Jakarta - Belgium has asked two female elephants from Indonesia to be bred at Parc Paradisio sanctuary park, in Belgium.
Parc Paradisio‘s management has developed an international-standard elephant cage to accommodate Indonesia‘s elephants, a press statement of the Indonesian forestry ministry said here on Monday.
Parc Paradisio also invited an Indonesian delegation to visit the zoo accommodating various endangered animals.
Indonesia, in return, has asked the assistance of Parc Paradisio in managing several elephant training centers in Riau, Aceh, Jambi, Bengkulu and Lampung provinces, on Sumatra Island, the forestry ministry‘s forest protection and nature conservation director general, Darori, said.
The Belgium zoo has so far had a miniature park on Indonesia depicting Indonesia‘s nature and culture including a Balinese Hindu temple, Borobudur Buddhist temple and Toraja house with a green terrace rice field.
Darori said that the Indonesian elephants for Belgium was a promotion of the country‘s environment as well as the Visit Indonesia Year 2008 to Europe.
The Sumatran Elephant ( Elephas maximus sumatranus) is a sub-species of Asian elephant, unique to Sumatra. Today fewer than 2, 000 Sumatran Elephants survive in the wild. The Sumatran is the smallest of the Asian elephants.
Source: http://www.antara.co.id (June 23, 2008)