Rare egrets find save heaven in Sleman

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

It is 5:30 p.m. in Ketingan, a hamlet in Sleman regency, some 10 kilometers north of here. The sun is setting and a quiet is settling over the small hamlet. The call to evening prayers rings out from the village mosque.

Suddenly, the calm of the village is broken by the flapping wings of thousands of egrets descending from the sky.

They descend in large numbers, forming a circle before perching in the trees. In less than an hour, the village is again quiet.

"They (the egrets) have found a home in the hamlet," Sriyanto, the Ketingan neighborhood chief, said.

The egrets usually leave the hamlet very early in the morning, traveling as far as 10 kilometers in their search for food, and do not return until dusk. Only during the hatching season do some of the egrets stay in the hamlet during the day, to protect and feed the young egrets.

Ketingan has become a rare location where egrets have a safe place they can call home.

Sriyanto said the birds had for the last five years been living side by side with local residents, who voluntarily protected the rare birds from hunters.

They let the birds live, nest and grow undisturbed. People have put up a number of signs around the hamlet warning people not to disturb or hunt the birds. And they will not hesitate to stop and turn away trespassers.

"The residents have agreed to protect the birds and let the animals live safely and peacefully for as long as they like. We all believe that the birds have brought us good luck," said Sriyanto.

The villagers of Ketingan cannot remember exactly when the egrets first moved into their neighborhood. They became aware their hamlet had become an egret colony after hundreds of the birds were already there.

But Sriyanto claims he knows the exact day the egrets began arriving to build their nests.

"It all began in 1997. I saw dozens of egrets building their nests in bamboo clusters in our backyards. I also noticed that more and more egrets were coming here after Sultan Hamengku Buwono X (the governor and sultan of Yogyakarta) paid a visit to inaugurate an asphalt road here," Sriyanto said.

"We believe Ngarso Dalem (the Sultan)'s visit had something to do with the growing population of egrets in our neighborhood. It's like the sultan came here to show the birds a safe place to live," he said.

The fact that Ketingan is the only hamlet in the area to boast an egret colony has caused some superstition among the Ketingan villagers. They think it is something of a mystery that no birds live in the neighboring Cebongan hamlet, which has the same environment and the same tall trees.

Biologist Bambang Agus Suripto of Gadjah Mada University said that security could be the main reason why the egrets chose Ketingan and nowhere else to call home.

Living in large groups, egrets are highly sensitive to disturbances. That is why they live in tall trees, Bambang said.

Bambang also said egrets were good fliers, being able to fly over 10 kilometers without stopping. That explains why the birds, which live on fish and other small animals, including lizards, frogs and worms, can live far away from places where food is abundant, such as ponds.

Bambang said there were a number of places in the province of Yogyakarta where egrets temporarily stayed or even lived for a longer period of time. Gembiraloka Zoo is one, although the egret population is not as large as that in Ketingan.

In fact, there is still no research on the population size or the exact species of the egrets currently living in Ketingan. However, the head of the Yogyakarta Natural Resources Conservation Board, Kuspriyadi Sulistyo, estimates that the egret population in Ketingan is about 8,000.

According to Kuspriyadi, egrets in Ketingan belong to at least two species. Locals call them Kuntul Cina (Chinese Egrets, scientifically known as Egretta eulophotes) and Blekok Sawah (Javan Pond-heron or Ardeola speriosa). They belong to the Ardeidae family.

Government Regulation (PP) No. 9/1999 on plants and animal preservation placed these two species on the list of protected birds.

The Yogyakarta Natural Resource Conservation Agency bestowed an award last month to Ketingan residents for voluntarily protecting the birds.