
approaching the primates' cages.

According to experts, primates need spacious enclosures with
conditions as close as possible to their natural habitat.

"What we have now is only adequate for a quarantine, not a
rehabilitation center, which ideally should be on 20 hectares of
land," she said.

Ida said the Bogor Office for Natural Resources Conservation
and the management of the Pangrango Mountain National Park had
offered to find a more suitable location for the center.

In an attempt to raise awareness about the plight of the
endangered Javan gibbon -- there are only about 2,000 of them
left in the wild -- Ida said she would introduce an Owa Jawa
adoption program.

"People can get involved in the rehabilitation project until
the gibbons are ready to be returned to the forest by providing
cages or food," she said.

The center currently relies on donation from the Silvery
Gibbon Project based in Perth, Australia.

"The donors come here almost every year just to check on the
condition of the primates," she said.