Monkey habitat in Jakarta getting smaller

Bambang Parlupi, Contributor, Jakarta

Despite the rapid development in Jakarta, marked by explosive population growth and the disappearance of green areas, there are still several locations where wild monkeys of the Macaca fascicularis species can be found.

Several protected forests in outlying areas of Jakarta are home to the monkeys, which have to make do with limited land and food sources. Despite the difficulties, the monkeys are holding on in the Cibubur camping ground to the south of Jakarta and in two other sites in suburban areas of Jakarta.

The Kali Pesanggrahan forest, a nature conservation area in Karang Tengah village, Lebak Bulus, Cilandak district, South Jakarta, hosts a small population of wild monkeys. A typical lowland forest area of the kind that once covered Jakarta, it shares a border with Cinere, Banten province. The forest is dominated by bamboo and fruit trees growing in the floodplain of the Pesanggrahan River. This conservation area measures 40 hectares, but about half of it has been converted into plantations by locals.

Parts of the conservation area have been identified as critical areas and have since the 1990s been the scene for reforestation activities. Today, over 20,000 fruit trees grow here, planted by locals, the government, non-government organizations and private companies.

The regreening program has included the planting of several different types of trees, including teak, mahogany, durian, Gnetum gnemon, sapodilla, mango and star fruit trees. A farmers and environmentalist group, Sangga Buana, has overseen the tree planting in the Pesanggrahan River forest.

H. Chaeruddin 47, chairman of Sangga Buana, noted that long- tailed monkeys had been living on the banks of the Pesanggrahan River for quite a long time.

"Today, there are only 16 monkeys left. They are divided into two groups," said Chaeruddin, a former recipient of the Kalpataru award, a citation conferred to environmentalists in Jakarta.

These monkeys, he said, get their food from the forest area around the river. They do not leave this habitat to encroach upon locals' land, neither do they cause trouble for visitors.

They eat fruit from the trees that grow in the floodplain of the river. The nearby bamboo forest is the monkeys' shelter.

"Their presence may be attractive to visitors. Because the monkeys are still wild, they tend to run away when they see humans," he noted.

"These gray monkeys are most frequently sighted in the bamboo forest behind the Villa Delima Fitness Center, which is located not far from the river. People often feed them in the dry season when few trees bear fruit," said Chaeruddin, a resident.

Locals, he said, also took care of the monkeys living in the Pesanggrahan River forest.

"We forbid anybody from disturbing or hunting them," he said.

There are also monkeys living in North Jakarta's Muara Angke Animal Reserve. This reserve, measuring 25.02 hectares, was once home to 76 bird species and 42 species of plants.

According to Irin, 40, who is assigned to the Natural Resources Conservation Center at the Muara Angke Nature Reserve, more than 30 monkeys live in the swampy area. Usually they are found around the information center or the observation tower in the morning.

"Pidada fruit is their favorite food," he said.

A number of monkeys also search for food along the banks of the Angke River. They look for something to eat among the piles of trash the river carries.

Irin said residents of Pluit or Pantai Indah Kapuk often fed the monkeys. They usually gave the primates fruit, bread or biscuits on Sundays.

According to the observations of Drs. Imran SL. Tobing, Ssi, a primatologist, back in the 1980s Jakarta residents could still spot wild monkeys in several spots along the Ciliwung River in Condet, East Jakarta; Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta; and Ancol, North Jakarta.

"Today, it is very hard to find these monkeys, which have been pushed to the outlying areas or have become extinct," he said.

Imran, who wrote a thesis on primates in the Mount Halimun National Park, West Java, said traditional monkey habitats close to Jakarta included the Bogor Botanical Garden and Rawa Gembong, a mangrove forest in Bekasi, West Java.