Tuesday 11 May 2010

Only in Indonesia..

A sequel???

Not really..

A sweet girl in Moscow (namely my sister-in-law, Sinta) just suggested to put together all the photos of the animals in Taman Safari that are indigenous to Indonesia.. So, here I am writing a post about it..

This is not going to be a scientific report, because I am neither a veterinary or an animal scientist.. I just like watching and learning (a little thing here and there) about various animals because I think they are fascinating.. :-)

Anyway.. here are the animals that are indigenous to Indonesia..




ANOA -indigenous to the island of Sulawesi (Celebes)-

Anoa is currently endangered and protected as the population has decreased a lot. At the end of April and early May, 2 Anoa babies were born in Taman Safari. These babies are now living in Taman Safari compound with their families..









CENDRAWASIH -indigenous to the island of Papua-
-I am trying to put the video here... Please be patient.. Thank you..-
Cendrawasih is currently endangered and protected. People love the beautiful colors of Cendrawasih and many people would pay a high price for the captured ones, either alive or dead (embalmed and decorated in a glass display).









SUMATRAN TIGER -indigeneous to the island of Sumatra-

Sumatran Tiger is currently in the brink of extinction as only a handful left in the wild.













ORANG UTAN -indigenous to parts of Indonesia-

Orangutan is currently protected. Orangutan is a type of big ape which is very shy and gentle.






 






KANCIL -indigeneous to South East Asia-

Even though Kancil is not an animal indigenous to Indonesia only, I still think that it is quite unique to mention here, as even in South East Asia, it is becoming quite difficult to see it in the wild. Kancil looks cute and mischievous. In local fables it is pictured as a naughty vegetable thief. As far as I know, in most South East Asian countries Kancil has the same name.







If you are interested in finding out more about these fabulous animals, you should be able to find more information about them on the internet. I will try to add some links here in the future ;-)

Thank you for reading this post :-)

Thursday 6 May 2010

Another successful family day...


It wasn't really planned.. It was only Aza's words every now and then, because this plan kept getting cancelled.. "I haven't been to the Safari Park (Taman Safari). The last time we were going, there was a long traffic jam on the toll road and we had to turn back!"

Aza has been very patient about this, so, we were really thinking about the perfect time to take the boys to the Safari Park.

Safari Park is an open-range zoo, where the animals are free to walk around their compounds, while visitors have to remain in the cars. In tame animal compounds, visitors can slightly open the car windows to give carrots to the animals (for the animals that include carrots as they normal food -otherwise, a sign will be put up, not to feed carrots to the animals-).

In the wild animal compounds, car windows must always be locked and cars must not stop at all! If the car is broken during the tour, we have to sound the horn three times to notify the park staff.

From Tuesday to Thursday, Ariq did not have school because Grade 6 students were having National Exams. Therefore, my husband applied for one day leave on Wednesday (at the last minute). The leave application turned out to be still pending, but nothing urgent came up, so, we could go ahead with the plan..

On Wednesday morning, amazingly, the boys woke up early and had breakfast right away. Once everyone was ready, we got in the car and started our journey to the Safari Park.. :-)

It was a nice morning.. the sky was clear but the air was not too hot.. perfect for outing..





The toll road were clear, although we finally had to face a traffic jam anyway, going through a famous local market on the way to the park (Cianjur market).

We decided to have lunch just a little bit before the market, at this new restaurant that has kids playground. The kids had lunch and fun there.. ;-)

This restaurant is a local enterprise, where they grow cows (in a separate farm, of course) for milk, yoghurt and sausages. The company is called 'Cimory'.

 























After lunch, we continued our journey to the Safari Park. There we saw all the animals..



 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


















... and .. we fed some of them with carrots ..





















Some animals were having their own lunch feast when we went through their compound..






And here are photos of animals that I had to take with car windows closed and the car kept slowly moving (the sign says 'Don't Stop')..
























The following is the ANOA family, animal indigenous to Sulawesi, Indonesia. Far to the back, there are the mother and two babies who were born in April and May 2010 (yep, they were only about 1 month old). The father is showing a protective stance, watching all the cars passing by..

I wish I could get a closer shots at them, but, I was using my mobile phone and using the zoom would only degrade the picture quality... :-(
 




At the recreation part of the park, Ariq and Aza were having a great time riding a camel and ponies..



 

















Aza also asked for a photograph with a baby orangutan (I really need to take this photo to a shop to have it colour-fixed and enlarged)..

Aza also asked for a photograph with the baby tiger, but my husband shudder at the thought of Aza being considered a fresh-lunch for the baby tiger.. and I thought his worry was not unreasonable.. :-)

So, we said NO.. gladly, Aza was happy enough being allowed to stand next to the baby tiger photo area, watching other visitors having their photos taken.. -gladly, there were no other little kids having their pictures taken with the baby tiger, otherwise, it would be a very hard job to keep saying NO to Aza-.





Finally, it was time for us to go home.. As soon as we were in the car, Aza found his peace of the day in the middle of the traffic jam... -we adjusted his position after a few minutes-.. ;-)



It was really another great family day out.. :-)