.: Field visit Fortwayne Zoo in Sokokembang forest

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Field visit Fortwayne Zoo in Sokokembang forest

Sokokembang forest view

17-20 June 2014 are special days for the coffee and primate conservation project, in Sokokembang village, Petungkriono , Central Java. We had a visit from Fort Wayne zoo staff (Dr. Joe Smith) and Fort Worth Zoo (Dr Nancy P. Lung). The reason to visit Sokokembang is Javan gibbon, to see the field condition, problems and real action to stop extinction of the rarest gibbon in Indonesia.

As host for the project, after we introduce all the the project team we visiting Kayupuring village to meet village government officers there. Our mission is to express appreciation to the local government that Sokokembang within Kayupuring village has become part of the world’s attention to conserve endangered primates. Primate and habitat preservation involving forest communities have a real contribution to sustainable development with economic and ecological consideration complementary.

Primate watching in Sokokembang forest also become most interesting for our guest, we had observe with very clearly all four primate species in the forest i.e Javan gibbon (Hylobates moloch) Javan langur (Trachypithecus auratus), Javan Surili (Presbytis fredericae) and Longtailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis), so lucky we are, observing all these primate in a single feeding tree, where there was ficus tree have been fruited and all the primates have been feed on them.

We also invited our guest to join in our village meeting, meet the villagers who processing forest-coffee and off course to feel our jungle track heading to our tree house which usually to be used as javan gibbon monitoring based on their call.

Three days for the field visit also giving invaluable experience and motivation to our team member to continue our works, to conserve our endangered primates and it's habitat, and photos will tell you more than words.