SURABAYA, Indonesia – The tigers are emaciated and the 180 pelicans
packed so tightly they cannot unfurl their wings without hitting a
neighbour. Last week, a giraffe died with a beachball-sized wad of
plastic food wrappers in its belly.

That death has focused new
attention on the scandalous conditions at Indonesia’s largest zoo. Set
up nearly a century ago in one the most biologically diverse corners of
the planet, it once boasted the most impressive collection in Southeast
Asia.

But today the Surabaya 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 rarest species,
including Komodo dragons and critically endangered orangutans, sit in
dank, unsanitary cages, filling up on peanuts tossed over the fence by
giggling visitors.

“This is extremely tragic, but of course by no
means surprising in Indonesia’s zoos, given the appalling way they are
managed on the whole,” said Ian Singleton, a former zookeeper who now
runs an orangutan conservation program on Sumatra island.

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 30-year-old giraffe “Kliwon” – who had for years
been eating litter and trash thrown into its pen and was found with a
18-kilogram (40-pound) ball of plastic in its stomach – Sumampouw said
he’s all but given up.

Nothing short of a “total renovation” is needed, he said.

“We need to either think about privatizing or transferring out some of the animals.”

With
entrance fees of less than $2, critics say there’s not enough money to
care for the animals, much less invest in improving the zoo’s
facilities.

One of the biggest problems is overcrowding.

Whereas
most zoos limit the number of animals born in captivity – taking into
consideration how many can reasonably be cared for or exchanged with
other zoos – the notion of “family planning” has not yet taken off here.
Contraceptives are expensive and there are not adequate facilities to
separate males and females. As result, species at the Surabaya zoo are
bred to excess.

The 180 pelicans are kept in a pen the size of a
volleyball court. Nearby, 16 tigers – 12 Sumatran and four Bengalese -
are kept in a prison-like row of concrete cages.

One white tiger, whose parents were donated by the Indian government nearly 20 years ago, is now covered by skin lesions.

Let
out so rarely, she suffers from back complications that make it
difficult to just stand up, let alone walk, zoo curator Sri Pentawati
said.

“There are too many tigers,” she lamented. “We have a hard time rotating them out to get all the exercise they need.”

Rahmat
Shah – a well known big-game hunter with a museum in the city of Medan
that is filled with rhinos, big cats and other animals he’s shot around
the world – currently heads Indonesia’s National Zoo Association. He
says none of the zoos run by the government are in good condition, but
that Surabaya is especially troubled, due to a bitter internal rift.

Two
men who each claimed to be the zoo’s chief were fired several years
ago, but their followers among the staff have continued the feud.

Police
believe the poisoning death of a Javan warthog in January, found with
traces of cyanide in its stomach, was linked to that conflict.

“One side is always trying to discredit the other,” said Ludvie Achmad, head of a local conservation agency.

Sumampouw acknowledged he has had little success in controlling the undisciplined staff.

He
said he believes some animals, including three young Komodos that
disappeared last year, were stolen by caretakers and sold into the
exotic pet trade.

Zookeepers also have been accused of taking meat meant for the tigers and selling it in the local market.

Associated Press writer Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta contributed to this report.