Tiger cubs and orangutans enchant visitors at the Baby Zoo
By Maria Kegel
BOGOR, West Java (JP): Ask anybody who has been to Taman Safari in Bogor which part they enjoyed the most, and they will invariably say the Baby Zoo.
Apart from exhibits of birds and several rare species, there are Bengal and rare white tiger cubs, orangutans and a leopard which await inquisitive children and adults for petting and picture-taking.
Yulius H. Suprihardo, a member of the public relations staff at Taman Safari, said the Baby Zoo, which allows children and adults to interact with animals, was one of the most popular attractions at the park, with the tiger cubs getting the most attention.
The Baby Zoo is divided into several areas, starting with several species of birds flying around an open aviary visitors walk through, followed by rows of tall cages housing larger protected birds from around the archipelago. The interaction starts here with zookeepers available to take out a large, and heavy, Great Hornbill, which perches tamely on willing left arms.
Each area of the zoo is tended by zookeepers, including the Baby Zoo where ten are stationed.
After visitors wind their way past the enclosures of the white tigers, a puma and red pandas, they encounter seven tiger cubs, a leopard and five orangutans of various ages, all within their respective fenced huts.
About six tiger cubs of three months of age in the first hut attracted the biggest audience. Only one tiger cub was awake, although it sat quietly while it was moved about for pictures by the zookeeper. The others were curled up together, snoozing in a cage with an open door off to the side.
Despite the large weekend crowd of visitors, not all of the children or adults wished to sit next to the cubs for a photo, preferring instead to watch them from behind the hut's encircling fence.
There were, however, many visitors brave enough to enter the enclosure, including Grace Susanti, 11, and her brother, William, 8, who both said they were not scared and enjoyed the experience.
Before Grace entered the hut to have her picture taken, she gently stopped a wandering cub which had awakened and was exiting the enclosure. She quietly guided it back in, without thinking twice.
Yulius said the tiger cubs often walked out of the ringed enclosure, "but they don't get too far".
However, two larger six-month-old white tiger cubs, which are housed in the furthest hut, are made to stay inside their area, and take turns with visitors. While one is inside a cage, which has a height of 60 centimeters and a length of one meter, the other poses with visitors.
Here, a mother, Heryati, fearlessly placed her two-year-old son, Arief, next to the tiger for a picture.
Asked why she did not hesitate to put her son next to the tiger, she replied she "trusts the zookeeper".
One visitor, though, reported she saw a zookeeper teasing an orangutan, which looked scared.
Yulius said zookeepers were not allowed to overfeed or mistreat the animals, or to ask visitors for money as the staff received a good salary from the park management.
He explained all zookeepers went through special monitored training, which, depending on the trainee's progress, lasted from one to three months.
"Applicants are interviewed first, and are asked if they love animals, then they are watched how they are with the (animals) during the initial training."
Yulius said the zookeepers must love the animals and that they are in charge of feeding them, monitoring their health and alerting one of the three veterinarians on staff if there is a health concern.
The zookeepers benefit from ongoing seminars and workshops, as well as from visiting zookeepers, who give them one to two weeks of training on caring for new species, such as the polar bear from the Adelaide Zoo and the sea lions from California.
Baby animals "work" from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and are fed twice daily, in the morning and the afternoon, four kilograms of sliced meat. There is always water for the animals in their huts, Yulius said.
A tiger cub can join the Baby Zoo when it is two months old, but it is removed and placed in another part of the zoo when it is between the age of nine months and one year, depending on its size and weight. Each animal has a different age limit for staying in the Baby Zoo, he said.
The leopard at the Baby Zoo is two years old and sits motionless while a handler places it on a visitor's lap.
Two observers said they were concerned about the possibility of the young animals experiencing stress with so many strangers around.
But Yulius said the handlers were told to watch for signs of stress in the animals, including not eating and lethargy.
A veterinarian, Yohana Tri Hastuti, was on hand with three syringes to administer to the three younger white tiger cubs. She said they received high doses of Vitamin C to help supplement their diets.
Recovery
Taman Safari, along with its Baby Zoo, was opened in 1986 and averages about 1.2 million visitors a year.
However, during the height of the economic and political crises in 1997 and 1998, there was a 40 percent drop in attendance, seriously depleting a vital revenue source. Help came from several organizations, including the Australasian Regional Zoological Park and Aquaria (ARAZPA), which sent two containers containing 16 tons of kangaroo meat each, the International Rhino Foundation, which donated US$10,000, and the Azabu University of Japan, which donated $2,000 and medicines for the animals.
"We can certainly handle the situation now without donations, since attendance has returned to normal," Yulius said, adding that, of course, donations of any kind were always welcome.
The government does not subsidize the park, but did provide the land and allows the free import of kangaroo meat from Australia to feed the 227 carnivores at the park.
A number of professionals and organizations have praised Taman Safari as the best zoo in the country.
In an e-mail interview, Dr. Willie Smits, who heads an operation for Wanariset Semboja research center to confiscate illegally captured orangutans and rehabilitate them for release back into the wild, said orangutans had died unnecessarily at Ragunan Zoo, and many had died at Pematang Siantar and the zoo in Medan.
"Taman Safari is holy compared to what so-called zoos in Sumatra and Kalimantan (Banjarmasin and Pontianak) have done to orangutans," he said.