Ragunan Zoo

The first time I came to Indonesia, I had planned to go and see Komodo Dragon National Park. I didn't do enough investigating of the how of it before I got here though, and it was much more complicated than I thought. It also was going to take a lot longer to do than the amount of time I had given myself in Indonesia. So, alas, I couldn't go. I'm still not prepared to take the time out to do it this time in Indonesia, so I am still not going to make it to the park. But I have read about Ragunan Zoo. It's apparently not a bad zoo, with the animals having reasonable enclosures and good treatment. (I do find zoos depressing, though. I go in and see these animals in cages and think that they are supposed to be running around in their wild habitats. So it depresses me to see them in these cages. But then I remember that if they weren't in cages, even nice, big natural-looking cages in the cases of the better zoos, they would be being extinguished from existence by us foolish humans. Double depression whammy.) And they have Komodo Dragons. So I decided to go and have a look.

When I got there, my hopes were not high when I found the entrance fee to be a mere 4000 Rupiah, about 50 cents. Then, I got even more dubious when I walked in. The walkways are cracking a fair amount. It looks a bit shabby. I was worried what I would find when I started looking around the animal enclosures. But I was pleasantly surprised, for the most part. Many of the enclosures are quite large, and the animals have lots of room to roam about. Not as much as they would in the wild, but more than some zoos that I have visited. And there are even people who have donated money to have enclosures built. These enclosures have plaques recognizing the contributors for their generosity.

I was particularly impressed by the first enclosure I saw. I don't know if the pelicans just don't go anywhere or what (but it worries me a bit what it might mean if they actually CAN'T go anywhere), but this enclosure was completely open.

The second animal I saw also gave me pause. I really felt sorry for this little fella. He must roast in this climate. All that fur and a hide built for countries that are temperate, and that have winter. But seemed to be the only animal that was wildly out of place. Most of the animals in Ragunan are from Indonesia, or from places that are reasonably close and have similar climates.

Ah, the life of a binturong. Must be nice!

Then it was on see the double-wattle cassowary. Actually, cassowaries. They had a couple of dozen, at least, in the zoo. And they all seemed to be in separate enclosures, with occasionally two in one enclosure. They went on forever, it seemed. Cassowary. Cassowary. And this one? Oh, another cassowary. It was the same with other animals as well. It seemed, actually, that the zoo was focussing on a smaller number of species, but having a lot of members of those species. Maybe they are engaged in preservation of some species and so are keeping lots of those species around. (I still didn't get around to seeing all of the animals they did have, so the zoo was plenty big enough.)

There were a number of deer-like animals. I was starting to get a bit bored, wondering when I would get to something interesting, when...

I found these guys. The zoo had some white tigers. And these two were in separate enclosures, but the one with no obvious stripes was kind of stalking the other one. It was kind of cool to watch. I don't often see a lot of activity from the big cats in zoos. I usually catch a lot of them sleeping or resting. But in this zoo, I got to watch lots of activity.

And then, incredibly, I got to watch again as this tiger was stalking the tiger on the other side of this fence. He even jumped as high as the top of the enclosure. It was quite amazing.

By this time, I had realized that I had strayed off the path that most people took. I was enjoying it though. And I was enjoying it more or less alone. At the very back of the zoo was an elephant enclosure. Again, it wasn't as anywhere near as big as their normal habitat would be in the wild, but as far as a zoo habitat is concerned, this was really quite large.

And I watched this one clean its food. It would pull up a bunch of grass, then shake it around and bash it against the ground to get the dirt off (at least I presume that is what it was doing). I was getting to see a whole bunch of animal behaviours that I had never seen before, not spontaneously at any rate.

By this time, I was right at the back of the zoo. There were fields of long grass there, big bits of water, lots of space. But no animals. I had wandered far afield. So I consulted the photo of the map that I had seen at the entrance to the zoo and figured out a way back into the main part of the zoo. As I was walking along, I saw these monkey in cages and people walking around in them. I was trying to figure out how to get in there, when I saw an open gate. There was no sign saying not to go in, so I went in. That's when I found the object of my visit. The Komodo Dragon. It seemed a bit odd to me that there was nobody about. Here were a few Komodo Dragons, but nobody to see them. In addition, the pens were open. There were entrances, but no gates were on them. It seemed really unsafe if this was a public area. I figured I was in a place where I shouldn't really be, but I wouldn't go until I was told to go. One of the dragons was even up and moving about. I had heard that they are fairly motionless unless on the search for food. Then a woman came out of one of the buildings and started talking to me. Through the conversation, I realized that I was in a place where the public shouldn't really be. It was the breeding area. I even met one of the Komodo Dragon zookeepers. Her name was Eve. They offered to let me touch one, but I didn't want to be messing with what I have heard is a dangerous animal. And I also remember being told that we humans are dirty and some of the germs we carry around with us are dangerous to animals. I didn't want to hurt the dragons, so I passed. I was sorely tempted though.

Then I headed over to Primate World.  (I don't know what the actual name in English would be, but Primate World will do.) This was a walled area within the zoo, and it had its own entrance fee, 5000 Rupiah, about 60 cents. Inside was a whole bunch of apes and monkeys. And the apes were in very natural seeming enclosures with lots of space. From this set of stairs, a walkway over the gorilla enclosure started. It gave a great view down into the gorilla area.

Unfortunately there was only one gorilla there. But he was fairly interesting. When I came back around on my way out, I saw him again. He was near the fence, eating some kind of fruit. There was some fruit over under the walkway that he wanted. He stood up to go and get it, but then hesitated, looked up at the walkway, then kind of darted over (but only as far as was necessary to grab the fruit), grabbed the fruit, and darted back towards the fence. I don't if something fell on him from above at some time in the past or if, more upsetting, somebody threw something on him from the walkway. But it seemed clear that he was fearful of something coming from above at that particular spot. It was quite amazing to watch, and reminded me just how to humans they are in intelligence and, quite probably, memory.

Further into Primate World, I saw a bunch of other monkeys (or primates, I guess, since not all of them are monkeys). There were simpais.

There were macaques. And a bunch of others.

But the ones that took the cake for me were the orangutans. I don't know how many orangutans the zoo had, but the enclosure was huge, taking up probably half of the primate area. And I got an appreciation for just how smart these animals are. For instance, just before this photo, this baby had been looking at me for a couple of minutes through the glass. Then he reached out his hand to me as though he wanted me to give him something. I'm not sure what he wanted, but he seemed to think I would give it to him.

Then I started taking some photos of he and his mother. At one point, they were sitting up in the tree, level with the platform where I was sitting. The baby was playing around, grabbing at her head and hair and basically being a child. I swear the mother was trying to get the baby to sit properly and pose for a photo like some human mother trying to get a baby to smile for a family photo.

This one climbed up into the windowsill to have a look-see.

And this mother saw me take the photo of her and her baby. She came to the window and sat and looked at my camera. Just for kicks I put the camera on view and showed her the photo through the glass. She looked intently at it. Then, as she and the baby were sitting right there at the window, I went to take another photo. She covered the baby's face, and turned hers away. Then she left. I really had the feeling that she didn't want me to take another photo of her and her child. It was amazing.

After visiting the orangutans, I found a little museum, information area associated with the gorilla enclosure. Inside was a bunch of interestingly decorated gorilla statues. I suspect these were used in some sort of fund-raising event to raise money for the Primate World at the zoo. They also had a description of their great ape rescue, rehabilitation, and release program. It was quite interesting, but by this time I was flagging a bit and thought it was time to pack it in. I headed out and tried to find the entrance. It was a bit of a chore, but on the way I managed to find a few more animals.

There were some lions.

More binturongs. Ah, the life of a binturong. Must be nice!

The Sumatran elephant.

And, at long last, the actual Komodo Dragon enclosure. The ones there weren't nearly as interesting as the ones that I found by accident. They were just lying there, doing nothing. I was much more impressed by my accidental sighting of them. And then it was time to head back to the Busway stop and head back to where I was staying.

And all of this, incredibly, cost me less than breakfast in the morning. (This included the ride on the bus to and from the zoo.) Breakfast was about 2 dollars.