Ragunan primate enclosure to be enlarged 3 hectares

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> Ragunan primate enclosure to be enlarged 3 hectares

> 11/15/02

> The Jakarta Post

> Ahmad Junaidi

>

> Governor Sutiyoso agreed on Thursday to the planned expansion of a

primate

> center at Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta. The expansion will be funded by

the

> Howletts and Port Lymphne Animal Park Foundation of Britain. The primate

> center's supervisor, Willie Smits, said the center would be extended from

> 13.2 hectares to 16.2 hectares. The extension will completed by the end of

> this month. " There will be a three-hectare expansion, 1.5 hectares for the

> orangutan cage and the remaining for the chimpanzee cage, " Smits told

> reporters after meeting Governor Sutiyoso at City Hall. Smits, who was

> accompanied by the Howletts foundation director Peter Hitchfield and

Ragunan

> Zoo director Edy Sunarto, revealed they would build caves and bridges and

> plant big trees within the enclosures to make the primates feel at home.

> Without mentioning the cost of the expansion, he said it would be financed

> by the Howletts foundation, which has lent four male gorillas to the

center.

> " The city will pay nothing. We've even contributed hundreds of millions of

> rupiah to the city revenue office, " Smits, who also chairs the Gibbon

> Foundation, said. He said the hundreds of millions of rupiah had been

> collected from visitors to the center in the three months that it had been

> opened to the public. He hoped the number of visitors to the zoo could

> increase from the current average of 90,000 people per day to 150,000

people

> per day after the expansion. Entrance to the primate center costs Rp

5,000,

> which is in addition to the Rp 3,000 per adult and Rp 2,000 per child

> entrance fee to the zoo.

>

> The existing gorilla enclosure, which cost Rp 10 billion, was provided by

> the Gibbon foundation, which was founded by animal lover the late Mrs.

Puck

> Schmutzer. The center initially created controversy because the city

> administration announced that it would allocate Rp 3 billion per annum for

> the maintenance of the gorillas at a time when the city was still

suffering

> from the economic crisis. The allocation was finally canceled because it

was

> estimated that ticket sales would generate enough funds to cover the

> maintenance. Smits revealed that he planned to establish a gorilla family

in

> the center, for which purpose female gorillas would be brought in. The

> center's four gorillas are all male, named Kihi, Kimbou, Kijou and Kumao,

> and are reportedly between four years old and six years old. " But we have

to

> build another cage for three gorillas as only one gorilla can become

'head'

> of the female gorillas, " he said. He said the dominant gorilla had silver

on

> his back. The other three gorillas would be separated from him once the

> females were brought into the center. According to the book A Praise of

> Primates by Steve Bloom, female gorillas reach reproductive age at nine

> years of age. Gorillas can live up to fifty years of age.

>

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