Science Trip Reflections: Taman Safari During the March Holidays, I travelled to Indonesia, Bandung for a holiday vacation.

Upon travelling towards the area from Jakarta, we stopped at Taman Safari. Taman Safari had been there since the year 1986 and is known to be home to many fauna and flora. Of course, I learnt quite a few things about the animals there, but I have to say that there are some things I am not too happy with.

Among the many species of animals I saw there, there were some of the animals allowed to roam freely around the vehicle routes. The more prominent ones are llamas and deers. Horses and elephants are also used as animal transport around the safari for tourists. I guess this is because they are herbivorous and not aggressive. This may be because the tourists and visitors driving past them usually feed them with local vegetables, which shows that humans pose no potential threat to them. However, animals are after all still animals, and they will definitely still have a wild side in them! Therefore, human must not take this chance to abuse the animals.

Left: A Deer walking by the tour bus; Right: A more-lethargic-than-normal tigeris this normal?

Most of the species kept within certain boundaries are potential threats to human life if provoked. Some of these animals are the tigers, lions and even pumas. Furthermore, most of them behave rather lethargically. The most probable reason behind this is because most of the animals there are nocturnal, which means that they are only active in the night. However, I feel that they are way too lethargic beyond their natural actions. For example, instead of roaming around one another, the tigers are lying helplessly in the grass even though it was extremely hot that day. I feel that the zoo keepers have fed them with some kind of drug or injected them with a kind of substance that weakens the bodys energy. This will not be a good alternative as too much of these kind of shots can result in worsening animal health due to the inability for their immune system to continue protecting the animals body, thus may lead to a spread to diseases. However, another reason why is because they are tamed animals and 50% of the animals are born there, so this could very much be the lifestyle of animals in the safari. Furthermore, many animals have

existed there for a long time, as such I believe that their bodies are weaker than before and thus are no longer as active.

A Kangaroo in Baby Zoo

In Taman Safari, there is also this caravan zoo called Baby Zoo. In this zoo, most of the animals are young and not matured. Kangaroos are allowed to roam around this zoo, and most of them only reach a height of 0.7-0.8m. There are also zoo keepers there to supervise the young animals and some who let tourists take photos with the animals. However, this zoo is not what I expected it to be --- there is also a feeling of sadness and depression in this zoo. As I looked into the glass containments, almost matured cheetahs and leopards are squeezed into an extremely small and compressed area, yet children are excited when looking at it. The reason for my sadness may be because like us, I feel that animals deserve freedom, and the only time that we see that is in the wild. These animals seem to never have a chance to be set free, rather I feel that they are mistreated. Furthermore, the young cheetah was pacing on a piece of log, restlessly moving on it. Its expression already told me that it was mad, so I walked away from it. The zoo keepers handling the photo-taking sessions were no better, forcing the animals into a certain position by an action deemed cruel --- they pulled the animals with a chain collar and hit them with a cane. Even these animals are young lions and tigers, why do they not follow their natural instincts and retaliate? Sometimes I fill that humans can do anything for the sake of money, but humans are after all psychologically selfish creatures by nature, by doing so they disregard the feelings of other living things. Maybe that is why humans in the past hunt animals for entertainment and do not see the severity of the issue --- they endanger them and inflict fear into these animals, which as a result end up in retaliation. However, a particular zoo keeper impressed me; he was continuously playing with a young orang utan, and it seemed to me that he was not doing the job for money, but rather for his interest in animals. I learnt much about the habitat of animals in this safari. Most animals live in areas surrounded by various plants; I guess this is to imitate the wild and provide oxygen for the various animals in the day. The grass is also more comfortable than cement

or wood, so it provides the animals with a good resting spot. However, some animals live in darker places, most of these areas are cave-like and do not allow much sunlight to pass through. The animals staying in this area are nocturnal and only come out of hiding during the night. Some animals also require special structures to imitate their wild-life habitat counterparts. For example, the giraffe requires a tall, mushroom like structure to get their water from. Taller trees are also provided to accommodate the giraffes long necks. The animals wandering about have no fixed habitat; their home is the entire safari. I also learnt more about the human-animal relationship. Humans and animals are not much different; after all humans are mammals too. In this zoo, I have seen both the good and the bad relationships. For the good, humans treat animals well because they care for their well-being, even at the expense of their life. An example would be the zoo keeper taking care of the young orang utan as I mentioned earlier. Humans and animals can also have a mutual relationship. Elephants and horses can be used as transport for humans; in return, humans provide them with food. However, for bad relationships, it is usually the humans that are mistreating the animals. For one, the management actually placed a white tiger in the middle of a platform with water surrounding it, in other words, isolating it from movement. Furthermore, zoo keepers are shown to be impatient with the young lions and tigers, using chains to control them and hitting them like toys! I feel that humans are doing this for money and greed, of course at the expense of the victim animals. Humans have the power to change these relationships and I hope that more often than not, they will choose to use their intelligence for the better.

Poor White Tiger from Baby Zoo! It is sort of isolated to the middle of the whole area

From this Safari, I have not just learnt much about animals, but rather also humans and their relationships to animals. After all, we communicate with animals indirectly and most of the time do not realise that! Therefore, I this is not just an educational, but inspiring trip for me and I highly recommend others to go too!