Alleged smuggling of monkeys by Thai zoo investigated

[Guest guest]

This article is from The Star Online (http://thestar.com.my)

URL:

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2004/11/30/features/9364111 &

sec=features

 

________________________

 

Tuesday November 30, 2004

Alleged smuggling of monkeys by Thai zoo investigated

 

 

Where did the 100 orang utans at a private zoo in Bangkok come from? HILARY

CHIEW traces the campaign to free the arboreal apes.

 

Intense campaigning by conservation groups has so far failed to pressure the

Thai Government to resolve the alleged smuggling of some 100 orang utans by

private zoo Safari World in Bangkok.

 

Groups such as the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS), its Thai

counterpart the Wildlife Friends of Thailand (WFFT) and ProFauna of

Indonesia have demanded that the Asian great apes be returned to Indonesia,

where they were likely poached from.

 

 

 

WFFT director Edwin Wiek said, however, that there has been a glitch in DNA

analyses to determine the origins of the apes. Early last month, a

government lab failed to identify the genetic code of 50 orang utans, citing

insufficient tissue samples. Fresh ones would have to be collected, causing

further delay.

 

Trade in orang utans is prohibited under the Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) and the questionable high ratio of young

animals in the zoo-cum-amusement park challenges the owner’s claim that the

orang utans were born in captivity. Of the 115 orang utans seen during the

initial Forestry Police raid on Safari World early last November, 101 were

juveniles and babies.

 

Safari World director Pin Kewkacha insisted that there had been a 20-year

breeding programme, and it had registered seven births every year.

 

Scientific analyses of the birthrate, however, shatter that claim. Dr

Willie Smits, an orang utan expert at BOS, said it was biologically

impossible for 31 babies aged between two and four years to have been

conceived by Safari World’s three female adults given the species’ birth

intervals of between three and four years.

 

“There is no theoretical way to explain how the 115 orang utans can be

there legally,” said Smits, who was enlisted by the Indonesian Ministry of

Forestry to assist in the investigation. He also said the orang utans belong

to three different subspecies, which suggested that they were likely poached

from the wild.

 

Furthermore, those familiar with the zoo scene in Thailand pointed out that

there was not a single orang utan in Safari World prior to 1989.

 

The Forestry Police, meanwhile, is frustrated by the evasive response of

the National Parks, Wildlife and Plants Conservation Department (DNP).

 

In an unprecedented move, Commander of the Forestry Police, Major General

Sawek Pinsinchai, in July filed charges against Safari World for illegal

possession as only 46 of the apes have proper documents. The DNP, which

should have been the party taking action against Safari World, instead

advised against the legal suit.

 

DNP director-general Dr Schwann Tunhikorn even urged Sawek to drop the

charges, saying there was “no evidence of any wrongdoings” at the zoo.

 

The DNP has been accused of stalling the DNA analyses as it had raised the

difficulties of proving the orang utans’ origins and pointed out the lack of

testing facilities.

 

The Indonesian government, however, has dismissed these concerns, noting

that DNA reference material was available in Indonesia; thus the animals’

origins could be established with certainty.

 

Although there is enough circumstantial evidence to suggest that these

orang utans were wild caught and illegally imported, the only way to prove

their origins is through DNA tests on every individual. If all juveniles

were bred at the zoo, a family band between the juveniles and the adults

would show up in DNA tests.

 

Hair, blood and saliva samples have been taken for analysis by Katsaert

University. The findings would be crucial for further prosecution and the

future of the apes.

 

Campaigners have accused the zoo of tampering with what is essentially

court evidence. An Indonesian delegation, which was in Thailand in late July

to conduct an inventory of the orang utans, found only 69 orang utans in

Safari World. They were told that the other animals had died from a

pneumonia outbreak and their carcasses had been cremated.

 

 

 

The explanation was not acceptable to the delegation comprising government

officials as well as Smits and Wiek. BOS has appointed Wiek as their

representative to co-ordinate all matters regarding illegally obtained orang

utans within Thailand.

 

Wiek was sceptical of the claim as the boxing show had continued in spite

of the “pneumonia epidemic” and there was no effort to separate the animals

to keep the ailment in check.

 

Two weeks after the Indonesian team left, Sawek was informed about the

transportation of some orang utans to Safari World. It turned out that 37

orang utans had joined the 69 apes at the amusement park.

 

The exposure confirmed Wiek’s suspicions that the animals were relocated to

avoid the inspection. They were probably sent to a Safari World facility at

Koh Kong, an island across the Cambodian border.

 

The team is making an inventory of ape pictures taken at both the Bangkok

and Koh Kong zoos to identify the animals based on the dark patches on their

bellies and limbs which are unique, like fingerprints.

 

The illegal trade in orang utans in Thailand was first documented by the

British-based Monkey World and the Taiwanese Pingtung Rescue Centre

following a three-year investigation.

 

Monkey World has since offered £100,000 (RM680,000) to pay for the return

of the orang utans to their Indonesian home as soon as the Thai authorities

release them. The British and Taiwanese team documented large numbers of

orang utans at several zoos and safari parks in Thailand, the worst offender

being Safari World.

 

When pressed for a response on this issue, Cites senior enforcement officer

John Sellar said: “The Secretariat has recently written to the Cites

Management Authority of Thailand to ensure that it is aware of an offer by

Indonesia to provide long-term care for the orang utans that we understand

have been seized. We have encouraged Thailand to make use of this offer, as

soon as the animals have been formally confiscated.”

 

The Cites secretariat monitors and advises its member nations on trade in

endangered species.

 

Meanwhile, the animals remain in the zoo in squalid conditions and until

days before a Cites conference in Bangkok in October, continued to be

featured in boxing shows and used as photo-prop by tourists, antics that

non-government organisations said demean the creatures and alter their

natural behaviour.

 

“The cages that some of the orang utans are kept in are so small that they

cannot even stand up and many need urgent medical care,” observed Smits in

his report to the Indonesian government.

 

He noted not only skin diseases on the orang utans but also herpes, and

three had serious neurological disturbances. Up to 10 of them could be

suffering from Hepatitis B or C. More animals are at risk as poor husbandry

in the zoo encouraged the spread of contagious diseases.<p>

 

________________________

Your one-stop information portal:

The Star Online

http://thestar.com.my

http://biz.thestar.com.my

http://classifieds.thestar.com.my

http://cards.thestar.com.my

http://search.thestar.com.my

http://star-motoring.com

http://star-space.com

http://star-jobs.com

http://star-ecentral.com

http://star-techcentral.com

 

1995-2004 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express

written permission of Star Publications is prohibited.