Saturday, March 26, 2011

Komodo Missing From a Zoo

The Komodo dragon is a large species of lizard found in the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang, that can grow to an average length of 2 to 3 meters and weighing around 70 kilograms.

According to Wikipedia, there are around 4,000 to 5,000 Komodo living in the wilderness of those islands.
Beside that, there are also some Komodo living in zoos in several cities of Indonesia and other countries.

Logically, Komodo that are kept in city zoos are supposed to be much safer, well fed and well treated by the zoo keepers compared to those living in the wilderness.

Unfortunately, sometimes things does not seem to work according to logic in some of the zoos in Indonesia.

According to Kompas, three young Komodo which measured 50 centimetres to a meter long, each around one year old, have disappeared from the zoo in Surabaya, East Java, early this month.
The Zoo Keeper was quoted as saying that the Komodo could have been eaten by predators, stolen or escaped. The police are still investigating this case.
The zoo has more than 50 of the giant lizards and trees in the cage had been trimmed to prevent any of the remaining animals escaping.

There is a possibility that those missing Komodo have been stolen, because many people, local and foreigner, love to keep them as their pets and they are willing pay lots of money for that.

The Jakarta Globe quoted an animal conservation NGO chairman as saying that four years ago a one-year old Komodo was priced between Rp 20 million and Rp 30 million at the Pramuka animal market in Jakarta. Now the price has gone up.

I hope that the government and its law enforcement agency would investigate the above mentioned cases and find out how those Komodo disappeared .

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Harry

Just hope that the Komodo
lizard doesn't end up in
someone's cooking pot !!
Just joking

On a more serious side...some people do go to great
lengths to savour exotic meat

Personally can't understand why
people would want to keep such
a "pet" though. I have seen pics of the Komodo before, and they're
definitely huge and scary...
Can't believe the price they
fetch.

Anyway...maybe the Indonesian zoo
was thinking that they still have
many more Komodos to spare so
the three that went missing
wasn't a significant number :)
Cheers

d'zaro said...

save Komodo's Island.. ! let's support for seven wonders of the world!
thanksfor visit.. I wa follow you!

colson said...

If there is demand, there will be supply.If the trade is illegal the supply will diminish, but the demand will stay, the price will go up and criminals will step in.

Just another job for the police, I'm afraid.

TUKANG CoLoNG said...

doh! semoga cepet ketemu.. (meski saya juga berkeinginan bisa punya satu di rumah :D)

jam murah said...

nice info...

keep posting....

Unknown said...

@Bear Wife,
It is difficult to tell whether the Komodo ended up in the cooking pot or cage at the homes of rich people.
They will doing anything to get what ever they want at any costs.

@d'Azaro,
Let's hope that this incident would not effect the chance of Komodo island to be selected as winner.

@Colson,
We can only hope that this case would be handled as serious as handling human cases.

@TUKANG CoLoNG,
Ha ha ha .. rupanya anda berminat

@Jam Murah,
I am glad you like this post.

Komodo Island said...

kalau cuma djadikan binatang peliharaan tidak terlalu khawatir pak tapi kalau dijual ke luar negeri dan dikembang biakkan disana wah gawat deh

Unknown said...

Komodo Island,
Itulah yang jadi kekhawatiran orang2.

r10 said...

kalau dimakan sesama binatang, maka predator mana yang kiranya memangsa Komodo?

Unknown said...

R10,
Itu yang jadi masalah disini.
Masalahnya dimakan binatang lain atau oleh ........ ?