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Red tape risks female gorilla exchange
[February 22, 2006]

Red tape risks female gorilla exchange


(The Jakarta Post Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)from THE JAKARTA POST -- TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2006 -- PAGE 8 The four male gorillas at the Schmutzer Primate Center in Ragunan Zoo, South Jakarta, could soon have some female company if an exchange with Howletts Zoo in the UK goes ahead



Ragunan Zoo head Sri Mulyono said over the weekend the Jakarta administration and Howletts Zoo, which is owned by the John Aspinall Foundation, reached an agreement last week

"We will get female gorillas in exchange for several primates, such as the Javan Langur and the Javan Gibbon," he said


Sri said the habitat for the new gorillas in the 13-hectare Schmutzer Primate Center would be discussed later

After the meeting at City Hall, Howletts Zoo director Damian Aspinall said he hoped the exchange would go smoothly

"Sure, we will send female gorillas (but) only if there are no bureaucratic problems (in the exchange) in Indonesia," he said

The zoo has not decided how many females to send

"I hope the exchange goes through in the next 12 months," Sri said

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso has promised red tape will not be a issue in the exchange, which could take place before October next year

According to Willie Smits of the Gibbon Foundation -- which established the Schmutzer center -- Howletts Zoo has been requesting the Indonesian government loan it langurs and gibbons for breeding

"Howletts Zoo waited eight years and no permit ever came through. They provided facilities in the primate center as well as the gorillas, but they got nothing in return because of Forestry Ministry red tape and officialdom," Smits told The Jakarta Post

He said the exchange of animals was a standard global conservation program

Smits said the gibbons destined for Howletts Zoo had been diseased and kept in small cages

"It is the John Aspinall Foundation through Howletts Zoo that cured them. If the foundation wanted to make money, it would be more profitable to make a nice movie about wild animals

"But these people send cured animals back to the wild, rather than keeping them in small cages. It is this kind of action that brings them more people to support their work," said Smits

The primate center was named after its beneficiary, the late Puck Schmutzer

Since it opened in August 2002, the center has received much praise for its large enclosures and natural design

Established by Schmutzer's friend and colleague John Aspinall, the foundation arranged the loan of four young gorillas -- Kumbo, Kihi, Komu and Kidjoum -- from Howletts Zoo to the primate center for at least three years

As the only country in Southeast Asia with a primate center housing gorillas, visitors to Ragunan increased from 152,176 in 2002 to 353,515 in 2003 and 568,007 in 2004

However, after a number of birds at Ragunan tested positive for avian influenza in 2005, forcing the zoo to close for three weeks, visitor numbers dropped to 455,560

Copyright 2006 The Jakarta Post

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