Rescuing the Animals of Angkor Zoo

Story from the Field

Rescuing the Animals of Angkor Zoo - One Month Later

June 30, 2007

The immediate panic of removing the remaining animals from Angkor Zoo is now over. All except the crocodiles, which we were not permitted to take, have been transported to Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre (PTWRC). There have been casualties, but considering the extremely poor condition that the animals were in and the stress of the journey, these have been very few. The benefits are enormous. Angkor Zoo can no longer serve as a base to buy and sell wild animals – something that unquestionably took place – and the "inmates" at this horrific mixed menagerie are no longer subjected to atrocious conditions, poor animal care, and inappropriate diets.

It is now almost exactly a month since the final shipment of animals left. All were initially housed in hastily prepared temporary cages or purpose built permanent enclosures in which they could serve a short quarantine. Now all the animals with the exception of the gibbon and some long tailed and pigtailed macaques are in humane, permanent enclosures in which they can live without hardship.

The water birds – storks and pelicans – were either placed inside our excellent water bird aviary or given their freedom on the lakes in our Lakeside Area. Their wings had already been clipped to prevent them from immediately flying away. This will serve as a period of acclimatization to their new area before their feathers regrow and they can make their own choices. We had previously been allowed to release the more common lesser adjutant storks and gray herons from the water bird aviary as they were crowding out the rarer bird species and would probably reduce the likelihood of successful breeding. The rarer species of water birds from Angkor Zoo – greater adjutants, woolly necked storks, purple herons – were placed in the aviary. There is always a certain amount of bill snapping and inspection whenever new birds are introduced, but these moments all passed peacefully and things have settled well.

We built eight new aviaries in Section 2 for the other birds – raptors, hornbills, peafowl, etc. These have been absorbed here and in our existing aviaries. Usually when an animal is moved a period of fasting takes place. This happened with most of these birds, but they are all now feeding again and seem content in their larger enclosures.

We built and placed five small mammal cages in the forest around Lakeside. These house the squirrels, mongooses and a pair of very beautiful red billed blue magpies. All have settled well. The male yellow throated marten has now been paired with our female that has up to now been alone. The female seems to be in charge and we hope that these beautiful animals will breed within a year or so.

We constructed a large new civet complex, with enclosures 5 meters high for the various civets from Siem Reap. These were hastily constructed and one civet managed to escape through the wire that had not been secured properly. She was recaptured and the enclosures have now been repaired.

Porcupines to some extent always present a problem. They are expert excavators and cages often need solid cement floors to prevent their escape. We have already built many very large enclosures for other species and had the option of placing them in these. Both groups of porcupines from Angkor are now in our two spacious, forested serow enclosures, one group in each. One pair traveled down with their two very tiny babies – perfect miniature replicas of the adults. All arrived safely and are now enjoying their new natural environment. Despite their years of captivity in their hot, dusty cages at Angkor Zoo, they have reverted to a nocturnal way of life and we seldom see them. We now have porcupines at PTWRC sharing cages with the following animals: serow, peafowl, gibbons, muntjac, and civets. We do this out of necessity as we do not have the money to provide individual cages for each species and have to use resources wisely. We believe that this is also an appropriate and ecologically responsible way to allow animals to interact as they would in the wild, as long as there is no chance of them harming one another.

The deer that arrived at PTWRC from Siem Reap have done well. The sambar are now in good condition and can often be seen happily bathing in the pool we provided – something they were unable to do in Angkor. The lame animal that injured his leg during sedation has now completely recovered. The two muntjac caused us worries during the journey as neither seemed strong. On arrival at PTWRC we placed them in the old Eld's deer enclosure that we had renovated to take them – it had become too dilapidated to hold the Eld's deer. The muntjac settled fine and 4 days later the female produced a fawn. Surprisingly, after such an ordeal, she cared for her baby diligently and both were doing well. Sadly, 10 days later a reticulated python entered the cage overnight. When the keeper arrived the next morning there was a fat snake and no baby muntjac. The python was captured and has now been released in a safe area in Koh Kong Province in Southwestern Cambodia.

Thanks to the generosity and speed of action from several individuals and organizations all of this has been possible. It has been hard work and worrying at times but the animals did not suffer during their ordeal and are now enjoying much better enclosures and a larger and more varied diet. What next for the rescued animals from Angkor? This is the current state of play. All the new arrivals are happy and well. Other than the pileated gibbon and the macaques still in our Quarantine Area, everything has been well catered for. However we cannot be satisfied if the situation remains as it is. To secure the better future for many of these animals we will need new enclosures, more trained staff, additional food, and ongoing veterinary care. For example, we badly need a new enclosure for the rescued pileated gibbon. She has had a sad life at Angkor Zoo and we would like to give her the opportunity to have a large enclosure so that she can behave as a gibbon should and perhaps also provide her with a mate. The cost to build an acceptable enclosure is around $2,000.

What about the long tailed and pigtailed macaques? Both species can be a constant headache for us. The ones from Siem Reap might be inappropriate for our usual method of soft release within the Phnom Tamao Protected Forest as they are not robust, but are habituated to human presence and very tame. We may find the funds to construct more macaque cages at PTWRC, but this is not a priority as we already have six long tailed macaque cages and twelve pig tailed macaque cages. The macaques from Angkor may have to remain in the Quarantine Area for a while.

The binturongs from Siem Reap are currently in two "shutoff" enclosures adjoining our fishing cat rehabilitation enclosure. This is humane and they are feeding well, but the enclosures are well below the standards we like to set for ourselves. A "Multipurpose Enclosure" similar to the ones our breeding binties are enjoying also costs around $2,000.

Our water bird aviary on Section 1 now has space for more birds following the release of the lesser adjutants. Painted storks should now start breeding again. However, the situation is still not ideal. At least one large breeding enclosure for the woolly necked storks is required. They are classed as Vulnerable by the IUCN and to date we have not bred these birds. An enclosure suitable for these large and lively birds would be expensive – probably in the region of $12,000. It could also be considered inappropriate to expect the Endangered greater adjutant storks to breed in an enclosure containing several other species. To separate these enormous birds and provide each species with its own enclosure would also cost between $12,000 and $15,000.

We have employed four extra keepers to cater for the influx of new animals. We are coping with this number but an extra pair of hands would be most useful. To supplement the salary of a Cambodian keeper costs a bit over $50 per month – a scant reward for the care most show towards their animal charges. However it is double, what the local keepers earned before Wildlife Alliance arrived at PTWRC. There are now 60 keepers. We feel they should earn at least $2 per day but we currently cannot afford to pay the extra $10 per man required. The cost for increased animal food resulting from the animals from Siem Reap is $1,630 per month. A gibbon or a leopard cat for example would require around $1 per day to feed. The veterinary expenses to conduct the operation were between $800 and $1,000. This was for on the - spot treatment, sedation and mild sedatives to relax the animals during transport. Ongoing veterinary care cost are difficult to calculate, but when routine vaccinations and medicines are taken into account an additional $200 per month is probably a conservative estimate.

Wildlife Alliance and the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centeroffer great thanks to everyone, particularly the donors and keepers who have been so generous and worked so hard for these wild animals. So far so good …. but the job is definitely not yet finished.