Theresia Sufa, Bogor – The Bogor Natural Resource Conservation (KSDA) Agency in West Java handed over on Monday three Javan slow loris, known locally as kukang, to the conservation institution Indonesian Rehabilitation Nature Initiative Foundation (YIARI).
Dani Hamdani, an official from the Bogor KSDA, said that the agency had received three kukang, one wild cat and a crocodile from residents in the past week.
The agency received the kukang from residents in Depok and Cileungsi. The wild cat was handed over by a resident who had kept it as a pet.
"We captured the crocodile from the Cisadane River area in Rancabungur district," Dani said.
Fattreza, a communication officer from the YIARI, said that the foundation currently hosted around 100 kukang, 20 long-tailed macaques and two pig-tailed macaques.
Most of the kukang, Fattreza said, would not be able to be released into the wild because of age and illness.
"Those we can't release we still treat until their natural death," Fattreza told The Jakarta Post.
The kukang is listed as a critically endangered species under the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
According to the IUCN, a combination of historic forest loss and continued degradation has resulted in less than 20 percent of suitable habitat for the species remaining.
The species is believed to have suffered a population decline of at least 80 percent over the last 24 years due to severe and persistent and ongoing hunting for the pet trade, in combination with habitat loss.
On Java Island, it inhabits lowland to highland rainforest, bamboo forest, mangrove forest and plantations from Banten, the westernmost province on the Island, to Central Java. It probably was native to the entire island in the past. (dre)