FEEDING BEHAVIOUR AND PREFERABLE FEED OF ANOA (Bubalus sp) IN THE EX SITU CONSERVATION

RI. Pujaningsih1, IG. Permana2, A. Purnomoadi1, W. Nurwidyarini2,
1) Faculty of Animal Agriculture, Diponegoro University
2) Faculty of Animal Husbandry, Bogor Agriculture Institut

ABSTRACT

Anoa (Bubalus sp.) is fully protected under Indonesian law, although the enforcement is difficult. The major threats to the survival of this species are hunting (mainly for meat), introduced pathogens and/or parasites, and the loss of suitable habitat to agricultural areas, with recent reports indicating that hunting is by far the most serious. In response to the threat, an effort of conservation and protection is needed to be done. This paper gives the result of feeding behaviour and preferable feed of anoa in ex situ area of Taman Margasatwa Ragunan Jakarta. The method were used in this experiment are direct observation, cafeteria feeding system and digestibility analyzes by using lignin as the indicator. Descriptive data are used to evaluate the result. Elephant grasses, sweet potatoes, bananas, corns, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots were cafeteria given to the anoa (ad libitum). Observation was directly managed to get the picture of feeding behaviour such as eating, drinking, wallowing, urinating, defecating, resting and ruminating. The result shows that feed consumption on dry matter basis is 907 g/head/day. The average of nutrient consumption of ash, crude protein, ether extract, crude fiber, N-free extractives is 89, 107, 15, 178 and 518 g/head/day, respectively. The value of digestibility is 78,0 ± 2,85 %. Anoa prefers to consume elephant grasses, bananas and sweet potatoes. Anoa achieves eating and drinking (49%), wallowing, urinating and defecating (4%), resting and ruminating (29%) and other activities (18%) daily on the captivity cage. Refer to the result, it can be assumed that anoa will choose their feed according to their nutrient requirements. Moreover, their feeding behaviour can be well adapted in the ex situ area compare to their in situ area.

Key words : Anoa (Bubalus sp), preferable feed, feeding behaviour