Z

ookeeper negligence was likely responsible for the deaths of hundreds of animals at Surabaya Zoo over the past several years, an official says.

A member of the zoo’s acting management, Mohammad Saerozi, said that based on an initial investigation conducted by the East Java chapter of the Natural Resource Conservation Center [BKSDA] and East Java Police, at least three of the animal deaths were likely to have been caused by intentional neglect.

“We are still conducting our investigation. The number of animals that died due to intentional neglect is likely higher since many were kept in poor enclosures and treated well below animal welfare standards,” he told The Jakarta Post.

He said the three animals that were confirmed to have had died of negligence, were a Bawean deer, a babirusa and a wallaby.

The adolescent babirusa, he said, was killed when it was put in an enclosure with adults, where it was set upon by the territorial animals.

“The wallaby is believed to have been killed by overexposure to visitors, who were allowed into its enclosure,” Saerozi said.

“The death of the baby Bawean deer, which was just 36-hours old, was still unclear despite it being born in a healthy condition.”

Earlier, the acting management announced 362 animal deaths in 2008 and 327 deaths in 2009 at the Surabaya Zoo.

As many as 20 animals have died between June and August this year.

Most of the deaths were put down to pneumonia, enteritis, malnutrition, filthy surroundings and malnutrition.

Saerozi said his team was currently treating Osama, a 17-year-old male African lion, which is paralyzed, and 13 sick komodo dragons.

Before being placed at the Surabaya Zoo, Osama was kept at a villa in Sukabumi, West Java. The lion was confiscated along with dozens of other wildlife.

In 2003, the BKSDA moved Osama and dozens of the zoo’s other animals to the Animal Protection Center (PPS) in Cikananga, Nyalindung district in Sukabumi for a year.

Cikananga PPS spokesman Budiharto said Osama was very poorly when he was confiscated from his owner, who had removed his teeth and abused him with sharp and blunt trauma.

Osama had been raised by humans from a cub and had no primal instincts.

“When Osama was initially seized, he was thin because he had been deprived of food for several weeks. After a year of treatment at Cikananga PPS, he was moved to Surabaya Zoo in 2004 in a healthy condition,” Budiharto told the Post by phone.

At the zoo, Osama was put to work as a stud, siring four cubs, one of them now itself a stud at the zoo. Osama now lives in a three-by-four meter enclosure and is paralyzed.

Surabaya Zoo’s caretaker management head Tony Sumampauw said the internal rift at the zoo had attracted international attention.

The team, he said, would carry out total reform, especially in terms of management and animal welfare, to regain the trust of the international community.

“We will renovate the unfit enclosures and improve sanitation for the animals and later work on finding the right zoo management model,” he said.