A successful reintroduction, visit from Roy and back to Singapore
Naipablaak: 04.06.2019
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Now I've been in Bali for more than 2 months and time is flying by. Not least because I'm busy with my work here and there are always new challenges to overcome.
For example, the reintroduction of 40 Bali starlings here at the Bali Safari and Marine Park. For those who don't know the Bali starling: It's a beautiful white bird with a blue face mask that is critically endangered and only occurs in 2, since 26.4.19 in 3 areas in Bali. Firstly, in its original habitat in West Bali National Park, and secondly on Nusa Penida Island off Bali, where there were no Bali starlings until they were reintroduced. There were only a handful of individuals left in the national park until they successfully reintroduced animals there. It is currently estimated that there are a maximum of 50 reproductive individuals in the wild. And now there are another 40 Bali starlings in and around the Bali Safari and Marine Park area, contributing to the preservation of their species.
One of my proteges in the Bali Starling Breeding Center (BSBC)
When I arrived at the Bali Safari and Marine Park on March 30th, the preparations for the reintroduction were already in full swing. And on my first day of work, one day later, the 40 selected candidates were just being moved to the reintroduction aviary. From there, they had the opportunity to fly into a second temporary aviary where they should stay during the day. The goal was to get the birds used to the flap through which they were to be released on the day of the reintroduction (I already reported on the aviaries in the last post). For almost a month, the birds were in the temporary aviary during the day and in the safe reintroduction aviary at night, always passing through the flap. In advance, the animals were individually tagged with a special color combination.
The reintroduction aviary on the left, the temporary aviary on the right. On the top you can see the closed flap between the two.
Each bird has its own color combination so we can identify it at any time. This is number 38, a female, for example.
Days before the reintroduction, there was a lot of activity around the Breeding Center. Everything was set up, prepared, and made nice. On April 26th, the time had come. However, the governor was running late, so the whole ceremony had to be postponed to the morning. First, speeches were given: by the zoo director, by Tony, by the governor of Bali, and by a representative of the villages in the surrounding area. The participants in the whole action were also asked to come forward :D
The curator, me, Stephan, the organizer of the festivities, and Mr. Keni from Bogor, who also supported me in the preparations for the reintroduction. In the background above, you can see Tony and on the left, the hands of the curator assistant.
After the speeches, birds were symbolically handed over to the village leaders to underline the good cooperation. A lot of educational work was done with the villages around the park so that people in the surrounding area would protect the animals and not catch them.
The declaration to protect all songbirds and other wild animals was then solemnly signed by everyone. In the end, we prayed together for the birds, for which even a priest was invited with a certain local prominence .
After the official part of the reintroduction was completed, it finally started:
One might expect that the birds have been waiting their whole lives to finally be let out. However, most animals do not have a conscious sense of freedom like we humans do, and so an aviary can be felt as 'home' for a bird. And so the birds flew a bit hesitantly out of the aviary. Almost all Bali starlings stayed near the Breeding Center for the first few days. And even now, most of the birds are in the vicinity or come to eat.I hope the Bali starlings are smart enough to avoid such dangers. And I also have to be careful because there are quite a few snakes here, some of them very dangerous.
Since the reintroduction, the birds have been observed every day. This means that the keepers walk around for hours and record all sightings with location, GPS data, ring numbers, etc. As the guys are on the move most of the day, I mainly take care of the Breeding Center. Feeding, observing, taking care of the feeder animals, optimizing work processes, organizing documents, weight charts, and other documents (of course in Indonesian language). It took me almost 2 months to get an overview here and correct and revise some things. Before I came, apparently no one was really responsible for the Breeding Center, and you can tell. What will happen when I leave again? No idea. I'm working on it!
When I have free time, I usually go somewhere shopping. Since there is nothing in the immediate vicinity, it can take half a day. But sometimes I still have enough supplies at home and can go on a small trip. Because I just wanted to have a little peace and time for myself, I decided to go to the nearby beach. It's only about 1.5 km away, so I could walk to the beach comfortably, in 30-degree heat in the shade. The beach is visually quite nice, but it's not a typical bathing beach. And so you almost only meet locals and a few surfers here.
On the way to the beach, you pass fields and some houses. And you also come across cows that don't want to let you pass. But luckily we were able to resolve the whole thing peacefully.
The sand is quite dark and unfortunately there is a lot of trash lying around. Even though it is now forbidden by law to dispose of your trash in the sea. But the water was surprisingly clear.
I discovered this 'office' of the Police Air (Water Police) on one side of the temple. But it also looked like it had been abandoned decades ago.
In the afternoon, we made the approximately 3 km journey back to Bali Safari, accompanied by 2 dogs that actually followed me to the supermarket door and then pressed their noses against the window. Unfortunately, there was no dog food in that store.
On May 10th, it finally happened: Roy came to visit! Since we didn't want to spend the whole 5 days at Bali Safari and both had to get out, we booked a hotel in the southeast of Bali in advance. A very good choice, as it turned out. The hotel was super nice, really quiet (since it was the low season), and the staff was super friendly.
The place itself is a typical tourist town. Hotel after hotel, restaurant after restaurant, souvenir shop after souvenir shop, and hardly any locals. But we had delicious pizza, ribs, or salads to eat. Unfortunately, that's rare. Since we didn't just want to laze around, we rented a motorbike for 2 days. First, we went to a nearby chocolate factory.
'Charlies Chocolate' actually consisted of only 4 huts where the chocolate was made and sold. But the chocolate tasted very good.
Afterwards, we went to a beach that was called 'White Sand Beach' or 'Virgin Beach' on the map.
It doesn't sound far at first. Since it went through the forest from here, we left the motorbike behind and hiked the rest of the way.
Most of the time, we passed beautiful rice fields. The flags made of plastic bags are used to scare away birds and are operated by threads from a hut. The poles with the bags swing horizontally over the rice field.
Until then, the path looked quite passable, but after a while, it got steeper and the path led through the forest and undergrowth, directly along the edge of the abyss to the riverbed. We scrambled, climbed, and got wet, and our sense of security kept diminishing. When Roy slipped once and almost slid down the 20-meter-deep, rocky slope, we decided to turn back. The little girl didn't quite understand why because there were only 15 meters left to the waterfall. But the whole thing was way too dangerous and honestly, I didn't feel like ending up in some abyss in Bali just for the sake of a trivial waterfall. If you're reckless, I can only recommend the route to you, but everyone else should strongly advise against it. But I wonder how some tourists managed to get to the waterfall, because I actually found photos of people at the waterfall on the internet. In any case, the little girl had no problems with the danger. She happily hopped over all obstacles and slippery stones that led directly into the abyss, mind you wearing flip flops. Either nothing has ever happened there, or the people there are not aware of the great danger. After all, the little girl did walk alone with two completely strangers into the wilderness.
After the whole action, we had to calm down first because we were really scared for our lives. That's why we only did safe activities for the rest of the day, like exploring the beach and going out to eat.
The 'sand' consisted only of corals, maybe even the entire artificial island.
In the afternoon, we wanted to drive back to Bali Safari. However, it turned out to be more difficult than expected. We tried to get a taxi through Grab or Gojek. If you don't know both: These are apps where you can book a ride, like a taxi, but the drivers are private individuals and use their own car. The price is always fixed and determined by the app. Actually bad for taxi companies, which is why something like this is not allowed in Europe. By the way, there are hardly any public buses in Bali, so you are forced to take a taxi or similar. That's how I always get to the nearest city to go shopping, for about 2.50 euros per trip. In any case, the app couldn't find a driver nearby, so we asked the hotel for a taxi. They couldn't or wouldn't tell us the price for that. But since Grab is much cheaper, we tried again. We found a driver and told the hotel employee that we no longer needed a taxi. But we didn't expect the Balinese taxi mafia. Our driver arrived, the taxi drivers too, and there was a big discussion. Allegedly, it's not allowed to use Grab in Candidasa (that's the name of the place). There really are bans on Grab and Co., but we couldn't find any signs in Candidasa. The guys claimed to be supported by the government as an association against Grab and Co. In plain English: Taxi mafia. Since it made no sense to continue discussing with the 3 mafiosi, we had to get out again and let the driver go. Pretty annoyed, we walked a bit until we realized that one of the guys was following us on a motorcycle. In between, we asked other taxi drivers about the price, but they wanted more than twice the amount of what Grab costs and complained about having to feed their families. 25 euros compared to 10 euros. The whole thing was so hypocritical and pure rip-off. But you can do that with silly tourists. So we continued walking, still followed by the guy who always interfered in the negotiations with the taxi drivers. If he had done it again, I would have threatened him with the police because of stalking and threats. We then hid in front of a shop and waited. But the guy didn't follow us anymore. We tried again through Grab (there were no alternatives left) and found our driver again, who was smart enough to wait for us at the next gas station. Like in a chase scene, we jumped into his car and drove off. He could have really gotten in trouble if they had caught him, even though we had long left Candidasa. That was an action! And we were relieved when we finally arrived at Bali Safari.
On Roy's last day with me, we went to Denpasar. We visited the bird market and went shopping. In the evening, Roy flew back to Java. The few days were too short, but really nice, and I hope that we will experience many more relaxed days like this on our journey.
At the end of May, I had to leave the country again because my business visa is only valid for 60 days. Afterwards, you can simply re-enter and stay in the country for another 60 days. Indonesian bureaucracy, I guess. So I went back to Singapore, for the fifth time by the way. This time, I tried another hotel, but still in Little India. The hotel was a bit cheaper than the last one, but also very noisy and impersonal. Since I had 2 appointments at the hospital, one for a CT scan and one with the doctor for evaluation, there wasn't much time for bigger trips. After the CT scan at the hospital, I still had half a day, but no plan. Since I had never been to Chinatown, I thought it was about time. At first, I apparently found the market of Chinatown. There, I treated myself to a fruit juice (aka smoothie).
While exploring the area, I found this beautiful temple.
Chinatown was full of tourists, so there were also a few streets full of souvenir stands where you could buy undefinable kitsch.
Nice for strolling, but there was nothing even remotely useful or usable, except for the fruit. Locals definitely don't go shopping here. I couldn't figure out what it was. In any case, it was quite cheap.
50 meters further, there was a huge temple that looked pretty from the outside, but I didn't dare to go inside. In temples or sacred places, you have to observe certain rules of behavior and dress, such as always covering your shoulders and knees and often wearing a sarong (a long skirt for men and women). After standing around cluelessly for a while, as I once again didn't have a plan, I spotted a young man standing and praying with a sign in his hand. At first, I was afraid to take a closer look at the sign, but if I hadn't, I would have never met Ben. The sign said something about Buddhism and also that you can ask questions. Since I didn't understand the content of the sign, I asked him. Ben is originally from Estonia but lives in Australia and is Buddhist. He had been in Singapore for almost a month collecting donations for a project he initiated with his guru: A comprehensive online encyclopedia about Buddhism, perhaps even the largest one. My question turned into a conversation about God and the world that lasted several hours. At some point, we sat on the floor like hippies. In between, a man whom Ben had met before brought food for Ben. Sharing is common in Buddhism, so Ben gave me an orange and an apple as a gift. The conversation was incredibly interesting, also because I hadn't really dealt with Buddhism. This encounter was definitely one of the most interesting and impressive I have ever had with a stranger. Later, I brought Ben some fruit and donated some money to the project. Every time someone donated money, Ben prayed for that person. And so he prayed for me and for my birds. The next day, I found out that someone had given him a poisoned coffee and he had to go to the hospital because of it. He told me that he was glad to have had the fruit at that moment. Later, he was apparently tried to be poisoned three more times. I have no idea who would do something like that and why. Later, he wrote to me that our conversation was the first one that changed everything that followed. And he meant it in a positive way. Maybe everything that happened afterwards strengthened him, and he had a spiritual enlightenment, I don't know. I think we should be open to such encounters much more often, not always going through the world with tunnel vision, and above all not always being shy or even afraid of strangers or religions. Otherwise, you might miss the chance to enrich your own mind and intellect. Most of the other tourists that day just saw Chinatown and maybe bought a few souvenirs.
By the way, I also went into the temple itself. There were towels and sarongs available for borrowing at the entrance.
On my second day in Singapore, I didn't do much. Hospital in the morning, then delicious bagel for lunch, and lying in bed and watching movies in the afternoon.
Back in Bali, my exciting work continued. At the end of June, I'll have to go to Singapore again for a follow-up CT scan.
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope it was interesting again. Greetings from Bali.
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