Black apes supercede red at Indonesian zoo

[Guest guest]

Please read this letter published in the Jakarta Post on 30 December

- and use the comment block. Four gorillas, all males, were

originally shipped to the Schmutzer Center and one has since died.

One or more female gorillas may be shipped from Howletts to the

Ragunan Zoo. Recently a group, reportedly of leaf monkeys and silvery

gibbons, was shipped from Indonesia to the UK. Please circulate this

letter widely! Shirley

 

http://old.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20081230.F04 & irec=3

 

Gorillas replace orangutans in Ragunan?

 

In late 2000, P. Schmutzer, an animal lover and long-time resident of

Indonesia, bequeathed her life savings for the construction of a

world-class center for primates in Jakarta. Willie Smits, to whom she

had entrusted this mammoth task on her deathbed, accomplished her dream.

 

The opening in 2002 of the greatest primate-center in the world, the

Schmutzer Primate Center, located within the Rangunan Zoo compound,

was indeed a significant event.

 

Sadly, however, the original aim of the center catering to the poor

was diminished, since entry into the Primate Center has consisted of

a separate fee, that is prohibitively expensive for its original

target group of visitors: poor Indonesian children.

 

The center currently houses a variety of primates including

chimpanzees, three African gorillas, gibbons, siamangs, lorises and a

few fortunate Orangutans -- supposedly Indonesia's national treasure.

 

Unbeknownst to most visitors, there are close to 50 other Orangutans

living at Ragunan zoo that live in desperate, miserable conditions in

tiny and dark cement cages.

 

These Orangutans could not be accommodated in the Primate Center when

it first opened, but were promised new enclosures.

 

To this day, however, that promise has been unfulfilled by the zoo

administration.

 

For more then 10 years, I have been waiting for the release of

several eligible Orangutans back into the wild. Currently, they are

waiting patiently in rotten dark cages (some of which were once built

for bears and cats and were used for quarantine areas).

 

Many times, full-grown Orangutans have tried to escape from these,

and one even managed to lift a 5 x 2.5 meter piece of iron fence from

the concrete walls -- so desperate was it to see sunlight.

 

My hopes quickly turned to bitter tears when I learned that this

would become a new Gorilla enclosure! How can Indonesia's beloved

national treasures sit and rot while the zoo builds a beautiful

enclosure for an African animal?

 

I feel completely betrayed. Me and my beloved animals have been

deceived for years.

 

Who will care for Indonesia's Red-haired children if not the

Indonesian people themselves? As a foreigner, I feel practically

defeated after dedicating 40 years of my life to these precious

animals only to see them discarded like so much garbage in the

nation's top zoo, in favor of Gorillas from another country.

 

And to Howlett's, I say, what are you doing??

 

ULRIKE VON MENGDEN

Senior curator

Ragunan Zoo, Jakarta

 

Dr. Shirley McGreal, OBE, Chairwoman

International Primate Protection League

PO Box 766

Summerville, SC 29484, USA

Phone - 843-871-2280, Fax- 843-871-7988

E-mail - smcgreal, Web: www.ippl.org

 

Please visit http://www.ippl.org/ for a preview of

a collection of 22 fascinating primate portraits by award-winning

photographer Michael Turco. The high resolution photos can be used as

screensavers or desktop wallpaper. Primates in the series include

IPPL's beloved blind gibbon Beanie, who lived with us from 1990 until

October 2004.