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Visitors ask for cleaner Ragunan Zoo
Tall order: Some visitors try to feed a giraffe at Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta on Friday
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Tall order: Some visitors try to feed a giraffe at Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta on Friday. Thousands of Jakarta residents spent their long weekend at recreational parks, including the city zoo. JP/J. Adiguna
In response to the zoo’s management’s plan to raise the ticket price, some Ragunan Zoo visitors said they would be happier if animals were better looked after, children were given more playgrounds and restrooms were cleaner.
Yanti Supriyanto, a Kebayoran resident who accompanied 30 children from GBII Cipulir church’s Sunday school, said he would like to see more playgrounds similar to those in Cisarua’s Safari Park.
“But it’s better if the administration delays putting the ticket price up, as in the current economic condition, there are not many other affordable recreational parks,” Yanti said.
The administration’s agency supervising the zoo said recently it planned to raise the Ragunan Zoo ticket price, without mentioning by how much.
“If the ticket price is raised to about Rp 7,500, it’s still worth it. But the animals don’t seem to be looked after properly. They should receive more care,” said Savitri, a Manggarai resident in Central Jakarta.
At present, the Ragunan Zoo charges adults Rp 4,000 (30 US cents) and children from 3 to 12 years old Rp 3,000. Visitors are also required to pay Rp 500 each for insurance.
Wahyudi Bambang, a member of staff working in the zoo’s promotion division, said the last time the zoo raised its entrance fee was in 2002, where tickets prices increased to Rp 3,000 for adults and Rp 2,000 for children.
Savitri also said children’s playgrounds were what most parents wanted because it gave the children more options to play and spend the whole day at the zoo.
Elin, a South Jakarta resident who lives near the zoo, said it was not a good idea to raise the ticket price since the zoo had become an afternoon park for people living nearby.
“The cheap price gives us an alternative to walking along the park.” While it was imperative for
animals to be well-looked after, Elin insisted it was more important to make sure someone kept a close watch on park rangers, to make sure they took good care of the animals.
“Looking after the park is a good thing, but we really need to pay more attention to the people whose duty it is to care for the animals. The cages are not cleaned properly and the animals are so skinny! I don’t have the heart to look at them,” she said.
Mimi Utami, the zoo’s animal curator, agreed there was room for improvement in the way animals were looked after, but the zoo was trying as hard as it could to look after both animals and visitors.
“For example, we decided in our last evaluation to close down the animal show compound that we have had for many years,” she said. “The compound is still around, as our contract with the animal show organizer isn’t over yet.”
In the western part of the zoo, visitors can watch cacatua birds playing mini-basketball, a bear riding a bicycle and other animal shows for an additional Rp 4,000.
Mimi said the loud rock music animals danced to in the shows disturbed the other animals.
“The loud music itself disturbs the animals, we haven’t talked about how the animals were treated yet,” she said. The area of the zoo used for animal shows will be restored into its original water bird park.
“The zoo doesn’t own the animals kept here, they belong to the people,” she said. “We are here to ensure their welfare. It’s a good thing the governor gives us huge support.”
She confirmed the zoo had too many animals, because it also housed animals confiscated from private owners or traded illegally.
“Of the 52 orang utans we care for here, 20 of them will have a new home this year in other zoos abroad,” she said. But she could not disclose the names of the zoos.
The Ragunan Zoo is also building 10 new rooms for orang utan families.
“They need privacy too,” she said.
The zoo looks after more than 1,000 mammals, consisting of more than 330 primates from 27 different species, around 700 non-primates from more than 60 species, more than 800 birds from over 130 species, around 270 reptiles from over 35 species and around 160 fishes from 17 species, according to data published as of early April 2009.
Last Good Friday, Ragunan Zoo was packed with families having lunch on picnic mats. But despite there being many trash bins all over the zoo, there was litter everywhere.
Warto, a zoo gardener who has been working at Ragunan for 17 years, was picking up plastic packages from the grass.
“Adults or children are all the same, they don’t care about leaving the place clean. Maybe they think the entrance fee gives them the right to throw trash anywhere they like,” he said.
Some visitors also like to feed the animals cookies and candies, which is harmful to animals.
Mimi said the zoo would soon restart the volunteer program it used to run, where volunteers supervised visitors and made sure they didn’t give animals any food.
According to Wahyudi Bambang, there were 9,000 visitors on election day and 10,000 visitors on Good Friday. On a normal weekend, between 5,000 to 7,000 people visit the zoo on Saturdays and 10,000 to 20,000 on Sundays.
“But the four-day weekend could bring more visitors.” (iwp)
