Suffering at Indonesia's "nightmare zoo"
Set up nearly a century ago in one the most biologically diverse corners of the planet, Surabaya Zoo once boasted the most impressive collection in Southeast Asia. But today the zoo is a nightmare, plagued by uncontrolled breeding, a lack of funding for general animal welfare, and even persistent suspicions that members of its own staff are involved in illegal wildlife trafficking.
The only giraffe at Indonesia's largest zoological garden died late Thursday, and was found to have a 40-pound ball of plastic in its stomach, said a zoo spokesman.
"There are too many tigers," zoo curator Sri Pentawati lamented. "We have a hard time rotating them out [of their cages] to get all the exercise they need."
The zoo came under heavy fire two years ago following reports that 25 of its 4,000 animals were dying every month, almost all of them prematurely. They included an African lion, a Sumatran tiger and several crocodiles. The government appointed an experienced zookeeper, Tony Sumampouw, to clean up the operation and he struggled, with some success, to bring the mortality rate down to about 15 per month.
But following last week's death of the giraffe Kliwon, Sumampouw said he's all but given up.
At left: Some 180 pelicans sit inside a pen the size of a volleyball court at Surabaya Zoo in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, March 7, 2012.