'Krismon' leaves Medan Zoo in sorry state

Apriadi Gunawan and Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Medan and Yogyakarta

The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) recently reported that Indonesian zoos are in a sorry state with the animals' welfare being largely neglected. The prolonged economic crisis (krismon) has been blamed for their predicament.

Anhar Lubis of Medan Zoo and Joko Nur Prihadianto of Yogyakarta's Gembira Loka zoo share their stories with The Jakarta Post.

Anhar Lubis, manager of Medan Zoo, North Sumatra.

Medan zoo is currently in a poor condition.

The zoo only covers around three hectares of land, in contrast to the ideal 20 hectares as required by Indonesian law.

With such a limited plot, the area should have been established to house certain animals only, like for birds but not for a zoo that houses various species of animals.

The zoo is now home to a total of 288 animals of different species, including 22 species of mammals, 28 species of birds, five species of reptiles and 20 species of fish.

Since the economic crisis hit the country in 1997, the zoo's management has never reduced the quantity of food for each animal. We have to spend around Rp 1.1 million to feed them every day.

We limit food for zoo animals that are not breeding. So far we have several new wild mammals, namely tigers and orangutans.

We are doing our best to provide sufficient food for the animals and we are also looking for donors to help us build better cages for the animals as the condition of some of both the open and closed enclosures that we have here have deteriorated.

I personally think that it would be better if Medan Zoo was moved to another location, ideally one that is larger, equipped with better cages and away from the heart of the city. This way we can expect more visitors and generate more income to improve conditions.

Joko Nur Prihadianto, Public Relations Manager of Gembira Loka Botanical Garden and Zoo, Yogyakarta.

We basically accept all the recommendations of the study. We consider it as an input to improve conditions. We will do our best to improve the welfare of all the animals here. We try to do our best to provide them with an environment and treatment that best suits their original natural habitat. This is our basic principle in handling them in the zoo.

There are of course several things in the report that we do not fully agree with. For example regarding the way it described stressed animals. It, for instance, asserted that stressed elephants would keep moving their trunks. In fact, they do so not only when they are stressed, but also when they are hungry.

They do so also to remove dirt and food from their trunks.

We are currently in the process of establishing a caging system that best suits the animals' needs, that best resembles their true habitat. But, of course, we cannot do so all at once. We have to do so step by step, especially due to the limited funds we have.

In 2001 we had a total income of some US$100,000 according to an evaluation conducted by the Ethics and Welfare Committee of the South East Asia Zoos Association (SEAZA). But we raised the entrance fee from Rp 4,000 to Rp 5,000 since April this year.

This means that our income will hopefully increase by up to 25 percent as well, giving us more space to provide the animals with much better conditions.

Gembira Loka occupies some 14 hectare of land, five hectares of which are allocated for a botanical garden. It serves as the lungs of the city with hundreds of forest plants including rare ones. The zoo accommodates some 1,000 animals of some 265 species.

We spend around Rp 64 million a month for taking care of all the animals. This excludes the fund allocated for the cage rehabilitation program.