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)