Two Sumatran tigers find home in Melbourne

Two Sumatran tigers find home in Melbourne

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Tele, a Sumatran tigress, lay down quietly in her cage at
Medan Zoo. She stared intently at Bagus, her fellow cage mate and
stud, who playfully splashed around in a puddle of water.

Meanwhile, their unnamed cub ran around its small cage next to
its parents. Once in a while, the cub, the youngest of four born
in April 2000, gave a youthful roar, as if to attract its
parents' attention.

Tele gave birth to three cubs on Dec. 29, 1997. One of them,
Dop, died on June 28, 1997 because of an inflamed intestine. The
other two, Sri and Tin, live some 100 meters away from their
mother's cage.

These two cubs, both female, have been intentionally
separated, because the two of them will shortly be taken to
Melbourne Zoo in Australia.

Head of management of Medan Zoo Anhar Lubis, said these two
cubs would be transferred to Australia on a compensation basis.
"As this is a government-to-government matter, we want the
compensation in the form of facilities for Medan Zoo," he said.

He hoped that in line with his discussion some time ago with
Peter Stroud, a senior official of Melbourne Zoo, the Australian
zoo would help Medan Zoo to move to the Tuntungan area of Medan.

"We are very concerned about the present condition of Medan
Zoo. It no longer meets the requirements in terms of size and
location," he stressed.

The transfer process of these two cubs is now under way, he
said. "As agreed, we have left the process of transferring the
cubs to the management of Melbourne Zoo. They will also try to
obtain a letter of permission from President Megawati
Soekarnoputri, because we are not financially capable of doing
this," Anhar said.

He added that a recommendation letter from the director
general of forestry would be needed as a prerequisite for the
presidential permit.

He said the management of Medan Zoo had decided to hand over
the two cubs to its Melbourne counterpart, because the latter has
the means to breed them. "In Melbourne Zoo there is already a
Sumatran tiger stud," he said.

Another reason is that Medan Zoo cannot afford to feed the
Sumatran tigers and cubs. Each day they eat 15 kilograms of
chicken and eight kilograms of beef. "So, every Thursday, the
five of them have to go without food," said Anhar.

Meanwhile, the Medan administration, as the owners of Medan
Zoo, had never donated any money to feed the animals in the zoo,
Anhar noticed. In fact, to feed these tigers, the zoo management
relies heavily on ticket sales and other donations.

"It is difficult for us. We can only allow the zoo to survive,
because it is not financially capable of developing itself," said
Anhar.

As to where Tele and Bagus came from, Anhar said many years
earlier the zoo kept some Sumatran tigers. When they died, they
asked the zoo in Yogyakarta to send Bagus to Medan. The request
was granted and Bagus was flown to Medan on March 28, 1992, Anhar
said.

As for Tele, he said, she was handed over to the zoo after the
locals in Dairi regency, North Sumatra, caught her on February
12, 1997. "They had to snare the tigress, because it was scaring
locals and devouring their pet dogs," said Anhar.

When it was given to the zoo, he went on, Tele's left front
leg had withered because of the snare, so her leg and tail had to
be amputated. A vet carried out the amputation, along with the
help of some NGO volunteers.

Anhar said that, just like the population of orangutans,
Sumatran tigers are dwindling at an alarming rate. "It is
estimated there are only a few hundred Sumatran tigers left now."

Anhar attributed the sharp drop in tiger population to
extensive deforestation in Sumatra. Today, it is easy for people
to kill a Sumatran tiger. "People damage their habitat and
destroy their food," he stressed.

Irfan, coordinator of research monitoring and information
division of Leuser Management Unit, said damage to the forest in
the Mt. Leuser area had forced many Sumatran tigers to leave
their habitat and make themselves easy targets to hunters.

He estimates only 500 Sumatran tigers remain, out of thousands
of them originally found in the Leuser area. "These tigers are
evenly spread in the Leuser forest area, particularly in low-
lying areas, he said.

He added that many Sumatran tigers had disappeared from the
Leuser area because local people had poisoned them. Parts of the
beasts were then sold to illegal traders of rare, protected
animals.

"Once, six Sumatran tigers were found poisoned to death in the
villages of Payate and Silolo in South Aceh, but now tiger
poisoning is rare," he added.