TEMPO.CO, Bandung – Seven British origin primates are currently adapting to a living at the Primate Rehabilitation Center in Ciwidey, Bandung. They begin to shift from eating fruits to vegetables like water spinach, mustard green, kaliandra, and lamtoro.
"Indeed they lost some weight, but they are all healthy," said Zulfi Arsan, a veterinarian in the Rehab Center.
The primates were born in Howlett Zoo and Port Limp Zoo, England, and ware transferred to Ciwidey on February 2013. Out of the seven, one is a Javanese Gibbon, and the other six are Javanese Lutungs.
The 15 years Javanese Gibbon called Regina is going to be released at Tilu Mount, Ciwidey. Meanwhile, the lutungs are going to Javan Langur Center in Batu, Malang, its original habitat.
At the rehabilitation center, the primates are trained to live in the wild. Javanese Gibbon (Hylobates moloch) is an endemic species of Java. Nowadays, they can only be seen in conservation jungle in West Java and Central Java.
Some research showed that a Javanese Gibbon can eat up to more that one hundred types of fruits, vegetables, and even small insects. It lives far up on a tree and travel by swinging from one tree to another.
ANWAR SISWADI