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a number of individuals. To complicate the data-compiling process even further, in several instances, information on species composition, number of individuals present and their origin provided by zoo officials did not match those given by the keepers or that what was actually on display in the zoos. For such cases, a conservative approach has been taken in this report’s analysis and it includes only those data on which both parties agreed, otherwise information was pooled under a more general entry. Department of Forestry Data on the number of confiscated gibbons and orang-utans in the last 10 years, the results of the legal follow-up of these confiscations, if any, and the number of pet gibbons and orang-utans registered at their office, were requested from the five regional branches of the office for the conservation of natural resources (BKSDA), i.e., Greater Jakarta, Bogor- Sukabumi-Cianjur, DKI Yogyakarta, Surabaya, and Bali. None of these offices had all these data at their disposal but all were able to provide at least some of the requested data. Additional data – Literature Searches The Indonesian Nature Conservation Database (maintained at the Pusat Informasi Lingkungan Indonesia, Bogor) was searched to find news items, newspaper articles, etc., that related to the trade in gibbons and orang-utans on Java and Bali. All issues of Suara Satwa (circulated by ProFauna) and the International Primate Protection League Newsletter were scanned for new and relevant data. An internet search (www.google.com) was conducted with the key words: “gibbons”, “Hylobates”, “orang-utans”, “Pongo”, “Java”, “Bali”, “Indonesia”, and “trade”, in various combinations, and the Web of Science (http://isi4.isiknowledge.com/) was consulted to search for scientific reports on the trade in gibbons and orang-utans. Any additional information in the form of unpublished reports, unpublished academic theses, and unpublished data were solicited from those individuals that were most likely to have knowledge of the presence of these sources. As such, numerous reports were uncovered and these were scanned for relevant data. Species identification Because of their high intra-specific variability in fur coloration (including sexual dichromatism, polychromatism, and multiple ontogenetic colour changes) and the relatively small amount of (published) research on the group, identification of gibbons in captivity can be problematic (Geissmann, 1995; Chen et al., 2004). Gibbons can be reliably identified based on vocal characteristics, but only a few people are familiar with the method and within-species call variability (Dahlmann & Geissmann, 2001). To add to the problem of species identification, several species in the genus Hylobates hybridize in (small) parts of their range, or, less commonly, in zoos. Given all these difficulties, it is not uncommon to see gibbon species incorrectly identified in both Indonesian and international zoos (Geissmann, 1995; this study), and when assessing the results of bird market monitoring programmes, these difficulties in species identification have to be taken into account. The Bornean White-bearded Gibbon H. albibarbis is now generally recognized as a distinct species, endemic to the southwestern part of Borneo (i.e., the provinces of West and Central Kalimantan), but was previously considered a subspecies of the more widely occurring Agile Gibbon H. agilis from Sumatra and various parts of Peninsular Malaysia. In almost all of the older reports, and many of the more recent, no distinction is made between these two taxa and this has to be taken into consideration when analysing data. Gibbons observed in our survey were almost exclusively identified on the basis of their morphology, i.e., fur coloration, body weight, the presence or absence of a throat sac, and the size of the male genital tuft, etc. To make a general IN FULL SWING:ASSESSMENT OF TRADE IN ORANGUTANS AND GIBBONS ON JAVA AND BALI,INDONESIA 13
identification, we followed the key provided by Geissmann (1995), along with photographic updates (www.gibbons.de) and photographs in Rowe (1996). Identification was not always straightforward and in most of the wildlife rescue centres and some of the zoos, we consulted staff about the species' identity to confirm our identification or to obtain additional information. The two species of orang-utan are generally more easily identified, although phenotypic variation can be large and it is not always easy to separate the two species. This is true for all age-classes, although in general, the older individuals are more easily distinguished. Hence, these problems in identification, as with the gibbons, may somewhat cloud the accuracy regarding which orang-utan species is entering the trade chain. Despite large morphological and genetic differences, the two taxa were until recently generally considered conspecific and often in older reports, the two taxa were not differentiated (and hence were generally listed as Pongo pygmaeus, the name now used for Bornean Orang-utans only). This may result in an underreporting of P. abelii, especially in the older reports, although in those instances where it was possible to check the species identity, P. pygmaeus was far more common than P. abelii. Methodology for Analysis Sumtran Orang-utan Pongo abelii Credit: ChrisR. Shepherd/TRAFFIC Southeast Asia Wildlife trade involves the buying and selling of wild animals and plants, their products and derivatives, in exchange for money and/or other goods. In the course of this survey, many private owners claimed that they had received their pet gibbon or pet orang-utan as a gift. Beside the fact that some of these claims may not be completely true, although gifts do not require any monetary exchange, few people are truly altruistic, and as such, most gifts can be considered payments of a sort. Thus, in this assessment, gibbons or orang-utans that were at one time or another received as gifts, are included in the analysis of ‘trade’. In principle, if someone (illegally) catches a Javan Gibbon in the forest behind his house and keeps it as a pet, in the strictest sense, this animal has not entered the trade network. The same can be said for a gibbon or an orang-utan that has been caught in Sumatra or Kalimantan, and transported home to Java or Bali by the catcher. Since these are (very) rare occurrences, and in order not to unnecessarily complicate the picture, the central premise of this assessment is that all gibbons and orang-utans encountered in private hands or that have been brought to wildlife rescue centres, have at one stage or another been part of the wildlife trade chain. This can be said for most of the gibbons and orang-utans in Javan and Balinese zoological gardens as well, with the exception of those that were bred in captivity. All the data were entered in a database for this report, with each of the individuals receiving entries on origin, current location, dates, prices, fate, legal follow-up in cases of confiscation, if any, etc. As indicated above, there are real problems with species identification, and often there were discrepancies in the data sets. In many zoos, some of the species were misidentified or were identified only to the generic level. Likewise, in many reports, not all individuals were identified to the species level, or were only tentatively identified pending more study (e.g., Malone, 2001, Malone et al., 2002b). Some of the most obvious misidentifications were either omitted from the analysis or pooled under a more general entry (e.g., Hylobates spp.). IN FULL SWING:ASSESSMENT OF TRADE IN ORANGUTANS AND GIBBONS ON JAVA AND BALI,INDONESIA 14
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Page 7 and 8: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report prese
Page 9 and 10: An exploratory model incorporating
Page 11 and 12: and central Africa, where it is ind
Page 13 and 14: This report deals exclusively with
Page 15 and 16: Lar or White-handed Gibbon H. lar:
Page 17 and 18: Table 2 provides a summary of the p
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Page 21: Reintroduction programmes The Javan
Page 25 and 26: 3. Turn-over, i.e., the amount of t
Page 27 and 28: Figure 2. Encounter rates with gibb
Page 29 and 30: Figure 4. Average quoted prices (pl
Page 31 and 32: law enforcement in Indonesia is oft
Page 33 and 34: Indonesia, primates are not especia
Page 35 and 36: Medicinal uses and primate meat Cre
Page 37 and 38: animals are confiscated as are dona
Page 39 and 40: Gibbons and orang-utans in private
Page 41 and 42: Clearly, as orang-utans do not natu
Page 43 and 44: Table 11. Number of gibbons and ora
Page 45 and 46: Law enforcement Initiative for conf
Page 47 and 48: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Dur
Page 49 and 50: setting up a test trial where a 'gr
Page 51 and 52: MacKinnon K. (1987). Conservation s
Page 53 and 54: Nursaid R., Qomariana Y., Kurniawan
Page 55 and 56: Annex 2 Conf. 13.4 Conservation of
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In full swing: assessment of trade in orang-utans and ... - WWF UK

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