The Birds' Ark is growing

የታተመ: 01.05.2018

Now we have been in Indonesia for almost 4 months and it is amazing how quickly things change. When I recently thought back to our first days, it felt like ages ago. At first everything was new, unfamiliar and in some cases foreign. And now we walk through the zoo and we are greeted by everyone, some shout 'Hello Roy and Tina' or wave happily from a distance. We know who we can top up our mobile credit with, where the nearest motorcycle workshop and hairdresser are, and when shopping we know the selection, prices, and opening times. And in the restaurants sometimes they already know what we will have - but maybe that's because we often eat the same things. In addition, I am a regular guest with the seals (or 'hang out' there on my day off :D) and we play football with some people from the park once a week. But what surprised me the most in my mental review is how naturally we take on our work routine. For more than 5 weeks now, we have been 'managing' the Birds' Ark on our own, as Stephan and Carola are on vacation in Germany. We make decisions, overcome problems, organize, and document. Even though we are constantly faced with new tasks and problems, it's a lot of fun! Or maybe that's precisely why. After all, you grow with your tasks. And the experiences we gain from it are very valuable!

Since we have been here, a lot has happened at the PCBA (Prigen Conservation Breeding Ark), so today I would like to give an update on the Birds' Ark. I have also put together some before and after photos (which took half a day and almost drove me to despair🤬)

But let's start from the top:

This is still our parking space when we arrive at work in the morning. Roy is always so excited when I take photos of him ;)

The main entrance is being built here. The area is now fenced and secured with barbed wire and there are street lights. Please go ahead:

Above the bird enclosures a office building with office, meeting room, kitchen and toilet is being built. In front of it, a small parking lot for visitors is to be created (besides zoo people and interested tourists, groups such as school classes, etc. are also supposed to visit for environmental education and species protection. We hope that this will be kept to a minimum, as we want to avoid any unnecessary disruptions for the birds).

Right next to the office is the security watchtower, which will be staffed 24/7. Even with its own toilet below.

And from there we have had this great view of building 1 and 2 for a few days. On the upper picture building 2 is still under construction. Let's move on to the bird enclosures:

This is actually the most extreme change: At first we had to fight our way through the bushes to get to the birds. Now we have a big staircase, which is even going to get a handrail (for some reason).

At the bottom: This is what building 2 looked like 4 months ago (left). And now it's finished (right) and almost every aviary is inhabited.

And also in terms of hygiene, a lot has improved with the completed building 2! :)

And once again a view from below of building 1, the security tower and the office, and our own moat. The fence with barbed wire is on the right in the picture. However, I wonder why the barbed wire is tilted inwards and not outwards. It makes no sense to me, but hopefully the Indonesians have a good reason for it. And let's continue with the pigs:

Through the lower gate you enter the Java warty pig enclosure belonging to PCBA. The enclosure is located outside the fenced area, but I hope no one will just take the pigs away. Indonesians or Muslims, for that matter, do not like pigs, as they are considered unholy and unclean, and it is even forbidden to eat pork. On the right in the picture is a metal hut whose function I do not know, and behind it is the current security building, which is supposed to be converted into a residential building at some point. The area on which the two buildings stand is also supposed to become pig enclosures later on. The residential building will then be surrounded on 3 sides by the pig enclosure.

And this is the first part of the pig enclosure. Java warty pigs are highly endangered and are to be bred here.

One of the two outdoor enclosures for the pigs. A total of 5 enclosures with corresponding stables are planned.

But not only the buildings have changed. Since I suffer from chronic vegetable deficiency here, I started growing my own vegetables. Right now they are just plants, but since everything grows much faster here, we will hopefully be able to harvest tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and pumpkins soon. Seger has also planted chillies and I am also trying my hand at growing oranges, passion fruit, and apples. I have also received various herb seeds from Germany (more on that later), so I will be growing more herbs besides cress soon. Since our birds mainly eat papaya and are already eating us out of house and home, we have papaya plants everywhere on the premises, so that maybe someday we can live semi-autonomously (at least when it comes to papayas).

The papaya plants are still quite small, but they are supposed to bear fruit relatively soon.

In front of building 2 there are already several tomato and cucumber plants. All grown from seeds within the last 5 weeks.

Our plants are now everywhere there is space. Vegetables! :)

We are currently working on a mouse breeding program. Since the Javan gibbons mainly feed on invertebrates and small vertebrates, we constantly need a fresh supply.

At the moment there are 4 breeding boxes (above) and 2 'feeding boxes' separated by gender (below).


Stephan has been waiting for some new birds for several months now, which are currently living in Taman Safari Bogor and are supposed to move to our ark. And as luck would have it, the birds arrived during his vacation in Germany. We found out on the same day in the morning that the new birds were supposed to arrive in the afternoon. That meant experiencing real stress for the first time. With hardly any lead time, we had to choose enclosures, set them up, and prepare everything else. And then we had to wait for information. In the afternoon, we received the message that we had to go down to Palang to pick up the birds, as the transporter still had animals loaded that were going to Bali. Some animals from Prigen were also going to Bali, so there was a lively exchange of animals on the road. Fortunately, the road is not very busy, as it belongs to Taman Safari and serves as a second entrance to the park. And of course, the animals were well packed and properly handled.

In the middle is the transporter, which had a Malayan sun bear loaded, among other things. On the left in the front of the picture on the loading area under the blue tarp is a tiger that was supposed to go to Bali. We had already briefly glimpsed and loaded our birds, so we drove the 8 km back to the park with valuable cargo on board.

Since it was already quite late, we had to hurry because it was getting dark and the birds should still have the opportunity to orient themselves in their new enclosures. So we quickly put the prepared food into the enclosures, and then unpacked the birds one by one, checked their health, weighed them, recorded ring numbers, weight, and special characteristics, and then put them in the new enclosures.

And here they are:

6 Nias Hill Mynas.

And 10 Red-billed Mynas.

Since we weren't sure about the gender of some of the other birds (many of the birds have no outward differences between the sexes), Stephan took some feather samples to Germany to have them determined by DNA. He sent us the results from Germany - with a few surprises. There were some 'gender changes' and therefore a few same-sex 'marriages'. And since we want to breed, we had to rearrange the pairs accordingly. Fortunately, just in time for the start of the breeding season!

Since we have a huge surplus of males with the Golden-fronted Leafbirds and the Javan Pied Mynas, each female was allowed to choose the most handsome male. However, the female Pied Myna hasn't made a decision yet.

The 'lucky' one

Our 3 hand-reared birds are still very curious. Here too, there is a surplus of 2 males to 1 female.


We don't have any breeding pairs yet. This is partly because the breeding season has just begun, and partly because there are too many disturbances from the outside, for example from the construction workers or gardeners. However, it is quite difficult to explain to people here that it stresses the birds when you constantly walk past the aviaries, stare inside, or shout loudly. A certain empathy for animals, especially for birds, is not easy to assume, even in Germany. That's why we have now started to build a fence around the building so that no one can get closer than one and a half meters to the aviaries.


We also have a surplus of males in football! After almost 4 months of asking around if anyone here plays football regularly and all statements turned out to be dead ends, I casually heard from the guys at Aquatic Land that some people from Taman Safari play football once a week. There is a Monday group and a Sunday group. We first went to see the Monday group and played with them. Since the guys play quite well, almost too well (especially for me), we wanted to check out the Sunday group as well, as it was supposed to be the 'fun group'. And it is! When the guys miss a shot, which happens more often, everyone laughs about it. The guys don't take the game too seriously and that makes it a lot of fun...

Our hall in Palang. Since we rent the hall, everyone pays about 50 cents as a fee.

The game is played 5 against 5. The 'blurry' figure in the foreground is me. By the way, I'm the only woman playing... no surprise there?

Everywhere there is room, our plants are now standing around. Vegetables! :)

And this is the iced tea at the Crocs Resto. On the left is the sugar pot, which is usually already in the iced tea, but Roy now always orders it separately, otherwise he might get a sugar shock. Even saying 'little sugar' doesn't change anything.

Finally, there's a riddle. Well, who can spot the mistake? Zookeepers should stay under one second.

The 'Banana Road' with a view of Mount Arjuna and the entrance to the park and the hotel.

The mountain from a different perspective. We had this view when we were in the village next door drinking a miracle cure made of various powders, after Roy had overexerted himself during his first game of football.

The 3 tiger cubs are hand-reared as their mother had no milk. Once a day, they are taken on a walk with a keeper in one of the photo enclosures (although you can't take photos with them).

Or they are allowed to walk around under supervision. Even though they look cute and clumsy, you should always have enough respect for all animals.

The orangutans right next door think Roy's beard is great and always want to hold on to it. Tania then used my arms as a swing and didn't want to let go. It's incredible how heavy and strong the young orangutans already are. Since I had never had an orangutan hanging from my arms before, I was quite amazed. I have more respect for them than for the little tigers!

This is the Safari Burger and the chicken lump that we eat at least once a week. At least there is some greens on it :) A picture of the food has to be taken (even though it's actually the second one).

And this is the iced tea at the Crocs Resto. On the left is the sugar pot, which is usually already in the iced tea, but Roy now always orders it separately, otherwise he might get a sugar shock. Even saying 'little sugar' doesn't change anything.

In recent weeks and also something to make you smile:

The 'Banana Road' with a view of Mount Arjuna and the entrance to the park and the hotel.

The mountain from a different perspective. We had this view when we were in the village next door drinking a miracle cure made of various powders, after Roy had overexerted himself during his first game of football.
The 3 tiger cubs are hand-reared as their mother had no milk. Once a day, they are taken on a walk with a keeper in one of the photo enclosures (although you can't take photos with them).

Or they are allowed to walk around under supervision. Even though they look cute and clumsy, you should always have enough respect for all animals.

The orangutans right next door think Roy's beard is great and always want to hold on to it. Tania then used my arms as a swing and didn't want to let go. It's incredible how heavy and strong the young orangutans already are. Since I had never had an orangutan hanging from my arms before, I was quite amazed. I have more respect for them than for the little tigers!

This is the Safari Burger and the chicken lump that we eat at least once a week. At least there is some greens on it :) A picture of the food has to be taken (even though it's actually the second one).

And this is the iced tea at the Crocs Resto. On the left is the sugar pot, which is usually already in the iced tea, but Roy now always orders it separately, otherwise he might get a sugar shock. Even saying 'little sugar' doesn't change anything.

The last picture is a puzzle. Well, who can spot the mistake? Zookeepers should stay under one second.


Phew, that was a lot as usual, and I have already left out quite a bit. If you made it this far: Thanks for reading and greetings to everyone!



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