Indonesia
A Journey Committed to the Welfare of Zoo Animals
The Academy has worked together for years with the British organization WildWelfare. The joint goal is to accordingly optimize the husbandry of animals in zoos and animal gardens and to ensure that all animals under human care are granted comprehensive and sustainable protection: Indonesia in 2018.
Dr. Julia Gräfin Maltzan traveled in March to the islands of Southeast Asia in order to, together with Dave Morgan of WildWelfare, take care of three zoos belonging to Taman Safari Indonesia in Bogor, Prigen and Bali. The basic objective was to assess for example how the animals are kept, fed and receive veterinary treatment, as well as how and where improvements could be made to serve the animals’ wellbeing.
In addition to training workshops at the site, the institutions received extensive summary reports and recommendations for the future. The common goal of the Academy and WildWelfare is to build up a network in this field of experts and internationally active NGOs which would oversee the species-appropriate keeping of animals in zoological gardens. The Academy backs this project significantly with know-how, for example, in the areas of immobilization and husbandry conditions.
On her trip to Indonesia, Dr. Maltzan thus also had the blowpipe and the respective training darts in her luggage. On site she taught veterinarians and their employees how to gently and painlessly immobilize animals, how to fill up the blowpipe darts and explained the effects of the pharmaceuticals used for the procedure. In general, the so-called Hellabrunn mixture, which Prof. Dr. Henning Wiesner developed during his time as zoo veterinarian and director of the Hellabrunn Zoo in Munich, plays a large role and has today become a standard feature in veterinarian medicine. In addition to conducting further training in distance immobilization, Dr. Maltzan treated, as always, various sick animals on site and gave valuable tips for their continued care.
Dr. Jansen Manansang MSc, director of Safari Indonesia commented:
„Taman Safari Indonesia is happy to have Mr. Dave Morgan and Dr. Julia Maltzan visit our three parks. Their valuable comments and input reaffirm our commitment towards high standards of welfare for the wellbeing of the animals in our care. We are able to achieve this because of our passionate staff and the training and professional development provided to them.
Taman Safari Indonesia strives to excel in all that we do, from our business management and policies, to providing quality wildlife experiences to visitors in all our parks.
Our hope is for visitors to come see, learn, feel and live the wonder and excitement of being close to the amazing animals in Taman Safari Indonesia, so that they can support conservation efforts and be the guardians of these animals for our future generations.“