Orangutans Sumo and Sri move to larger home

Orangutans Sumo and Sri move to larger home

JAKARTA (JP): Sumo and Sri officially moved to their new home
yesterday, one that is more spacious, and with a garden, a pond,
a waterfall, a swing and a shelter.

For the past 18 years, the pair of orangutans were cooped
inside their concrete six-by-eight-meter cage with a single door
and a small window for them to look out at the outside world.

The pair, both 25 years of age, remain childless 18 years
after they were transferred to Jakarta from their original
habitat in Sumatra.

"They were probably too depressed," commented Jakarta Governor
Surjadi Soedirdja after inaugurating the new 500-square meter
open cage at the Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta.

"Hopefully, they can make one in their new cage," Surjadi
said.

"They deserve a better home, and I feel glad that finally we
are able to give them one," said Pauline Schmutzer, chairperson
of the P. Schmutzer Foundation, an animal-lovers organization in
Jakarta.

Surjadi also inaugurated a Beruk Lampung (Pig-tailed Macaque)
cage on 150-square-meter plot in the center of the zoo. The new
facility now accommodates 10 apes from southern Sumatra.

The governor also launched the construction of a
50,000-square-meter lake in Ragunan which will function as a
water source and to prevent flooding during the rainy season. The
lake is expected to be completed in September.

Yesterday's ceremony was especially touching for Ulrike Von
Mengden, a German woman who pioneered the movement to care for
orangutans, an endangered species.

"I thank the city administration so much for inaugurating
these cages. I live and struggle for these animals' existence and
I am the mother of these poor animals," she said with tears
running down her cheeks.

Others present included representatives from Sahabat Satwa (an
organization of animal lovers), the Ragunan Zoo Foundation, the
P. Schmutzer Foundation, Winthertur Life Insurance Company and
Aikon, a green tabloid.

Surjadi praised all the parties involved in preserving the
animals and managing the zoo with the city administration.

"We Indonesians should be ashamed because we have not given
much attention to these animals. All the parties who have helped
this zoo stay open are expatriates," he said.

The P. Schmutzer Foundation has been active in upgrading the
condition of the cages in Ragunan Zoo. Its contributions have
included new cages for lions, striped royal tigers, panthers,
elephants and bears.

"We have already spent Rp 2 billion," Schmutzer, an Indonesian
of Dutch origin, said.

Surjadi said the administration hoped to expand the zoo by
buying adjacent land.

Funding for the project is expected from private contributors
and from the city's own budget, he said.

He underlined the function of Ragunan Zoo as a center of
research, education, conservation and breeding.

"Recreation is not its main function. Ragunan zoo is not a
safari park," he said.

The Ragunan Zoo was built in 1964 when the administration
decided to move the existing zoo in Cikini, Central Jakarta, to a
more spacious area.

From an initial area of 85 hectares, the zoo has expanded to
135 hectares today.

It is now regarded among Asia's finest modern zoos in terms of
its size and collection of more than 4,000 animals. (07)