New sea lion, baby bears charm Taman Safari

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

Taman Safari Indonesia animal park in Bogor was further enlivened on Thursday with the arrival of a sea lion from Japan and the birth of two brown Alaska bears.

Arriving on Wednesday, the two-year-old female steller sea lion, Marin, was a grant from the Fukushima Aquamarine in Japan.

Born on July 12, 2003, Marin has lighter gray skin color and a bigger head compared to the existing three California sea lions.

According to Aquamarine's aquarist breeding section assistant chief Takeshi Kanda, who delivered Marin to Taman Safari, sea lion's can live up to 30 years in captivity.

"Their life expectancy is slimmer in the wild ... it's more difficult for them to get food," he said on Tuesday.

On the same day at the animal park, two newborn cubs of brown Alaska bear Berbulu (Indonesian for Fury) were spotted for the first time. Berbulu has been hiding in her cave at the park during the last two months of her pregnancy.

"The bear is so protective, it's impossible for us to get near the cave or touch the cubs ... We don't yet know their sex," animal park curator Sharmy Prastiti told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

She said that Berbulu was a gift from European countries. Alaska bears have a gestation period of up to 250 days and they go into hiding just before giving birth.

With the birth of the two cubs, the animal park now has 17 bears in its collection.