Macacaque Park to be completed

JAKARTA: Construction of the two-hectare primate park within the Schmutzer Primate Center in Ragunan Zoo, South Jakarta, is expected to be completed early on August.

The park, according to zoo director Edy Setiarto, will also be equipped with a health clinic for primates.

Taman Makaka (Macacaque Park) is the third project jointly managed by the zoo and the primate center's Gibbon Foundation.

The park may be the biggest of its kind in the world.

Taman Makaka already boasts a gorilla enclosure and the Primates Tunnel, an educational walk which allows visitors to view models of other animals and read the various articles displayed on its walls.

"The design of the park deters contact between humans and animals, so it will be more like their original habitat," Edy said as quoted by the city's official website Beritajakarta on Saturday.

"The completion of the park will be a present for both Jakarta's 477th anniversary which falls on June 22 and the 59th anniversary of the country's independence on Aug. 17," he added. -- JP