Tag Archives: APS2024

10Dec/24

Asian Primate Symposium 2024, swaraOwa Attendance and North Sumatera Primate Wathching adventure.

By Arif Setiawan

APS 2024 participants

The largest primate enthusiast meeting in Asia was held in Medan on 24-27 November 2024. The 9th  Asian Primate Symposium had the theme “Living harmony with Primates” and the event hosts and organizers were OIC, YEL, USU, FORINA and KIARA.  Panut Hadisiswoyo, chairman of the event at the opening of the Asian primate symposium, reported that almost 300 participants from 20 countries attended and 54% of them were participants from Indonesia, showing the huge potential of our primatologists and their role in primate conservation globally. The event is held every 2 years, this time taking place at the University of North Sumatra, Medan.

There are many benefits to attending a symposium like this, including:

  1. To access specific knowledge, because through the symposium participants get a direct opportunity to find out research results, knowledge ideas on specific topics.
  2. In-dept discussion, in the symposium we will meet directly with the PI (principal investigator), program manager or conservation project leader, so we can ask questions or exchange opinions directly.
  3. Building networks, after we present or other participants present there is an opportunity to interact directly, introduce our projects or conservation activities.
  4. Collaborate: A smaller number of symposium participants can create a better collaborative atmosphere and build closer relationships. Possibility of collaborating with other institutions, or even meeting with donors.
  5. Time commitment as a professional conservation worker, the timeline from registration for abstract collection to presentation, will train us to appreciate time. We are very busy with our activities or programs, but we must also be able to make time to share experiences with others.

swaraowa delegates

SwaraOwa delegated 4 oral presentation titles at the 2024 Asian Primate Symposium :

  1. Preliminary survey: Biodiversity Monitoring by Local Community in Mendolo Village, Lebakbarang District, Pekalongan Regency, by Kurnia Ahmaddin, presented at the symposium on the topic “Community empowerment”, talk about community involvement activities around gibbon habitat for monitoring primates and biodiversity, which aims to increase citizens’ appreciation of biodiversity.
  2. Community conservation for Javan Gibbon through beekeeping program, by Sidiq Harjanto in the symposium topic “community empowerment”, presenting bee cultivation activities to support Javan Gibbon conservation activities.
  3. Siripok Bilou: Mentawai gibbon, culture and natural value, by Arif Setiawan presented in the symposium topic Cultural value of Asian Primates, presenting primate conservation activities in the Mentawai Islands, the result of collaboration with local institutions, Malinggai Uma Mentawai.
  4. Triangulation for Javan Gibbon Density: The Effectiveness of Human Observers vs. Passive Recording, by Nur Aoliya, on the topic Behavior, Spatial, Vocalization, the presentation was delivered by Arif Setiawan because Aoliya could not attend due to illness, is the result of preliminary research on the use of passive recording devices for monitoring gibbons compared to human hearing methods.

MSP alumi at APS 2024

We have great moments  because in this symposium we meet participants that they were joint in annual sokokembang gibbon field course known as  MSP alumni. Its make us proud that we have positive impact in Indonesia primate conservation.

Gibbon Coffee Confrence, Owa coffee and Myanmar gibbon coffee at APS 2024

At this event, Swaowa also displayed a booth, which contained conservation products from our  activities. This event was also part of conservation promotion and fundraising through the sale of souvenirs and merchandise and of course OWA COFFEE presented as an ambassador for Javan Gibbon conservation. What’s interesting about this product exhibition is that it sometimes results in warm discussions apart from in the presentation room, nice atmosphere, with a cup of coffee chatting with other participants feels more intimate, and what’s fun is that at the Kopi Owa booth the products we brought from Jogja have sold out, leaving only 3 Just pack coffee which we then give to other participants who haven’t gotten it yet.

Primate Watching Bukit Lawang

Hylobates lar at Bukit lawang

Presbytis thomasi

Orangutan

After the closing of the symposium, 9 of us from 4 countries chose our own field trip rather than joining a big trip which would visit Oranguntan Heaven. We rented 2 cars, that afternoon went straight to Bukit Lawang, one of the legendary tourist spots for seeing Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelli) in the wild. The journey was approximately 3 hours from Medan City and there was heavy rain and our car had two tires flats at onc due to hits unseen road hole, making us arrive at the ecolodge in Bukit Lawang at exactly midnight. After getting to our respective rooms and meeting with our guide for tomorrow morning we rested.

At 5.30 I was awakened by the call of the Kedih (Presbytis thomasi), a leaf-eating langur endemic to North Sumatra. His topknot and hair color and style are amazing unique, like a rock star monkey. There were approximately 12 individuals observed around the inn, and they appeared to have habituated with visitors to Bukit Lawang. Also at the same time as the appearance of this kedih was a group of long-tailed monkeys, there were around 15 individuals, and were on the roofs of the accommodation houses, but were not very aggressive when looking at humans passing around them.

After breakfast at 8 am, we started trekking to the hill, accompanied by two guides, the guide was very fluent in English, and explained a little history of Bukit Lawang, which is part of the Leuser National Park, and used to be an orangutan rehabilitation site which was built in 1973. and in 2003 there was a major flood on the Bahorok River, destroying all facilities and causing loss of life. Just a few meters from the accommodation on the hill, we met Tomas’ group again, there were around 8 individuals. Then we continued trekking and saw again from a distance 2 individuals of Sumatran Langur (Trachypithecus cristatus), very different from the Kedih in their hair style, which was thick around the face and towards the face and had no crest. A few meters from the entrance gate to Gunung Leuser National Park, we saw  a white handed gibbon (Hylobates lar) and it turned out he was playing with Kedih.  The color is light brown and there is white around his face. A few moments later a great call was heard, from its mother, only one great call, and it seemed like they were avoiding the tourists who were chasing them to see.

Several guides who came down towards us said there were orangutans in shelter two, and we rushed over, and it turned out that when we arrived there were actually 2 individual orangutans (mother and child) and what was even more surprising was that underneath there were dozens of people looking at them, taking photos with cameras, cellphones, and many are just observing. The distance is quite close, approximately 2-5 meters, even though there is no direct interaction, but it seems too close. There are also around 15 guides accompanying these guests, mostly hanging out with fellow guides. It seems that the job of accompanying guests to see orangutans is very popular here.  For information, the price of this observation trip is IDR 200,000 for domestic tourists and IDR 700,000 for foreign tourists, accommodation IDR 450,000, breakfast is available. After we were satisfied with seeing the orangutans, we went down and then checked out of the accommodation considering that our journey would be very long to Lake Toba.

Siamang Sibanganding

Siamang ( Symphalangus syndactylus) at Sibanganding

Macaca nemestrina

At Lake Toba, Parapat, we visited the Sibanganding Monkey Park. What was surprising in this monkey park was that the primates (Longtailed macaque, Pigtailed macaque and  Siamang)  were very tame, meaning they often interacted with humans, especially visitors and apparently were fed by the guards there. There are around 30 individuals of Beruk – Pigtailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina) around this stall and this location is a wildlife tourist attraction but it is quite risky, because it is too intensive and can cause changes in behavior, although this is not friendly to primates , this tourism has at least kept wild animals alive in the nature. There is a family of siamang  (1 juvenile,adult male and adult female ), which was seen in Sibaganding. Conservation assistance and education for managers should be increased by related parties and primate observers in North Sumatra or anyone who cares, so that conservation education can be passed on to visitors who wander through or stop at the Sibanganding monkey park.  The location is very close to Lake Toba tourism, has the potential for tourists already available, and is very interesting if it is also linked to the geological historical tourism of the Toba supervolcano crater, at least making it an option and providing information and alternative tourism to see the wild Siamang of  North Sumatera.

North Sumatera Culinary adventure

Our trip covered approximately 1734 km overland through cities in North Sumatra Province to West Sumatra Province, around Sipirok, South Tapanuli. We were able to see the location of the Tapanuli dam from a distance and the surrounding forests which are the habitat of the Tapanuli Orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis). Not lucky enough not to be able to see it due to the weather for a short time. We had to continue our journey to rest in Bukit Tinggi, and the next day continue our journey to Padang. We notice and tried local culinary of north Sumatera, and it was super amazing experience, Dadieh, Arsik, Naniura taste that never found in our daily life in Java.  We had time to rest in the Lembah Anai , and heard a loud call from Ungko (Hylobates agilis) , and this was the end of the APS 2024 trip. See you again next two years APS that will be in Malaysia.