Saving eagles through insemination

Ridlo Aryanto, Contributor, Yogyakarta

How do Indonesian bird-lovers differ from their German counterparts? This question has often been asked of Edi Boedi Santosa, a veterinary surgeon teaching at Gadjah Mada's school of Veterinary Medicine, Yogyakarta.

The question has been posed by local songbird-lovers since his return from doctoral studies in Germany in 2000.

With a smile, Santosa, who earned his doctorate in the treatment of bird diseases from Loudwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany, gives his answer by way of a comparison.

A German, he says, will be happy to take his sick bird to a vet and spend 100,000 deutchmarks on the bird's medical treatment, although he bought it for only 25,000 marks. What he is most concerned about is that his bird will get well again.

In Indonesia, he adds, someone may say that he has bought a bird for Rp 17 million but this same person will be very reluctant to part with Rp 50,000. Very often he gets annoyed at this fee and will ask the vet to give details of the medication.

"In Germany, a bird is kept, out of genuine love, but in Indonesia, a bird is caught and kept for the pride of its owner only. It is forced to make the loudest sound but given only the minimum of care. Don't be surprised, therefore, to learn that the greatest number of bird species threatened with extinction in the world is in Indonesia," says Santosa, who was born in Salatiga, Central Java on July 4, 1963.

Data at his disposal shows that 1,111 of a total of 9,052 bird species in the world are threatened with extinction. Indonesia is home to 1,539 birds species, or 17 percent of those found throughout the world. Of this number, however, 104 are now close to extinction.

"The 2000 data that I have shows that Trulek Jawa birds (Vallenus macropterus) have been officially declared extinct. If poaching continues unchecked, more species will be gone," he says.

Among those that he fears will disappear are endemic birds, such as the Javan eagle (Spizaetus bartelsi), Bali starling (Leucoptsar rothschildi) and Maleo (Macrophalon maleo).

"Law enforcement to eradicate trading in protected birds must be implemented more firmly," he said, skeptically.

Weak law enforcement in Indonesia is well-known. Under the law on conservation, illegal trading in legally protected species carries a penalty of Rp 100 million.

"Although Akbar Tanjung can walk free, no traders in protected animals can continue their illegal practice," he said.

Tanjung, the House of Representatives speaker who has been found guilty of corruption and sentenced to three years in prison, remains a free man, pending his appeal to the supreme court.

In 2001 Santosa managed to persuade Gadjah Mada University's school of veterinary medicine to have the subject of management of animal (including bird) diseases in its master program.

"Of the seven students now entering this program, five are taking this subject, which is the first to have been taught in Indonesia," he said.

Five state universities across Indonesia run a veterinary medicine school but bird disease science is taught only at Gadjah Mada University.

Edi is the first person in Indonesia to have majored in the science of bird health and he is now the only authority in this field.

"I feel called upon to pass this knowledge on to many students. If many birds have died at the hands of Indonesian vets because they hadn't learned this subject, the credibility of our vets will be undermined," said Santosa, who now earns about Rp 1.5 million per month as a lecturer.

Santosa is enthusiastic in his efforts to help songbird lovers appreciate the need to keep their pets healthy.

In early 2002 he teamed up with Gunawan, a breeder of canaries (Serinus canarius) to run a special clinic for birds. Gunawan provided a place at Jl. Gandekan 53, Yogyakarta.

"This is a project of an idealist. Let other vets collect hundreds of thousands of rupiah for each patient. I have opted for the cross-subsidy concept. I charge only Rp 15,000 per bird in the case of songbird breeders. But I will charge Rp 90,000 to Rp 100,000 per bird to songbird lovers who can afford to buy birds worth millions of rupiah.

"I use this money to subsidize the breeders. Many of my colleagues have often told me, jokingly, that I will never get rich that way. I don't care, though. As a professional I work professionally," said Santosa, who rides a low-cost, Chinese-made motorcycle, the installments on which have just been completed.

In an effort to save protected birds, Santosa has proposed to the relevant parties that elementary schoolchildren be given a special lesson to develop a love of birds. Besides, he is also exploring the possibility of introducing a more modern way of breeding endangered birds in captivity.

With the funding from the national education ministry, he has, since 2001, been studying the possibility of breeding in captivity endangered Javan eagles through artificial insemination.

In 2000, only an estimated 200 pairs remained in the wild.

Santosa has been studying the Javan eagles kept at Gembira Loka zoo, Yogyakarta. He is optimistic that insemination can save the species.

"If the initiative is successful, the population of this species will rise. Insemination has proved successful for the breeding of golden eagles (used as the state symbol of the United States). Why can't it work as well for our own Javan eagles, too?" he says, with great optimism.