BANDUNG, Indonesia (AFP): Thousands of animals, including endangered Sumatran tigers and Bornean orangutans, are facing starvation at Indonesia's zoos as the global pandemic pushes shuttered facilities toward collapse, officials say.
Some 60 cash-strapped animal parks -- home to roughly 70,000 creatures -- across the Southeast Asian archipelago have been closed since mid-March and most say they have only enough food until the middle of May.
"If a few more months pass and we don't get any aid from the government or other international organisations, then with a heavy heart we'll have to feed herbivores...to the carnivores," Syafi'i said. Red-meat portions for tigers and other carnivores have been cut by supplementing their feed with poultry, he said.
In neighbouring Malaysia, the zoo association has appealed for funds to try and avoid drastic choices about which animals live or die.
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