Bukittinggi Zoo Witnesses Increase In Sumatran Tigers

JAKARTA, May 5 (Antara) - Protecting critically endangered animals, including the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), is vital to providing a safe and comfortable habitat for all animals. The Sumatran tiger is a critically endangered animal species, but currently, its numbers have increased in the Kinantan Wildlife Cultural Park, known as the Bukittinggi Zoo in Kinantan, West Sumatra. Built in 1927 by the Dutch government, the Kinantan Zoo in Bukittinggi is the oldest, with a large collection of birds, peacocks, deer, elephants, monkeys, tigers, and several others, in Indonesia. Currently, the managers of Bukittinggi Zoo are ecstatic following the birth of a Sumatran tiger cub, according to zoo spokesman Ikbal. Ikbal remarked in Bukittinggi on Thursday that Dara Jingga, a female Sumatran tiger, gave birth to a cub on May 2, 2017, in the Kinantan Zoo. According to Ikbal, the managers of Kinantan Zoo had discovered three months ago that Dara Jingga was pregnant and was expected to give birth in mid-May. "We estimate that with a gestation period of 90 to 100 days, the animal will give birth in mid-May, but it turned out to be sooner, on May 2, 2017," Ikbal said. Earlier in September 2016, three Sumatran tigers also gave birth in the Bukittinggi Zoo. Ikbal said it was the task of the conservation agency to maintain, treat, and breed Sumatran tigers, as this protected animal species is on the brink of extinction. The Sumatran tiger is classified as a critically endangered animal by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which said that the tiger is the face of Asia's biodiversity and an emblem of the world's natural heritage. IUCN President Ashok Khosla has stated that the international trade of tigers and their body parts is universally illegal, and it must be stopped immediately. The countries of origin or destination of such trade must enforce stringent laws. He noted that steps to save the tiger must be launched now, so that in 2018, declared as the Year of the Tiger, efforts being made will ensure that tigers across the world are not threatened but can become a symbol of celebration and a model of success. In the meantime, the Attica Zoological Park in Athens, Greece, announced the inauguration of its new Sumatran tiger exhibit on Oct 4, 2016, in conjunction with the commemoration of World Animal Day. The Sumatran tiger was given special treatment at the Attica Zoo on World Animal Day, an international awareness day aimed at spotlighting the cruel treatment of animals by humans, to support the rights of animals on a global basis, and to treat them like living creatures and not as products or things. The inauguration of the Sumatran tiger exhibit was led by the Indonesian ambassador to Greece in the presence of students from Byron College, environmentalists, animal lovers, friends of Indonesia, and visitors to the Attica Zoo. First Secretary of the Indonesian Embassy in Athens John Admiral stated that the inauguration of the exhibit, in conjunction with World Animal Day, will help boost public awareness and educate the people on protecting critically endangered animals. To raise awareness and love for animals as well as to share knowledge about the Sumatran tiger, visitors to the Attica Zoological Park were handed out a brochure and provided an explanation on the diversity of the endemic fauna of Indonesia and the characteristics of the Sumatran Tiger. A pair of Sumatran tigers in Attica Zoo was brought from zoos in Sweden and France under the European Endangered Species Program (EEP), which manages the development of the population of endangered animals. Currently, there are only 122 Sumatran tigers in zoos in Europe, and hence, increasing their population has become one of the main programs of the EEP. In Indonesia, the landscape is critical for the long-term survival of the Sumatran tigers since it serves as both a tiger source site and a critical corridor for the movement of the species across the region. Rampant poaching, coupled with the opening of massive plantation areas and forest fires, has led to a continued drop in the number of protected Sumatran tigers. The Sumatran tiger is one of the last remaining tiger species in Indonesia after the Balinese and Javanese tiger species were declared extinct. However, currently, its existence remains under threat, as its habitat has shrunk and is being hunted for trade. In September last year, officials of the Environment and Forestry Ministry (KLHK) had apprehended two men, identified by their initials as 51-year-old AH and 35-year-old JO, in possession of a Sumatran tiger skin in the Indragiri Hulu District, Riau Province. The intact Sumatran tiger skin they were carrying was seized as evidence. After a two-week coordination effort between the KLHK, Jambi Natural Resources Conservation Agency, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and reconnaissance in Jambi, the officials arrested the duo for illegally possessing the Sumatran tiger skin. WWF said there was still a substantial market for tiger parts and products in Asia. The confiscated Sumatran tiger skin was some two meters long and was intact, with no defects from head to tail, indicating that the poachers were professionals. A South Sumatran police team had also caught a man named Suharno alias Reno, a trader in Lubuklinggau City, South Sumatra, earlier in 2016. When Suharno was caught, he was in possession of a tiger skin that was 120 centimeters long that was concealed in a plastic bag containing preservatives and some tiger bones weighing two kilograms. An intact tiger skin can be sold between Rp50 million and Rp100 million, depending on its size and condition. Hence, every effort must be made to raise public awareness on the protection of wildlife, as several large mammals, such as Sumatran tigers, are killed each year, their tusks hacked out, and their bodies left to rot.