Driving around the the area, we did noticed a few green "hutan simpan" labels along the roads we took, but that was all. Perhaps more birders needed to come around and do a bit more birdwatching in the said hutan simpan to prove that there'd indeed be hidden birding jewels amongst the greeneries that's left in and around Kudat.
It didn't take us too long to stumble upon Top Victory Zoo near Parapat, along the main road to Kudat. It was actually a privately owned oil palm plantation; with kept animals as a side attraction. There were many caged birds, some in steel wire cages clearly too small for them and a few with injuries requiring urgent attention.
On first impression, it looked like a personal menagerie gone bigger than it ever should have. A private zoo gone awry. A private collector gone mad. There were rare birds and raptors; leopard cats, civets, crocodiles, binturongs ... all seemed out of place in someone's backyard on the side of a hill surrounded by palm oil. Visitors are charged $5 (Malaysian) and $10 (non-Malaysian), there were no proper parking facilities. Vehicles are requested to park along side the main road. There were a couple of tour buses the day we visited.
There were no professional care givers, only a couple Indonesian workers tending to the oil palm, the machinery and tasked with feeding the animals and cleaning the cages. A sad place to be to say the least, especially if you are on the inside of a steel cage.
Who looks after places such as this? Is there a minimum requirement for proper operation such that the welfare of the caged animals are well looked after? We left the place saddened by the thought of wild birds caged up in tiny little spaces; and the beautifully marked leopard cats cowering in wooden crates inside their cage.
Do we need places like these?
More pictures of caged subject at this link on Flicker.
No comments:
Post a Comment