Jakarta Globe, Kennial Caroline Laia & Dyah Ayu Pitaloka, January 20, 2014
 |
The number of deaths at Surabaya zoo, including a lion earlier this month,
have alarmed wildlife conservation groups, but the mayor has denied allegations
of negligence. (EPA Photo/Fully Handoko) |
Singapore/Jakarta/Surabaya/Malang.
A green and clean atmosphere welcomes visitors at the Singapore Zoo, where
signs are posted in multiple languages and tidy lines form for tickets at the
row of 10 ticket boxes.
Once inside
the zoo, wide-open spaces abound, where healthy-looking animals live with some
degree of freedom.
Singapore
Zoo is part of Wildlife Reserves Singapore, a company that has holdings in
three other parks: Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari and the newly opened — and
Asia’s first and only — river-themed wildlife park, River Safari.
Currently a
self-funded organization, WRS bills itself as being “dedicated to the
management of world-class leisure attractions that foster conservation and
research while educating visitors about animals and their habitat.”
Dr. Cheng
Wen-Haur, the science chief at WRS, said several species at the zoo were
endangered and threatened in their native habitats.
“If we
don’t do something about it, by next generation, our children or our children’s
children won’t see these animals any more in the wild. You may go to the zoo to
see them, but in the wild, they’re all gone,” he said.
Cheng added
that WRS received its animals from other zoos around the world rather than
directly from the wild.
“We’re
talking about conservation, which means we try to help the animals survive in
the world longer. About the animals that we keep, we want to find out how we
can look after them and help them get better and to not get sick, how we can
breed them so we can send them back into the wild,” he said, adding that one of
their successful breeding programs involved the Bali starling, an endangered
bird found only on the Indonesian island.
Cheng said
zookeepers and medical staff at WRS facilities routinely checked on the animals
based on their individual needs.
“It is very
important for the zoo to look after the animals on a daily basis. They can’t
talk to you but the zookeepers know them so well so they must know that there’s
something wrong with the animals through any change in behavior,” he said.
“In
treating sick animals, there are a couple of options: perhaps injections, check
the animals closely, take the temperature, blood test, do an X-ray, you know,
all the things we humans take when we go to see a doctor,” he added.
“Plus,
whatever animals you want to keep in the zoo, you want to make sure that you
give them the right amount of space,” he said.
He said WRS
had a very close relationship with other zoos and animal welfare groups, so if
there were any sick animals that required help from WRS, they would try to
accommodate them.
Asked if
WRS was open to treating sick animals from Indonesian zoos, Cheng said it was.
“We work
very closely with the local partners in terms of conservation projects. We work
with NGOs, local zoos, and local NGOs, so if there’s anything we can afford to
do, like providing financial support, technical support, sending our expert…
Whatever we can do to help,” he said.
Balancing
business and welfare
WRS chief
executive Lee Meng Tat said managing Singapore Zoo involved finding a balance
between earning money from the parks, and taking care of the animals.
“The good
thing about us is that we have two teams that work very well together. One that
takes care of the animals and all of the operational costs. And a team which
not many zoos have, a full commercial team,” he said, adding that WRS was run
just the same way as other Singaporean companies reliant on visitors.
“It is a
challenge. On one hand, we have this mission to educate people, and at the same
time we have to make sure that we do a lot of conservation,” he said.
“If we want
to do well, we have to do good. For example, when we buy fruits for human
consumption, people will ask us, ‘So the fruits for the animals you buy are the
rotten ones, the throwaway ones?’ I said, ‘No. Our food for the animals is as
good as for human beings,’” Lee said.
“It is a
fine balance between doing something well and working toward maintaining our
current business.”
He added
that WRS took its responsibility of conveying the message of wildlife
conservation to all visitors very seriously.
“It is
everything. When you come to our park, seeing is one thing. Visitors can see
the wildlife widely and freely. We want our visitors to feel they are in the
rain forest. Here, you don’t see exhibits like cages, you see natural forest,”
he said.
Meanwhile,
in Indonesia
It’s a very
different situation at Surabaya Zoo, a facility where so many animals have died
unnatural and horrific deaths that the international media have dubbed it “the
zoo of death.”
Lee was
diplomatic when asked for his take on the situation in Surabaya.
“The
Southeast Asian Zoos Association [SEAZA] is taking the lead on this. They are
in contact with Surabaya Zoo to see how we can help as an association. We are
also familiar with the Indonesia Zoo and Aquarium Association, they are also
involved in trying to help,” he said.
“We are
trying to work with Surabaya Zoo through SEAZA. The association is talking to them
right now and we’re trying to work with them to determine their needs.”
He added
that WRS was always open to training officials from other facilities about its
management practices.
“We do a
lot capacity management training. We are quite well run and we have a good
reputation,” Lee said.
“Currently,
everybody wants to do something about [Surabaya Zoo]. One of the suggestions
was to close the zoo, some said to send the animals away, but it’s not that
easy to do that. You can’t just send animals to the wild, you can’t just send
them to other zoos. Not every place can accommodate animals from other zoos. We
all want to help but there’s must be a proper way to help. We must look
together.”
Surabaya
Zoo is home to some 3,000 animals, but reported 43 deaths between July and
September last year, according to data compiled by the Jakarta Globe.
The causes
of death ranged from illness to more gruesome factors, including the
20-kilogram ball of plastic found in the stomach of the zoo’s only giraffe,
believed to have been accumulated form years of eating the trash thrown into
its pen by visitors to the zoo.
So far this
year, the zoo has recorded at least three deaths.
A
wildebeest died in the first week of this month after its health deteriorated.
Two days later, a lion was found strangled to death after it got its head stuck
in between the steel cables lining its pen.
Last week,
a young mountain goat was reported dead from injuries sustained from an attack
by an adult goat.
The endless
series of reports about deaths and the poor conditions in which the animals
area kept have garnered widespread criticism from the international community,
and were documented in harrowing pictures by Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper.
Surabaya
Mayor Tri Rismaharini denounced the photographs are false and said they were
taken prior to the government’s takeover of the zoo management.
She asserts
conditions at the zoo have improved.
Sybelle
Foxcroft, founder and chief executive of Cee4life, an environmental
conservation group based in Melbourne, Australia, communicated with the Daily
Mail’s Richard Shears, who confirmed that the photographs were current.
Foxcroft
said the pressing question was why the mayor was denying the conditions at the
zoo and refusing international aid.
“I know
that this is controversial, however these animals in Surabaya Zoo need urgent
aid, and the mayor is now lying over and over about this. This is a terrible
situation and is getting extremely sinister with all the lies,” Foxcroft said.
Tony
Sumampau, the director of Taman Safari Indonesia and head of the temporary
management team that until recently ran Surabaya Zoo, agreed that the mayor was
not being entirely truthful.
“[The
mayor] keeps mentioning that she has change the food the animals are fed, when
in fact I was the one who ordered the change of food at Surabaya zoo in 2011.
To date, we’re still using my formula. She just want to get support from the
public,” Tony said.
Indications
of corruption
In response
to the criticism, the mayor said she planned to report the Surabaya Zoo case to
the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) over alleged embezzlement of funds
overseen by the temporary management team.
She also
said the transfer of 483 animals out of the zoo was highly suspicious, although
Tony and zoo management experts have long argued that the best way to reduce
the number of animal deaths is to cut the number of animals that the zoo can
afford to take proper care of.
But
Rismaharini claims that some of the animals were traded by zoo officials for
money or other items, including cars.
“Trading
the animals for cars or motorcycles is illegal. You can only exchange animals
with animals,” she said adding that her administration was compiling a detailed
list of the animals lost at the zoo, whether through deaths or illegal trades,
before the city administration took over its management from Tony’s team.
Ratna
Achjuningrum, the city-appointed director of the zoo, said there were six deals
for animal exchanges made between March and July 2013 that the city had decided
to scrap.
She called
the deals problemati, saying there had been no formal evaluation of the planned
exchanges or permission from the Indonesian president.
Under the
planned exchange, endangered animals including Komodo dragons, Sumatran tigers
and Bali starlings would have been sent to other facilities better equipped to
accommodate them.
Economic
impact
Wildlife
conservation group ProFauna Indonesia has suggested that all the animals at
Surabaya Zoo be immediately relocated to another facility, given the high
number of deaths there.
Rosek
Nursahid, the ProFauna chairman, said his organization feared an international
backlash if the zoo was allowed to continue operating as usual.
“Several
years ago there was a boycott of Bali by European tourists because of the
practice there of using turtles in sacrificial ceremonies,” he said.
“I worry
that the same thing will happen to East Java if the tragedies at Surabaya Zoo
keep mounting.”
Rosek said
several international wildlife conservation groups had conveyed to ProFauna
their concerns about the treatment of animals at the zoo, with many offering
financial assistance.
However, he
said he had advised against giving the zoo any money, given the lack of
accountability displayed so far, and warned that financial support would not
address the roots of the problem.
Rosek said
ProFauna and other groups had urged Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan to take a
firm stance in dealing with the spate of deaths, including by forcing the zoo
to transfer animals to other facilities.
But he said
other conservation groups had voiced concern over such a plan, arguing that
with many of the animals at Surabaya Zoo suffering a range of illnesses, they
would transmit these diseases to healthy animals at other zoos.
“But this
can be obviated by getting veterinarians to check each animal’s health before
approving them for transfer to another facility,” Rosek said.
ProFauna
has also demanded that police investigate all the animal deaths, with Rosek
alleging systematic irregularities in the management of the zoo as a
contributing factor for the high number of deaths.
He also
called for the zoo to improve its security, including by setting up
closed-circuit television cameras, after several juvenile Komodo dragons went
missing a few years ago, believed to have been stolen for the illegal pet
trade.
Ultimately,
Rosek said, the entire zoo management needs to be replaced.
“Everything
has to be overhauled first, and only then can we think about fixing the zoo,”
he said.
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