By: Markus Deiner

As a rescue center Tasikoki is constantly dealing with traumatized animals.
Although we don’t know their exact history, we see every animal in our care as an individual and try to help them individually on their way to recovery.

Today we would like to introduce you to “Princess” and “Putih”, two confiscated Umbrella Cockatoos who stole our hearts for being the most gentle creatures despite the severe mental trauma they suffer from.

Princess enjoys human attention and a cookie

“Princess”

Princess was confiscated by Indonesian authorities and handed over to Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue and Education Centre in late September 2020.

She must have been kept as a pet for many years as she talks and craves for human attention. Sadly, she still refuses to even try to use her wings. This is often seen in birds kept on a foot chain that makes every attempt to fly a painful experience.

Her body condition was alarming, so special care was needed but worst of all she seemed to have lost her will to live. But what a fighter she is! How she enjoys being treated like a princess! And how rewarding it is to see her self-esteem grow and to watch her becoming a strong and happy bird!

Princess

Markus as every morning greetig Princess

“Good morning Princess. Enjoy your cookie.”

“Putih”

Came to us only two months ago. Putih is the Indonesian word for “white”.
Like “Princess” he was obviously kept as a pet as he barks like a small dog and coughs like an old man. During his six weeks of quarantine at Tasikoki, “Putih” showed aggressive behaviour and was constantly screaming out of sheer frustration, so we counted the days until we finally could free him from isolation.

Eventually, on December 26th we got the green light from the vets and could move him to the bird aviaries.

What we saw the next days was a complete transformation from a defensive and aggressive bird to a friendly and playful sunshine.

It will take a long time until “Princess” and “Putih” can be released to the wild, if ever at all. We are happy to have them here for as long as it takes and in the meantime we will work to prepare the Salimburung Island as a bird sanctuary.

Putih enjoying his daily cookie, A delicious treat for him. He deserves it!.

Palm Cockatoos – the Gentle Giants

Another outstanding parrot species in our care is the Black Palm Cockatoo. They are the kings at Tasikoki. (The Indonesian name is Kakatua Raja – King Cockatoo)

These majestic birds are not only one of the largest parrots on Earth, but also one of the smartest. Well documented is their ability to use handmade tools to create sounds by beating these against hollow tree trunks. These “drumsticks” can be wood pieces trimmed to appropriate length. This drumming is a part of males’ complex courtship behaviour but may also be used as an indicator of the durability of a potential nesting hollow by the resonance of drumming. This unique behaviour is beautifully documented in a BBC News video published only a couple of days ago (https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-australia-55541188 ).

What makes them so adorable to us at Tasikoki is their sweet and gentle temperament. We do everything to see their cheeks bright-red, as the colour of this part of the skin is an indicator for their well-being. Sick or stressed Palm Cockatoos show pale-red or even whitish cheeks. In order to “keep them red”, we make sure to always provide them with their favourite food – the large seeds of the sea almond tree (Terminalia Catappa).

So “stay red”, guys! We love you.

Now here comes the sad part of the story… Being such charismatic birds, both Umbrella Cockatoo and Palm Cockatoo are in the focus of the illegal wildlife trade. Hundreds of them are being trapped each year and smuggled abroad or illegally sold as pets in Indonesia. More and more of these birds are being confiscated by the authorities and sent to Tasikoki. Thanks to you, dear Friends and Supporters of the Masarang Foundation and its wildlife rescue centre, Tasikoki, we can give many of these wonderful creatures hope and a safe haven. We are pleased that over the last years more than one hundred birds have been returned to their home ranges after rehabilitation at Tasikoki.
Your support enables us to achieve successes like this. We cannot thank you enough for all the help and support you offer and do hope that you continue to help us to help them.

Thank you very much!

Photos below showing palm cockatoos at Tasikoki enjoying their favourite food: sea almonds

Posted by: Admin | December 24, 2020

Christmas Greetings from Masarang Foundation

Posted by: Admin | December 24, 2020

Christmas Greetings from SOC



Some Christmas Video from our site project
Christmas Greetings Video from Sintang Site

Christmas Greetings Video from Jerora Site

Christmas Greeting Video from Tembak Village Site

Posted by: Admin | November 8, 2020

Video Link from Karlsruhe Zoo

Dear supporters of Masarang Hong Kong,

for those of you who speak German a very interesting link to a call for help supported by the famous German TV presenter Frank Elstner and his friends from Karlsruhe Zoo. Karlsruhe is the zoo where Dr. Matthias Reinschmidt is the director and Dr. Clemens Becker the coordinator for orangutans in European zoos. Their Animal Protection Foundation has already helped us much in our animal conservation efforts in Indonesia. Dr. Matthias is a former director of the famous Loroparque parrot project in Tenerife and that organization has on Matthias’ request also supported us taking care of the many confiscated parrots being returned from abroad to our Tasikoki Animal Wildlife Rescue and Education Center. In the video our friends from Germany praise the projects founded by Willie Smits and point out the great difficulties our projects are facing as a result of the Corona pandemic. They are appealing to their networks to send donations to Karlsruhe Zoo that they will pass on to help the animal conservation projects of Willie in Indonesia in these difficult months without volunteers and school visits and with less capability of regular supporters to contribute. We hope that people in Hong Kong are also willing to contribute in these very difficult times to help supporting the feeding and the extra care of the many animals in the projects.

To watch the call for help please click:  https://www.facebook.com/zoo.stadtgarten.karlsruhe/videos/3195343067373438/

Thank You to all our supporters in Hong Kong

The Masarang Hong Hong Team

Posted by: Admin | September 28, 2020

Sintang Orangutan Center (SOC) News

Manfred was sponsored by Masarang hk after a generous donation and was re-named Manfred in honour of the donor.

Link to the latest SOC Newsletter Below

Newsletter Q3 SOC

It is a time for us all to stay safe and take care. Orangutans being so closely related to us are also at risk of catching Covid-19. It is a very difficult time for rescue centres so please help us with a donation for the Sintang Oranguan Centre or Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue Centre, if possible. We hope you enjoy the latest news from the Sintang Orangutan Centre.


Latest Updates on Manfred and Victoria

We wish to help all the Orangutans at SOC. However, Victoria and Manfred are two extra-special orangutans

Manfred update from SOC

Manfred is currently 2 years and 4 months old. His condition is healthy and he is in the Jerora Forest School but has not yet had his turn to enter the Forest School because there has not yet been a new forest school group for babies. Currently, Manfred is placed in the socialization cage with Tom, Jochem, and Agung. He is still close to Tom and Jochem orangutans, but now he is also close to the adult female orangutan Jamilah who is next to his cage. Both Jamilah and other orangutans often appear to interact with Manfred. The interactions that occur like them show an affectionate and protective attitude towards Manfred. Now Manfred will cry if, during the milk time he is not given the first milk, he will cry until he gets milk from the caretaker.
‘We have sponsored Manfred in honour of a generous donor who chose the name Manfred for this rescued baby and provided the funds to support Manfred throughout his forest school life at SOC. We hope Manfred will be able to be released when he is has progressed through the forest school experience and can survive in the wild.

Victoria update from SOC

Victoria has very good nest building skills. She is actually the only orangutan in the Jerora forest schools who makes an additional afternoon nest to have a siesta. Although this behaviour is common among wild orangutans, they can only afford an afternoon nap when there is sufficient food available. If not, they need the remaining daylight to forage.

Some orangutans do like a siesta, but they don’t bother to build a nest. Ribang, for example, just climbs to a branch, rests his back to trunk and closes his eyes.
The other day, when Victoria was trying to have an afternoon nap in the night enclosure, one of the ropes of her hammock snapped. She first tried to tie the broken ends together, but when that didn’t work, she held the two ends of the broken rope to keep the hammock up herself and simply fell asleep!
Victoria was named in honour of the wonderful school the Victoria Shanghai Academy (VSA) in Hong Kong.

The school has supported Masarang hk projects since we were established and in addition to having primary and secondary Masarang Clubs, the school arranges student and teacher volunteer visits to the projects in Indonesia.

  • The VSA has raised funds to support projects such as:
  • building an overnight structure for the orangutans at SOC’s Jerora facility;
  • paying for the rescue vehicle at SOC;
  • funding a new hatchery for the sea turtles at Tulap beach;

and, at this most difficult time, donating to help cover some of the cost for food for the animals at Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue Centre.
The VSA actively encourages students to learn about, respect and care for Nature and we sincerely appreciate their support.

We are very grateful to all our supporters for the help that we have received this year and hope that during this difficult time you will continue to support our charity and the projects that we are trying to support.

 

Thank you very much

Masarang Team.

 

Posted by: Admin | August 31, 2020

Latest Update on Tasikoki

During the last few weeks, in addition to taking care of the recently arrived repatriated animals from the Philippines, the Tasikoki team have all had to lend a hand to ensure all the animals are being given the best care possible.

Thank you for the kind donations received that have supported the costs to ensure all the animals are kept safe, secure and well nourished.
We supported the cost of food as well as the salaries of keepers and vets until the end of July. We do hope that you may consider helping us to continue this much needed support.

Noldy, the primate head keeper, trying to attract the Black-crested macaque that had been kept as a pet and had escaped from a private home in a residential area of Manado. It took a long time for the rescue team to get this macaque as he wanted to stay on the rooftop! Noldi is taking care of some 120 primates at the Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue and Education Centre and is often called upon to join confiscations and rescues of illegal pets.

Somehow as always, the Tasikoki team managed to capture him and take him to Tasikoki for further care and rehabilitation. We hope he will eventually be released after rehabilitation and having joined a social group for future release back to the wild.

‘Ireng’ and her new baby. Ireng is one of the females in the Black Crested Macaque (Macaca nigra) group that is being prepared for release soon on the Masarang Mountain. More about that upcoming release very soon! Another group of 11 Black Crested Macaques was released on Saturday, August 29th, in the Gunung Ambang nature reserve in North Sulawesi province.

Sun Bears

Enrichment-Making


Below we can see how our office girls Windi and Valenry, are helping hands-on by installing ‘toys’ inside the new cages for the enrichment of the long-tailed macaques. On the right we see ‘Stare’, a long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis), chills and relaxes in this new enclosure. It is easy to see how he was named ‘Stare’!

There was a lot of rain recently at Tasikoki but too much rain is not good for some the animals without appropriate shelter. Here you can see our staff Agus collecting Gebang Palm (Corypha utan) leaves which have large fan shaped leaves that are put on the top of enclosures to provide shelter from the sun and rain. On the right you see Agus arranging the leaves on the macaque enclosure, mostly so the macaques don’t get sun burned when the sun is shining brightly. Yes, some animals can get sunburn too!

Here is doctor Annisa (one of the Tasikoki vets) treating and monitoring the condition of ‘Tayo’ in the incubator. Tayo, a macaque, was suffering from hypothermia due to the rainy weather. The incubator, as well as many other essential items of medical equipment have been donated to both Tasikoki and the Sintang Orangutan Centre by IDSMED. www.idsmed.com

IDSMED has branches in HK and throughout the Asia Pacific region. We are most grateful for their kind donations of medical equipment and medical supplies.
Thank you very much for those of you who have supported us during this difficult time. We hope you stay safe and well.

Pictures by Billy Lolowang

Posted by: Willie Smits | August 23, 2020

Remembering Liesbeth, update 24-8-2020

A year ago we released baby orangutan Liesje and her mother Tanjung back to the rain forest in the Betung Kerihun National Park. Liesje was named after our friend and former Sintang Orangutan Centre volunteer Liesbeth van der Burgt, who passed away four years ago today. She founded the Weesaapjes foundation that to commemorate her love and dedication for our orphaned orangutans funded the Liez Centre in our Jerora Orangutan Forest School compound. A group of Liesbeth’s friends joined us during the release deep in the heart of Borneo.
On the left we see Liesje on the head of her mother who is busy climbing into the canopy. It is really hard work for the field staff to spot the orangutans in the dense green foliage. We try to follow each released orangutan for at least three months after release but often this is not possible when the staff has to cross big obstacles in the forest and an orangutan can escape the observations. But then regularly we see them coming back to the release site sometimes with a big surprise like Juvi, who came with a wild born baby in her arms. We saw both Liesje and her mother Tanjung eating various fruits and leaves for 17 days of observations during a period of six weeks after the release and they did both extremely well as far as climbing and nest building was concerned, which we already knew from her time in the forest school in Tembak where we observed her in action for 771 hours! On the right some of our staff making observations in the jungle which is very heavy work! Tanjung clearly remembered her lessons in the forest school very well, directly going for many of the at least 50 different kinds of leaves and fruits she had encountered before. Liesje also already ate various items independently identifying them. We feel confident Tanjung will be a great teacher for baby Liesje and they both will do great!

 

On the right and beneath the extension of the orangutan Clinic at our Jerora Orangutan Forest School compound next to the already operational Liez Centre facility. Gradually all facilities will be transferred from the old location in the city of Sintang to the Jerora compound which is located far away from the buzzling streets of Sintang.


We hope that the SOC Jerora compound, and in it the Liez centre, will be a place of transit that can help many more orangutans return to the wild in the coming years and be a place of inspiration for the supporters of our red-haired friends.

Willie Smits,
August 24th, 2020

Posted by: Admin | August 18, 2020

International Orangutan Day 2020

Posted by: Admin | August 18, 2020

SOC Newsletter, Special International Orangutan Day












Posted by: Admin | August 8, 2020

Coming Home


This week Masarang’s Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue and Education Centre received almost one hundred protected animals from the Philippines. They were confiscated from the illegal trade and in accordance with CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) returned to their country of origin. Our wildlife rescue centre is located close to the harbor of Bitung in North Sulawesi, which is one of the main smuggling routes for Indonesian wildlife besides Jakarta and Medan in North Sumatra. If we would not have centres like Tasikoki it would be very difficult to do law enforcement and bring back smuggled animals. Beneath here is the list of animals we received:
1. Large Fig Parrot (Psittaculirostris desmarestii) = 1
2. Black Lory (Chalcopsitta atra) = 3
3. Coconut Lorikeet (Trichoglossus haematodus) = 1
4. Black Palm Cockatoo (Probosciger aterrimus) = 12
5. Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) = 40
6. Red Lory (Eos bornea) = 3
7. Papuan Hornbill (Rhytceros plicatus) = 7
8. Pesquet`s Parrot (Psittrichas fulgidus) = 1
9. Black-capped Lory (Lorius lory) = 11
10. Eclectus Parrot (Eclectus rotatus) = 8
11. Rainer Gunther’s Monitor (Varanus rainerguentheri) = 2
12. Blue Tree Monitor (Varanus macraei) = 1
13. Northern Cassowary (Casuarius unappendiculatus) = 3
14. Pinon`s Imperial Pigeon (Ducula pinon) = 1
15. Long-crested Myna (Basilornis corythaix) = 1
16. White-stripped Wallaby (Dorcopsis hogeni) = 4

Many of those animals come from the island of Papua. First of all we have to take care of them in the quarantine section of Tasikoki after the several days transport over sea from Davao in the Philippines. Then the work to bring them back to their natural habitat really begins. There are very few projects that can deal with these animals in Papua and we already have many Papuan birds in Tasikoki from earlier national confiscations.

Masarang Foundation has acquired the Salimburung Island in North Sulawesi where we will release a lot of the birds that are no longer capable to fly because their wing feathers had been clipped by the traders. On the 6 hectare large island that is free from rats and predators they hopefully can breed and their offspring returned to the wild in the future.

The Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue and Education Centre has an official cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry that is responsible for Indonesia’s wildlife. This is what director general Rasio Sani for law enforcement had to say with special mention of Masarang’s Tasikoki Centre in their official publication:

“Keberhasilan repatriasi ini atas kerjasama banyak pihak seperti Ditjen KSDAE KLHK, Kementerian Luar Negeri melalui perwakilan RI di Jenewa, Manila, Davao serta Direktorat Astara, Kementerian Keuangan (Ditjen Bea Cukai), Kementerian Pertanian (Badan Karantina Hewan dan Direktorat kesehatan Hewan), Pemerintah Kota Bitung, dan Yayasan Masarang (PPS Tasikoki)”

 

Beneath are some pictures of our staff preparing, receiving and taking care of the new arrivals from The Philippines:

Preparations for the upcoming arrival of the 91 animals on their way from The Philippines. Cages are sterilized, enrichment materials installed, palm leaves collected to reduce visibility between the enclosures to reduce stress, wild food collection, etc., etc.

The boat that brought the smuggled animals back to Indonesia. The many cages with animals were under a big cloth to protect them from the heat of the sun during the several day journey to the Bitung harbour in North Sulawesi, Indonesia.

A picture of our Tasikoki staff together with the local forestry staff in front of the boat. On the left is the animal rescue manager Billy Lolowang and in black is our veterinarian doctor Anissa.

It takes a lot of work to fulfil all procedures of health, quarantine, import documents, etc.

Signing the official handover of the animals that have just been unloaded from the boat.

Finally the animals are on their way to Tasikoki. Because of the condition of Covid-19 and the wellbeing of the animals the official handover ceremony was limited to an unusual short 15 minutes only. Two birds however did suffer serious stress and one of those has died in the meantime.

Arrival of the convoy at Masarang’s Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue and Education Centre. The mist you see is to sterilize the cars so as not to bring in any diseases to the hundreds of rare animals in the centre.

Here a Papuan Wallaby, one of the 91 animals returned, entering his new temporary home with lots of green hiding places prepared by our staff.

 
Below some pictures of some of the many different animals that we are now taking care of in their new temporary facilities.

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »

Categories