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.