Thousands of animals at risk of starvation in zoos under coronavirus lockdown
92 per cent of Indonesian zoos on the islands of Java, Bali, Sumatra, Lombok and Borneo had only enough supplies to feed their animals until mid-May.
ABC NEWS: Some 70,000 animals across Indonesia are at risk of starvation as zoos struggle financially due to social distancing restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic. A survey released by the Indonesian Zoo Association concluded that 92 per cent of its member zoos on the islands of Java, Bali, Sumatra, Lombok and Borneo had only enough supplies to feed their animals until mid-May.
Some 60 animal parks across the archipelago attract around 50 million visitors each year but, with most of them closed since mid-March, the body warned that thousands of animals are at risk, including endangered Sumatran tigers and Bornean orangutans… “If a few more months pass and we don’t get any aid from the Government or other international organisations, then with a heavy heart we’ll have to feed herbivores … to the carnivores,” Mr Syafi’i told AFP…
Conservationists have warned that critically endangered orangutans are especially vulnerable during the COVID-19 crisis, as they are potentially at risk of contracting the disease. Given genetic similarities, great apes are susceptible to respiratory diseases found in humans. As a result, a number of sanctuaries in Indonesia shut their doors to the public early on in the pandemic…
As elsewhere in South-East Asia, Indonesia’s zoos are notorious for animal cruelty. Bandung Zoo in West Java province came in for widespread criticism in 2017 when footage showed emaciated sun bears dancing for food from visitors. It came after the zoo was temporarily closed following the death of a Sumatran elephant known as Yani, found with bruises on its body. In 2013 the ABC reported that 50 animals died in three months at the Surabaya Zoo, including an orangutan, three tigers, and a giraffe. At the time it was dubbed the “zoo of death”. SOURCE…
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